RIP, Marques Haynes

[paul secor]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/sports/marques-haynes-harlem-globetrotters-star-dribbler-dies-at-89.html?ref=obituaries&_r=0

More than a basketball player, he was a part of Americana.

[JSngry]

Damn, he lived right here in Plano...all we hear about is Deion Sanders...RIP.

[Larry Kart]

Haynes plays himself, as do other Globetrotters like Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton -- Sidney Poitier plays Inman Jackson -- in this terrific little movie, "Go Man Go," from 1954 (directed by the great cinematographer James Wong Howe) about the formation and evolution of the team, with Dane Clark as the young and not yet rotund Abe Saperstein:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047032/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

Great scene that's always stuck in my mind -- Saperstein and the Globetrotters in their early days are barnstorming and scuffling, check into a small town hotel or rooming house. In the middle of the night there's a knock on Abe's door. He answers it bleary eyed, asks the young guy at the door what he wants, guy says he wants to play for the Globetrotters. Abe (Dane Clark) says wearily, "Well, what can you do?"-- as in "What do you have to offer that might be attractive to us?" Guy says, "I can dribble." Abe says something like, "Anyone can dribble," Guy says, "I can dribble past you in this corridor" -- which is narrow enough that Dane Clark can put his hands on both walls at once. Dane crouches in a defensive stance, the guy takes a basketball (don't recall where he has it with him or Dane gives him one), and he dribbles up to and around Clark multiple times, back and forth, the ball bouncing at hummingbird speed, the lunging Clark never touches him. Astonished, Clark says, "What's your name, son?" "Marques Haynes."

I could go on to describe the final scenes of the film, where the now successful Globetrotters play a celebrated exhibition game against the NBA champion Minneapolis Lakers, led by George Mikan (this actually happened), falling well behind (the Globetrotters are nervous and uptight), until with a few minutes left in the game we begin to hear the whistled "Sweet Georgia Brown" on the soundtrack and Globetrotters hear it, too, and... Every time I've tried to tell someone about that scene, tears come to my eyes.

[GA Russell]

Here are a number of today's links.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Marques+Haynes&filters=tnTID%3a%220766283E-1071-422f-B14B-4D2E462C4C18%22+tnVersion%3a%22906913%22+segment%3a%22popularnow.carousel%22+tnCol%3a%2229%22+tnOrder%3a%22b9cc5fc0-7134-4bea-b02a-f7b4e54bdeea%22&FORM=BSPN01&crslsl=3893&efirst=25