Sports

Special-Needs Pa. Teen to Play for Harlem Globetrotters

Kevin Grow and Wilt Chamberlain are the only players in history to play for both the Sixers and Globetrotters.

Kevin Grow, the Bensalem High School senior who last week signed a two-day contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, is getting another big shot — he’s going to play with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Grow, 18, who has Down syndrome, has been the manager of Bensalem’s basketball team for four seasons. At Bensalem’s Senior Night this month, Head Coach John Mullen put him in. 

What happened next is the stuff of legend: Grow hit four 3-pointers in the last two minutes of the game to lead his team to a 64-60 win over Neshaminy.

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The video of Grow’s efforts (watch it above) went viral, and it wasn’t long before Sixers President and General Manager Sam Hinkie had seen it. Hinkie signed Grow to a two-day contract with the Sixers. 

The Sixers weren’t the only team impressed by Grow’s performance, however; the Globetrotters awarded Grow their “Junior Phenom Award” following Senior Night, and now have invited him to play with the team.

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The Harlem Globetrotters plan to put Grow’s 3-pointer skills to good use; Grow will enter the game as a 3-point specialist in the fourth quarter of second game of the team’s Wells Fargo Center doubleheader, which starts at 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 9.

Grow and his father will sit on the team bench until his number is called, the Globetrotters said.

Grow already was planning to attend the March 9 game: He had received tickets as a Christmas present.

His new seat will be a bit of an upgrade, however.

Grow joins basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain as the only player ever to play for both the Sixers and Globetrotters. Chamberlain played for the Globetrotters in 1958, and for the Sixers from 1965-68.

The Globetrotters will hold a special assembly for Grow and his Bensalem classmates at 1 p.m. March 5, during which Grow will be presented with his Globetrotters jersey.

The Globetrotters have nicknamed him “KG3.”


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