哈林籃球隊的明星

Before Michael Jordan, one of the world’s most famous basketball players was another native of the North Carolina city of Wilmington: Meadowlark Lemon.

在邁克爾·喬丹(Michael Jordan)之前，世界上最爲著名的籃球運動員之一也是一位來自北卡羅來納州威爾明頓市的本地人：梅多拉克·萊蒙(Meadowlark Lemon)。

Lemon, who was born on this day in 1932, never played in the National Basketball Association. That’s because when Lemon, above front row third from left, joined the Harlem Globetrotters in 1954, their mix of comedy and basketball legerdemain was the biggest draw in the game.

萊蒙生於1932年的今天，他從未在全國籃球協會（National Basketball Association，簡稱NBA）打過球。這是因爲當萊蒙（上圖前排左三）1953年加入哈林籃球隊(Harlem Globetrotters)時，他們對喜劇和籃球花招的融合是比賽中最具吸引力的地方。

The team played thousands of exhibitions around the world for millions of fans — and even helped America fight Communist propaganda during the Cold War.

這支球隊在全世界爲數百萬球迷進行過成千上萬次表演——甚至還在冷戰時期幫助美國抗擊共產主義宣傳。

Despite their name, the Globetrotters were founded in Chicago in 1926 and didn’t play a game in Harlem until 1968. Lemon led the team to the height of its fame in the 1970s. Their roster wasn’t just filled with court jesters, either. They could play.

儘管名爲“哈林籃球隊”，但這支球隊其實是1926年於芝加哥成立的，它直到1968年纔在哈林打過球。萊蒙帶領着該球隊在1970年代聲望達到了頂點。他們的花名冊上也不僅僅只有表演者。他們能打球。

The Globetrotters have been credited with integrating the N.B.A. by beating the all-white Minneapolis Lakers in 1948 and 1949. The next year, the Globetrotters’ Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton became the first black player to sign a contract with the league.

哈林籃球隊在1948年及1949年打敗全是白人的明尼阿波利斯湖人隊(Minneapolis Lakers)，爲NBA的種族融合作出了貢獻。第二年，哈林籃球隊的納特·“甜水”·克利夫頓(Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton)成爲了首位與聯盟簽訂合同的黑人球員。

Lemon, who died in 2015, wrote in his memoir about the Globetrotters: “They had done more for the perception of black people and for the perception of America than almost anything you could think of.”

2015年去世的萊蒙在回憶錄中這樣描述哈林籃球隊：“他們爲人們對黑人的認知，以及人們對美國的認知所做的，遠遠超出你們的想像。”