Ambassadors Delight Bonners Ferry Crowd
- Steve Russo
- Dec 21, 2014
- 4 min read
Fundraiser came with powerful message. By Robert Lavala.
The Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce livened up the social calendar in late November by bringing in the Harlem Ambassadors Exhibition Basketball Squad. The tickets were affordable and the entertainment level was off the chart.
When first seeing the advertisement for the Ambassadors, I immediately remembered back to the early 1970s when I attended the Harlem Globetrotters in Boise. To this day the names of Meadowlark Lemon, Curly Neal, and Twiggy Sanders bring back great memories of the fun and excitement brought by those basketball tricksters.
Granted the Ambassadors are not the Globetrotters, but they gave a wonderful performance and kept the crowd at the Boundary County Middle School entertained for the entire show. The crowd didn't know how to take 'Lade Majic' at first due to her up front candor in presenting ideas about 'black and white.' But after looking into the group of onlookers and saying, “It's okay white people... you can laugh at that” the edge was off and everyone got into the fun spirit of the night.
At one point in the game, Lade Majic stopped the game and ran up into the bleachers full of people and 'hid' from the referees Ken Yount and Travis Blackmore as they looked for her. Using her wireless microphone, Lade Majic told the crowd, “I'll just blend in.” Everyone busted up laughing as she continued to use racial jokes to deflate racial tension (although I do not believe any existed).
Our own NBA Wanna Bs featured play by some very talented local players including Brion Poston (who also was the coach of the All Stars), Conner Bennett, A.J. Bennett, Andy Rice, Dave Schuman, Chris Sabin and his dad, Ryan Farrens, Kelly Hinthorn, Amethyst Aitken, Ketta Everhart, and Cynthia Franke. It has been difficult to get the full roster so if any names were missed please forgive this writer!
All of our All Stars were absolutely amazing and even were able to do some slam-dunks along with the highflying Ambassadors.
There were so many great plays on both sides it would be impossible to list them. But one play that stands out was when Lade Majic pulled A.J. Bennett down from behind just as he was about to shoot a three point shot from well beyond the three point line. As she grabbed him and pulled him backwards, he let the shot fly and as it swished through the basket everyone in the stands erupted in shouting and clapping.
The Ambassadors brought a great show to Bonners Ferry and their star, Lade Majic, was a total professional and great spokesperson for the group. She kept using the motto of the Ambassadors, “You have to be drug free and have your college degree IF you want to be an Ambassador.” At this point the message was clear: As an Ambassador (in life) you need to stay away from drugs and pursue your college degree. It is a wonderful message that this group brings to local venues as well as around the world.
The Harlem Ambassadors began touring in 1998, and since that time their tour schedule includes over 200 dates each year. They have traveled and performed in all 50 states as well as in 20 foreign countries. The message is universal and well received no matter where the high-flying group goes.
Looking at their website, it is easy to see that once they have been to an area the group that brought them there looks forward to bringing them back again! I'm sure it will be the same for the Chamber here in Bonners Ferry as the event was a total success. A big “Thank You” goes out to Tamra Hiatt and Wendy Hawks for arranging this event for our community.
Regarding the fundraising aspect of the event, all funds from ticket sales went into the Chamber's general fund. All concession sales went to helping out our local students through the PTO.
Lade Majic was asked once by a girl how to get past the stigma of bringing a girl onto the court. Majic replied, “When I was younger, I would get to the gym early and complete my individual workouts before the big guys got there. They tried to run me off the court as well, but I held my ground. I remained on one side of the court and therefore they played half court games. When they tried to bully me off the court to run full court games, I held my ground because they weren't being fair. Finally, one of the older guys respected the fact that I stood up for what I believed and said he'd be on my team so that I could run full court games with them. Some of the guys attempted to rough me up at times, but once they realized I wasn't backing down, they respected my desire to compete. Before long, I had a lot of those same guys protecting me from other guys who tried to take cheap shots at me. It wasn't too long after that that I was accepted as a regular "baller" at the gym... and, I wasn't the last one picked either.”
Comments