Temple alum becomes ninth woman to join Globetrotters

Fatima Maddox's new life commenced on a Monday morning in October inside a crowded Long Island middle school gymnasium. "Sweet Georgia Brown" served as her introductory music, and she wore the blue, red and white striped uniform of her new

employer, emerging from a line of players who broke into a circle that's become synonymous with the team Maddox now calls her own: the Harlem Globetrotters.

The students in the gym likely didn't know the names of the 28 players on the team, though it's the type of roster that would make P.T. Barnum proud. One of Maddox's teammates is 7-8. One is 5-2. The best-known member of the squad is probably "Flight Time," one of two Globetrotters who have appeared on the CBS reality show "Amazing Race."

Maddox is the first woman on the team in 18 years, though she won't go by Fatima Maddox anymore; all the players have nicknames. She'll be "TNT" - because her moves are like an explosion. Or at least that's how she explains it. Every Globetrotter has a story, and the story is important to sell the show, which is what Maddox calls the games.

This might not be where Maddox imagined she'd be at this point in her basketball career, not when she played for Dawn Staley at Temple or as a professional in Sweden. Her new team almost always wins, after all. And as the first female player since 1993, she will be something of a novelty within the novelty of the Globetrotter experience. But in a field where only one in 10,000 players play professionally, Maddox is doing something few people experience. She earns a paycheck playing basketball, even if it does involve ball tricks, four-point shots, and many, many buckets of confetti.

"I don't think you dream about being a Harlem Globetrotter as a youngster," Staley said. "But to be able to play, and get paid for it, is a wonderful thing."

***

While back in Philadelphia this past summer, Maddox did what basketball players do between jobs. She played more basketball. She ran with the men at the playgrounds throughout the city. She trained students at Prep Charter. And she played like she had since she was a middle-schooler in Colorado Springs, Colo., watching Allen Iverson perform dribbling tricks in Reebok commercials.

After graduating from Temple in 2007, Maddox participated in training camp with the WNBA's Houston Comets, but wasn't able to secure a roster spot. She spent time with a traveling all-star team before an agent landed her a contract in Sweden. For nearly 3 years, Maddox played in front of sparse crowds, the squeaks on the hardwood echoing throughout the gymnasium. This spring, she was back in Philadelphia preparing to return overseas, although she didn't know what country. Maybe Sweden. Maybe somewhere else in Europe.

While working with Prep Charter students, Maddox heard about a Globetrotters tryout. The team was looking for a woman, someone who could be the ninth female Globetrotter in the team's 86-year history. Four women attended the tryout in Philadelphia, playing against men who were also competing for a spot on the team. Maddox exhibited the flashy ball-handling skills first developed watching those Iverson commercials, the kind of moves that Staley jokes about giving her gray hairs. It didn't hurt that Maddox has a great smile and could laugh with the boys. That's important for the Globetrotters, who have to captivate audiences whether they're performing in Moline or Madison Square Garden.

Maddox remembered when they made her smile, too. She attended games back in Colorado and at the Liacouras Center while a student at Temple. Being a Globetrotter was not an ambition, but when she heard that the team was looking for players, it was an idea that immediately intrigued her. She wanted to keep playing basketball, which the Globetrotters do in a different city nearly every day during the season. And she was interested in community service, which was hard to pursue in Sweden. Her time participating in basketball camps while at Temple opened her eyes to the notion that fulfillment can come outside the confines of a regular game.

"You get to make people happy," Maddox said. "Of course, you make people happy who come to your regular games like overseas and things like that. But we're not as interactive. We don't cause people to smile as much. We don't get to show our personality as much. I would definitely rather be on this."

But it's still a strange new world for her. The Globetrotters attempt four-point baskets. They wear microphones and ridicule the referee. Basketball skills are required - all the players have college and professional experience - but fans don't buy tickets to see the Globetrotters win. They buy tickets because the Globetrotters make them smile.

