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>> WORLD'S BIGGEST LOSER: GLOBETROTTER FOIL RED KLOTZ IS A LOVABLE LEGEND FALL GUY MAKES THE 'TROTTERS FUN

March 15, 2007 1:03 am

By MICHAEL ZITZ

ALEXANDRIA--At 86, Red Klotz still plays half-court basketball against guys in their 20s and 30s.

That kind of competitiveness and sheer love of the game got him through 13,000 losses to the Harlem Globetrotters with his head held high.

"It's Groundhog Day every day for those guys," Anthony Blakes, a current Globetrotter, said last week during an interview in Alexandria. He was referring to the Bill Murray film in which a man is locked in a time loop, repeating the same day again and again. "But then, it's Groundhog Day every day for us, too," Blakes said.

The Globetrotters, who play games at the Verizon Center and the Patriot Center on Saturday, honored Klotz as one of their "Legends" last weekend in Philadelphia.

He's the 26th person in the team's 80-year history and the first non-Globetrotter to earn the distinction.

For the past 55 years, Klotz has put together their "Brand X" opponents in hundreds of games annually.

The Atlantic City Seagulls. The Boston Shamrocks. The New Jersey Reds. The Washington Generals. The International All-Stars. And now, the New York Nationals.

Losers all, but never bowed; talented and proud, Klotz maintained in a phone interview from his home near Atlantic City, N.J. "You always give it your best because you have pride," he said.

The partnership began in 1953, when Globetrotters owner Abe Sapperstein asked Klotz to form a team to play them on a regular basis. He had been coaching a team in Cumberland, Md., at the time.

Klotz had played college ball at Villanova and later played for the NBA's Baltimore Bullets during the 1947-48 season in which the Bullets won the championship.

Klotz once said, "Like Fred Astaire had Ginger Rogers, the Harlem Globetrotters have always had a dance partner but I've always been dancing backwards."

He has lost games in front of popes, kings and queens; been beaten on aircraft carriers, in bull rings and on soccer fields.

Klotz himself hit the game-winning shot the last time his team beat the Globetrotters. It was 1971, and he was 50 years old at the time. The Globetrotters have lost to other teams since then.

Another time he beat the 'Trotters, Klotz said, the crowd "looked at us like we killed Santa Claus."

Globetrotters Chairman Mannie Jackson said, "Red Klotz is a basketball phenom [who] has helped introduce the sport to millions of people all over the world."

Blakes said his team's current foil, Klotz's New York Nationals, is a team of talented players who try hard to win, but always fall just a little bit short.

Klotz vehemently denied that his teams ever lost a game on purpose.

"I would never tell a player to go out there and do anything but show them how good you are and try to win," he said in the phone interview. "I handled those teams the same way a college or NBA coach would. No matter how hard I tried to beat 'em, they were always a step ahead. But we always made it interesting. And we still do."

Blakes agreed, saying the Nationals players often have ambitions to become Globetrotters, and give it their all.

"They never needed us to [lose on purpose]," Klotz said. "They had guys like Wilt Chamberlain and Connie Hawkins--guys who went on to become NBA Hall of Famers. You don't play better ballplayers." Magic Johnson also played with the Globetrotters after HIV forced him out of the NBA.

But Blakes said that, partly because of the kind of star system that emphasized people like Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal and partly due to overexposure on TV, the team was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1993. Then, he said, it returned to the basics--team play and making the games fun for fans.

Eliminating TV appearances has forced fans to bring their families to arenas if they want to see the team, Blakes said.

He said the Globetrotters have more than 22,000 wins and fewer than 400 losses in their eight decades of play.

A 30-year-old Phoenix native, Blakes played at the University of Wyoming and joined the Globetrotters in 2003 after having played professionally in Europe.

He said the Globetrotters started before the NBA even existed. The team was formed by Sapperstein in Chicago in 1927 and originally was called the New York Harlem Globetrotters.

He argued that the Globetrotters are the best-known sports team in the world--better-known than the New York Yankees in places like Europe and the Middle East.

Because of the team's long and storied tradition, Blakes said, people often ask him if he's the son of past great Lemon or Neal.

"People think we breed Globetrotters--that we're involved in cloning," Blakes joked.

He said even though current Globetrotters don't have the name recognition of former players like Lemon and Neal, the money is pretty good. He said experienced players earn as much as $500,000 a year.