When Ray Rose left The Bahamas as a teenage basketball sensation over a decade ago, he had aspirations of playing professional basketball, preferably in the greatest league in the world, the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States. That dream is yet to become a reality, but he took a huge step in his basketball career recently when he was called up by the Harlem Globetrotters and told that his tryout for the team was successful. Rose, 29, became the second Bahamian player to sign up with the popular basketball franchise, joining Osbourne 'Goose' Lockhart who played with them in the mid eighties. Rose suited up for the Globetrotters Tuesday night in Reno, Nevada, and dropped in four points in three minutes in his first action for the team.
They played in Santa Rosa, California, last night. The team is currently on tour for four and a half months in different cities in the Unites States. Rose said that he's thrilled to be given the opportunity and is looking forward to making a huge impression. "A lot of people wake up in the morning and can't say that they enjoy going to their job. For me, every minute has been a thrill so far," said Rose yesterday. "It's a great opportunity to do something that you enjoy doing on a regular basis and I'm looking forward to it. It's an honor. I worked out for them at a camp they had in Houston, and got picked up. I'm just real happy for the opportunity," he added.
The Globetrotters is an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater and comedy. They play most of their games in the United States but also venture overseas. Rose, who currently lives in Houston, Texas, played his college basketball for Olivet Nazarene University in Chicago, Illinois, but left after his junior year to enter the NBA Draft. He was undrafted, but the 29-year-old point guard said that it is still a goal of his to one day play in the NBA. "That's a huge goal of mine," he said yesterday. "I know that I still have a lot of work to do but I'm prepared to go out there and work hard for it. It's not easy making it to the NBA, especially as a point guard.
That's a global league now, so you have to be extremely good just to be drafted. I'm hopeful that I can still get that opportunity," he added. Rose went to Aquinas College in New Providence before leaving for high school in the United States. He went to South Florida to play high school basketball at Champagnat Catholic School in Hialeah, Florida. In his junior season, he led Champagnat to the Class 2A state championship. As a senior, they returned to the Final Four before losing to Jacksonville Arlington Country Day School. Rose then took his talents to Miami-Dade College and made the Southern Conference's All-Freshman team, before transfering to Houston Baptist and then on to Olivet Nazarene.
Professionally, he had a stint when he averaged 30 points in the International Basketball League and briefly making the Continental Basketball Association's Indiana Alley Cats. Rose also played in the American Basketball Association (ABA) with the Miami Tropics and Jacksonville Jams, averaging 15 points, six assists and five steals with both squads. At the time he was looked at in the one-day camp on December 18, Rose played with the Houston Blaze in Houston, Texas, averaging 20 points, seven assists and four steals per game. He was a member of The Bahamas team that won the gold medal at the 2001 Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships for junior men. That team went undefeated in the tournament, winning all of their games by an average of 30 points.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