In addition to Maddox, this year's rookie class of Globetrotters includes a 7-8 behemoth named Paul "Tiny" Sturgess, who is the tallest player in Globetrotters history; and a 5-2 former Washington General named Jonte "Too Tall" Hall, who is the shortest player in Globetrotters history. There's last season's college slam-dunk champion nicknamed "Hops," and his runner-up, who's nicknamed "Jet."

Globetrotters legend Louis "Sweet Lou" Dunbar, who now serves as the director of player personnel, said the team was looking "to bring something different to the table" this year. That's why they added players with headline-generating stories, whether it's the first female in 2 decades or the players at opposite ends of the growth chart.

During the tryout process, Dunbar said he adheres to one overriding criteria: "Can they play the game?" The personality is secondary because team officials can find ways to unearth the charisma from a player. Take Anthony "Ant" Atkinson, who scored 10 points in the final 39 seconds of the 2007 Division II championship to win the title for Barton College. When Atkinson first tried out, he seldom spoke a word. "Now we can't keep him quiet," Dunbar said.

The Globetrotters don't look for people who can do ball tricks.

"I can teach you how to spin the ball," Dunbar said.

No, they recruit talented basketball players who they can teach how to be a Globetrotter. And when he compared Maddox to the other females at the tryout at Prep Charter, there was no need for analysis.

"Once we saw her play, she was the ticket for us," Dunbar said. "She could play. She's a good-looking lady, she's charismatic. She's everything a Harlem Globetrotter should be."

There's an immersion process required, which occurred at the training camp earlier this month. The other players worked with Maddox on the dribbling tricks. She's an exceptional ball-handler, but still hasn't perfected the "show dribbling" that can wow audiences. She attended team-mandated workshops - "Globetrotter University," as one player calls it - that take place in a hotel ballroom and focus on social consciousness, health and wellness and finance. She also participated in mock interviews and an improv performance in front of the other players, preparing for scenarios when the crowds treat the performance like a bad sitcom. Maddox sang "Jingle Bells."

"She did the best rendition of 'Jingle Bells' I've heard in a while," said Anthony "Buckets" Blakes, a 10-year Globetrotters veteran. "She didn't do the Christina Aguilera version. It was the 'TNT' version."

Dunbar said one reason there has been an 18-year gap between female members is the dawn of the WNBA in 1997 and the number of women who are able to carve out basketball careers in Europe. When Lynette Woodard broke the gender lines in 1985, she considered it a blessing because there were so few places to play. Women's basketball has changed dramatically in the 26 years since, most notably with the WNBA. Still, the WNBA has only 132 roster spots - not nearly enough to accommodate the number of American women hoping to earn money playing basketball without crossing an ocean.

"We did have to go to foreign soil until the Globetrotters opened that door," Woodard said. "They had several women after me. They're just opening the door again, and that's something they can really pat themselves on the back about - giving women the same opportunity they've been giving men for years."

Woodard's advice to Maddox was to soak in the experience, particularly the travel and the chance to continue playing basketball. Dunbar said the other members of the team "became big brothers." Maddox has found a similar atmosphere, insisting that there's no awkwardness being the only woman among 27 men.

"I walked in the door and I had two brothers, and now I have about 30," Maddox said.

Much of her time is spent practicing and eating. And whenever there's an idle moment, Maddox studies for her online courses while pursuing a masters in management with a minor in logistics. It's more an insurance policy, along with her advertising degree from Temple, for the day when there's no team left to pay her to spin a basketball. Until then, she's a Globetrotter - and depending upon how it goes this year, Dunbar said more women might be added in the future.

"I would love to make this a career," Maddox said. "Get all the tricks down, make sure I contribute and do my part. There's been eight women before me, and they've all been tremendous players."

***

Maddox doesn't buy the notion that she's sacrificing competitiveness for showmanship as a Globetrotter, that what the team does is anything less rigorous than what she did at Temple or in Sweden. All those four-point shots, passes and dunks are the product of work. And the opponent - whether it's the Washington Generals, the New York Nationals or whoever the punching bag of the day is - includes former college players who are more than dribbling slaloms.

