As the Syracuse men’s basketball team heads on the road for today’s basketball game against South Florida, local fans left behind in the cold will have a wackier kind of basketball to watch.

The Harlem Globetrotters bring their 2008 ‘Magic as Ever’ World Tour to the OnCenter Complex tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $18 to $90.

Former player Lazarus Sims gives Syracuse a local tie to the Globetrotters. Sims, a point guard for Syracuse from 1992-1996, played with the trick basketball team from 2002 until 2004.

He stopped playing for the Globetrotters after growing tired of the constant travel.

‘One-hundred sixteen games over five months on the road, a different city every night. The travel, it’s exhausting,’ Sims said. ‘It takes a toll on your body, so it was time for me to go, and I had a little boy at home.’

Now Sims is back in the Carrier Dome as a player development coach assisting the current squad. He works with the players during workouts and helps with scouting reports. But Sims enjoyed his time with the Globetrotters despite the exhaustive touring.

‘I miss the team and the players,’ Sims said. ‘I still keep in contact with the guys I played with. It was a great experience that I really enjoyed. If you aren’t watching SU on the television, you should go see the Globetrotters. They are entertaining; they engage the audience.’

Current Globetrotter ‘Buckets’ Blake prefers the Globetrotter atmosphere to the college one because Harlem’s the home team, anywhere they go.

‘The difference between college and the Globetrotters for me is there are no technical fouls, and I’m not booed at free throw line,’ Blake said. ‘When we play at different venues also we are always home team. The Globetrotters are more mental than physical. College is all physical, and coaches do more mental part.’

Blake, who graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2000, had the chance to compete against Sims while on the Continental Basketball Association’s City Quad Thunder. Afterward, he played alongside Sims as a Globetrotter.

‘Lazarus is a very dedicated ball player who is very family-orientated,’ Blake said. ‘Not too many people can put on this uniform, and he wore it with pride and lived the legacy of a ‘trotter to the fullest.”

Sims sees Harlem more as theater than a college basketball game because they engage their fans in the event.

‘The Globetrotters are a lot more fan-oriented than a team on the collegiate level,’ Sims said. ‘It’s great making little kids smile and laugh while we are playing or signing autographs.’

However, Sims said both the Globetrotters and the Orange play exciting basketball, and it would be a hard decision to choose which team to watch. Sims will not attend the Globetrotter game Wednesday because he will be on the road with the Syracuse team.

‘I’m an Orangeman no matter where I go,’ Sims said. ‘But I loved my time as a Globetrotter. They are a great team.’

mkgalant@syr.edu

Published on February 12, 2008 at 12:00 pm