(Sports) Editor's Note

Dee Brown a Globetrotter

Posted by: Jim Rossow

Friday, February 1, 2008 3:12 PM

Mannie Jackson, one of our favorite former Illini, is due in town this weekend. The owner of the Harlem Globetrotters and chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this week announced a $2 million gift to his alma mater.
Weather permitting, he'll be introduced at Saturday's game.
On Wednesday, he discussed a number of topics for our Big Ten page, including:

JR: Would you like to see more former players give back more often?
MJ: You can talk and talk and talk and young people who are uninvolved in the giving process won't react. But if you set an example – and the people who are the recipients of the giving express gratitude – giving becomes contagious. When the Globetrotters used to play a college all-star series, the players always asked me, 'How much do we get paid?' I paid them half in cash and put the other half in the bank and told them they had to give it back to their hometown in some manner. Most of them were mad. 'I have to give that money away?' But when they went back to their hometown and gave to a church or a group, it gave them so much pleasure and status. They came back to me and said it was the greatest gift I could have given them.

JR: Dee Brown as a Globetrotter seems to make a lot of sense.
MJ: Maybe the greatest of all time. I mean that. Dee in my view would be in the class of Marcus Haynes. He had it all. I wanted to have the opportunity to mentor him. I thought he'd have a tough road in the NBA. I saw him having 25 years with the Globetrotters, being one of the greatest ever. Dee and Magic Johnson fell in that category. Dee was unique.

JR: Is it too late for him?
MJ: It may be. Everything has a time. Success for him was defined by those around him as playing in the NBA. It's like a person who does well on Broadway thinks he has to go to Hollywood to be successful, when in reality he should have stayed on Broadway.

JR: Is it time for a new basketball arena?
MJ: We've got to do it. It's that simple: building a facility should be a priority. Coaches should never have to recruit with one arm tied behind their back. If that's what it takes, then do it.

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