"It's actually a big misconception people have that it's not very competitive," said Maddox, who admitted she subscribed to this theory before joining the team. "That was one of the things I asked them, because I am very competitive. So I was very happy when I got here to find that it was still competitive basketball going on."

Still, there's a reason that a 76ers schedule tells you who the opponent is that night, while a Globetrotters schedule doesn't. The Globetrotters are the attraction. There are guards, forwards and centers, but there's also a designated "showman." Iverson, for all of his swagger, was never listed as a showman on the Sixers' roster.

Even as a college player, though, Maddox considered herself an entertainer for those who purchased tickets, even if her primary responsibility was to win games. Her new job has an objective beyond the score: to offer the fans an escape, a short respite from everything else in the world. So while it may not be "your traditional competitive basketball," Maddox said, that doesn't make it any less worthy, it just makes it different.

And her competitiveness is fueled by developing new skills, from doing something she couldn't do the day before - whether it's making a trick pass that wows a crowd or finding a gimmick that adds to the experience. Even Staley, who won three Olympic gold medals and was a six-time WNBA All-Star, has nothing but respect for what Maddox is doing.

"We don't look at them any differently besides their perfect record," Staley said, referring to the Globetrotters' remarkable winning percentage. "You have to be on point when you're in front of a crowd, especially a Philadelphia crowd. You got to work."

Besides, there's one thing that's remained constant for Maddox: The basketball is in her hands. That's as enticing to her as anything about the job, because the options become limited with each passing year. When Maddox played in Sweden, there were no Americans on her team and she was the only player who spoke English as a first language.

The current tour brings her to her hometown of Colorado Springs and also features six shows over 4 days in the Philadelphia area in March. The only other means of earning an income playing basketball as a woman in the United States is the WNBA. That didn't work for Maddox, and yet she's found a way to continue playing.

"A lot of people her age who didn't make the WNBA or who went overseas, who really had a hard time continuing their careers, they're not playing right now," Staley said. "She is. It's her resilience to continue wanting to playing basketball, and she'll do it in any fashion."

Maddox's first glimpse of a live crowd came at Jericho Middle School on Long Island in a gym filled with teens more likely to know Justin Bieber than Wilt Chamberlain. She took the court to begin the second half of an exhibition game (aren't all Globetrotters games exhibitions?) and immediately contrasted with the other nine players on the court.

It wasn't even the ponytail or body type. Maddox forgot to take off her warmup shirt. Call it a rookie mistake. One of her teammates alerted her and she removed the top to reveal her jersey. Her teammates enjoyed a laugh at her expense, knowing it could be worse.

"I've been here for 10 years and I've seen guys go out there with their shooting shirt," Blakes said. "They take their shooting shirt off, and there's just an undershirt. They forgot to put their jersey on."

Fortunately for Maddox, she wore her jersey underneath. Imagine the YouTube videos if she had forgotten that.

She played a few minutes, mostly dribbling and passing and serving as a supporting player. Blakes watched the audience when Maddox first stepped on the court. He saw the eyes of girls fixated upon Maddox and recognized the difference in this year's team than in the past.

"There might be one girl out of all the girls in the crowd who might be inspired because they saw her," Blakes said. "And she might in the future be a professional basketball player."

The students fell for the quick laughs: a player tucking a basketball under his jersey; mocking the smell of an opposing player's armpit; finding a teacher to kiss. It's not what Maddox aspired for when she witnessed Iverson's crossover when she was in middle school. It wasn't what Maddox expected when she watched the Globetrotters perform at the Liacouras Center while she was in college. It wasn't even the style she used in pickup basketball games at Gustine Lake rec center near Philadelphia University just a few months ago. But it is basketball, and it is a living, and it clearly means something to the 13-year-old girls in the audience.

"They actually seem really proud about seeing a girl out there," Maddox said. "I was really honored to be able to represent them. Kind of show them, we can do this."