`I'm A Better Father Now'

LIFESTYLES OF THE FAMOUS aren't always as rich as they seem, discovered Meadowlark Lemon, the famous Harlem Globetrotter. Life on the road too often meant life away from his family. It was a road to regrets.

One of the world's greatest basketball players, a global entertainer and a samaritan, has guilty memories. It comes from Meadowlark Lemon's playing past, during a time when he was a hero to millions but often a disappointment for five very young, very important people.

And on every third Sunday in June, he is reminded of his shortcomings.

"All of my kids didn't have enough time with me," said Lemon, the most famous Harlem Globetrotter. "And when I was with them they had to share me with each other. As with anybody in the public eye, I had to spend a lot of time away from home. I would suggest to men and women of today to spend more time with their children, no matter what the outcome."

Lemon stood among great athletes last night at a downtown banquet room, as one of two keynote speakers at the "My Dad My Hero: An All-Star Sports Banquet," a charity event to precede Father's Day weekend. He was an example for those who are examples. He stood up and spoke in front of Seahawks and Mariners, many of them fathers themselves. Children from the Make A Wish Foundation were there with their parents.

Minister to the masses

Lemon, who runs a Christian ministry and a basketball camp in Scottsdale, Ariz., was custom made for engagements like this. Inspirational speeches, working with children and charities, being an ordained minister. It's all on Lemon's updated resume.

Playing basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters made Lemon famous. Learning how to command an audience, be it in a church or a banquet room, helped him last. At age 61, Lemon still knows how to handle an audience.

"He just has a way of capturing them," said Evan Fisher, who works for Lemon's ministry. "He automatically has attention and respect. When he speaks it comes from the heart."

Meeting superstars, needing Dad

Holding the attention of the masses never has been a problem for Lemon. It often came at a cost to his children - George, Beverly, Donna, Robin and Jonathan - who had to share their father with the world. Although all of Lemon's children were affected, his youngest, Jon, took it hardest. Lemon and his wife divorced when Jon was 6, so young Jon had a father on a temporary basis.

"The older kids knew him more as a father at home," Jon, 25, said. "It was earlier in his career, he was not as established and my parents were also still married. Most of my life, they've been divorced. The court decided I had to spend X amount of days with Mom and X amount with Dad. The only time I had with him was holidays and summers. And those were busy times if you were a Harlem Globetrotter."

To see his father, Jon had to travel with the Globetrotters. To some boys, that life must have been a dream. On the road with the 'Trotters. By age 16, Jon had "seen the world." The rest of the team had adopted him.

He routinely met basketball superstars such as Julius Erving and Wilt Chamberlain. He never asked for autographs. To him they were just Dr. J., just Wilt. Jon's summer vacations were hotels and airplanes and lots of small American towns few have heard of.

"I was there with my dad, but I wasn't spending quality time with him," Jon said. "It's the only thing I was bitter about as a child. The one thing I hated was to share my father. Everybody wanted a piece of him."

Playing hero to heroes

Meadowlark Lemon had to be role model to the world. He was the Clown Prince of Basketball. At a recent NBA playoff game, two fans who grew up watching Lemon, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley, came by his seat to say hello.

While being an example for millions got in the way of Lemon's relationship with his son Jon, it is also what Jon respects most about his father.

"He was always very giving of his time to other people," Jon said. "I eventually reached a certain age when I realized what my father does is not ordinary."

When his children were young, Lemon's job mystified them. Beverly once told a reporter her father worked at the airport for a living. Whenever her father left the house, that's where he was going.

Lemon played more than 7,500 games for the Globetrotters from 1957 to 1979. He came out of retirement for a few months this year, playing 29 games for the new generation of Globetrotters. He played with the children of men he once played with and against.

"It was a tremendous feeling to do it all again 25 years later," Lemon said.

Growing older, growing closer

And 25 years later, Lemon is able to be a father all over again. Jon recently quit working for a major accounting firm to work for his father in Scottsdale as his business manager.

"Now is our time," Jon said. "I'll always be his youngest son, but it's been an adjustment because he has to treat me like a man now. It's very good. We're closer now than we've ever been."

And Meadowlark Lemon is wiser from his mistakes.

"I'm a better father now," Lemon said. "I didn't know anything about kids before. Jon said something to me when he dropped me off at the airport that really touched me. He said `take care of yourself because you're my best friend.' "