Louis “Sweet Lou” Dunbar knows a star when he sees one. And when the legendary Harlem Globetrotter, now the team’s director of player personnel, first saw Fatima Maddox, he knew he was looking at “a true basketball player” worthy of donning the red, white and blue uniform.
It was 2011, in Philadelphia. Maddox had been invited by a team scout to a minicamp, where she was joined by 15 or 20 guys and four other women, all hoping to secure a spot on the Harlem Globetrotters.
“I went there to check it out, and trust me, she stood out by far,” Dunbar said of Maddox. “Her ball handling was spectacular and she had a pretty good little jump shot too. And she had the smile.
“It’s not all about your game; it’s about your attitude, how you talk to people. We talked to her after we saw her play and she was very personable. She was made to be a Globetrotter.”
Maddox got the call shortly after that tryout, making her only the ninth female Globetrotter in history and the first after nearly 20 years.
Starting on Friday, “TNT,” as they call her, will begin a four-game tour with the Globetrotters on the Front Range, making stops in Colorado Springs, Denver, Broomfield and Loveland.
For Maddox, it’s the continuation of a dream that was born here years ago.
She was 13 when she fell in love with basketball and convinced a group of boys to let her join their pickup game. As the only one of her four siblings to take a serious interest in sports, she competed in track and field and volleyball while attending Mesa Ridge High School in Colorado Springs, but basketball was, and still is, her No. 1 sport.
“From then on, I had dreamed of first going to college,” she said. “And then once I started getting more and more into it, I was like, maybe I’m good enough to play pro.”
She was right.
Her passion led her to Temple — where she played for Hall of Famer Dawn Staley for two seasons and helped lead the Owls to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances — then two years of pro ball in Sweden, and then to that tryout for the Globetrotters.
Now the veteran among three female Globetrotters — they play on separate teams and have different tour schedules — Maddox said a path she never even considered just five years ago has led her to cities around the world and helped her to inspire future generations.
“There’s a certain amount of pressure that comes with the position because every night you’re essentially representing for the women every time you’re on the court,” she said. “I try to work on my skills so I can represent the ladies well, but I think it’s good. I think it gives little girls hope that they can achieve their dreams.
“For me, it’s always good to hear the young ladies say, ‘Oh, you’re my favorite player!’ But when a little boy comes up and says, ‘Man, you’re my favorite player. I hope that I’m able to dribble like you when I get older,’ that makes you feel like, ‘Well, he sees me as a basketball player as opposed to a female basketball player.’ “
Such moments come with every city, every game for Maddox, whose signature crossover move — “The Cyclone” — is one of the many dribbling tricks she has perfected.
They’re the moments that, in turn, inspire her to spend hours in the gym mastering new skills, to continue the grueling travel schedule and to keep her health in check so she can play some 250 games per year. (And you thought NBA players had it rough.)
“It’s given me this huge platform to reach people,” Maddox said. “I’ve played in front of so many people and I’ve done so much community service. That’s the most rewarding thing to me — I can look back in years to come and say, ‘You know what? I did my part.’ “
Nicki Jhabvala: njhabvala@denverpost.com or
