OMC: How long did it take to get down the moves and the entertainment side of being a Globetrotter? But I just tried out, and they liked what they saw and offered me a position. The tricks and ball handling comes a little later. Everyone has an extensive basketball background first and foremost. I’ve got a teammate who was drafted by the Bulls and played with Jordan. A lot of my teammates have won dunk contests or they’re all-Americans. You’ve got to be able to play the game first and foremost. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was just like any other basketball tryout. He told them about me, and I ended up trying out in Houston. He was like, "I’m on the Globetrotters," and I’m like, "So random." (laughs) He was saying they had females on the team, which I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that I was just calling him to check up with him and say what’s up. At Texas State, I had a friend – his name was Brandon Bush – who was on the Globetrotters. OMC: How did the process of making the team work? Was it an audition or a tryout? Now, I’m with the Globetrotters, entertaining and becoming a part of history. I was able to have a good senior year, and I got the opportunity with the Silver Stars. Just going from playing with pros to going back to college, I saw the game a lot slower. So then I realized he saw a lot of potential in me, so I really focused on my game and working out after practices at school. This was back in 2007, so I was still a senior in college, and he was just like, "We’ve gotta get you playing point guard and fine tune your skills." And I’m going to listen to somebody who’s coached the best of the best. Really, the moment I realized it was when I was playing for the Nigerian national team, and our head coach was then the assistant coach for the Comets, Kevin Cook. It was one of those things where it seemed possible. SJ: Just like being young, I was outside, and I’d think to myself, "If I make this shot, I’m going to play at Duke" or "If I make this shot, I’m going to the WNBA." Before ’97, women didn’t have another place to go. OMC: When did you realize that basketball was something you could do as a profession? SJ: (laughs) We won’t discuss those feelings about practice. OMC: Do you have the same feelings on practice that Iverson did? That ended up being one of my patented moves that I used from high school on through college. I just remember looking it up and sitting there rewinding it over and over and over, just watching it and getting it down pat. That was back when AOL was your Internet provider, and it was like dial-up. I remember distinctively watching this commercial he did with Reebok that broke down his hesitation crossover, and I was obsessed with it. I tried to emulate some of his moves, because he was an undersized guard, and he was still able to shake-and-bake anybody. A guy that I looked up to was Allen Iverson. SJ: The WNBA started in 1997, so that was pretty huge, watching the Houston Comets win back-to-back championships four times with Sheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper. OMC: Who were your basketball idols growing up? And now I’m here, two years in as a Globetrotter. Then I played overseas in Italy and Poland, so basketball has taken me all around the world.
I went through school with that – went to college at Texas State University – and played in the WNBA for a short time in 2008. I just realized it was something I loved to do. Sweet J: I started playing basketball when I was 10 years old, just in the neighborhood with the other kids. : When did you first get into basketball? I was, however, able to ask some one-on-one questions with Ekworomadu, about how she became a Globetrotter, how Allen Iverson impacted her easy basketball days and if she ever feels bad about routinely pummeling the Washington Generals pretty much every night (spoiler alert: nope!).
Considering I hadn’t shot a basketball since probably middle school, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity fast enough. When I arrived at the BMO Harris Bradley Center to interview Harlem Globetrotter Joyce "Sweet J" Ekworomadu – the 12th female player in the 89-year history of arguably the world’s most famous basketball team – in advance of their traditional New Year’s Eve game at the BC, I was asked if I wanted to play a game of horse with Sweet J.
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