Hoop, goodwill ambassadors

~ The Globetrotters handed another beating to the Nationals at the Show Me Center.

Herbert Lang hasn't tasted defeat in seven years as a professional basketball player.

That's one of the many positives of being a member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Lang and his teammates handed the New York Nationals yet another defeat Tuesday night at the Show Me Center. This time, the score was 66-43, as the Nationals never recovered from a 15-0 deficit to start the game.

"They travel with us, and we beat them up every night," Lang said.

Harlem Globetrotters Herbert Lang, left, and Paul Gaffney used basketball fan Nick Essner, 10, of Cape Girardeau, in one of their gags during Tuesday's appearance at the Show Me Center.

The 6-foot-3 guard from Brinkley, Ark., and Centenary College, scored seven points, including three dunks that showed why his nickname is "Flight Time." Lang even threw in a dribbling exhibition -- one of the Globetrotters' staples -- to end the first half.

But some things -- winning, the patented weave offense, the confetti-in-a-bucket skit -- never get old, even during a nonstop, four-month tour.

"There are a lot of things the Globetrotters have been doing for 80 years, and those are a lot of things you can't take out of the show," Lang said.

"We play every night starting Dec. 26 through the middle of March and we'll have maybe four nights off between now and then," he added. "It's hard some nights, but once you look into the crowd and see the kids and you know that their parents have told them how great the Globetrotters are, I don't have it in my heart to think about being tired."

The Globetrotters came to Cape Girardeau just a little more than one week into their Unstoppable tour that marks the team's 80th season of basketball.

Among the Globetrotters players with fresh legs was Jefferson Sobral, who just joined the team prior to the tour. He played five years with the Brazilian national team. He scored six points, all on dunks. Jermaine Brown had 14 points and Dwayne Rogers added 13.

Lang was among the players who tuned up for the tour by playing a two-week military tour in early December. "We played outside and on the top of ships," Lang said.

Even with unusual venues and games that are half competitive and half exhibition with a whole lot of entertainment -- "It's still basketball," Lang said. "It's just basketball in a different form."

Lang was one of the few players with Division I experience on this version of the Globetrotters -- two teams travel the country. He was a first-team all-Trans America Athletic Conference selection as a junior and a second-team choice as a senior when he led the Gents in scoring at 19.6 points per game.

"I'm blessed to be part of a team that that goes places other teams wouldn't go," said Lang, who said he's been to 40 countries as a member of the Globetrotters. "I think I'm more well-rounded as a person and as a basketball player. When I finished college, I felt like I still had something to contribute as a basketball player, and this gives me that opportunity."