Oh, it wasn't the floundering Golden State Warriors, who had just dropped their ninth straight game when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers the night before. It seems that on Sunday night, the "Original" Harlem Globetrotters were the home team in Oakland.

If you've never caught a 'Trotters game, you've missed a pretty entertaining night. They've been delighting audiences since 1927 with their amusing brand of basketball.

I know, because I've seen them play.

"When did you see the Globetrotters?" asked my youngest son, "and why didn't I get to go?"

"Well, it wasn't exactly yesterday," I explained. "It was a month or so before John Glenn went into space."

"Oh yeah, John Glenn went into space when I was in high school," he said.

"Uh, no," I admitted. "I mean the first time."

"The first time!" he cried. "That was forever ago!"

Well, he's right about that. It was forever ago ... like about 1962. Kennedy was in the White House, To Kill a Mockingbird was playing at the local movie theaters, and the Warriors were winning basketball games ... at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.

I was 12 years old when I saw the 'Trotters play. I was struggling a bit in school (Mr. Shipe's seventh-grade math class at Fisher was giving me fits), and my mom made me a deal ... make the honor roll, and she'd take me to a Globetrotters game.

Well, I did my part. And so when the 'Trotters came to town that winter, there we were at courtside at the old San Jose Civic Auditorium.

We saw the famous "Magic Circle" where the 'Trotters did miraculous things with the basketball as they moved to the sounds of "Sweet Georgia Brown"; we laughed at the antics of "Meadowlark" Lemon and marveled at the dribbling exhibition of Curly Neal; and we delighted as Abe Saperstein's famed basketball team drubbed the hapless Washington Generals.

So when my mother was over the other night and we heard the TV ad announcing the return of the 'Trotters to the Bay Area, I reminded her of our special night out together some 40 years ago.

"Sure I remember," she said. "You weren't doing very well in school, so I had to think of some incentive so you'd get your grades up."

"Oh, so you weren't much of a student," said the youngest laughing.

I glared his way, then turned to Mom and said, "Yeah, remember I made the honor roll that semester. And remember Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal?"

"Well, my memory's not as good as it used to be," she admitted.

"Oh, you don't remember those guys?" I asked.

"No, that's not it," she said. "I don't recall you ever making the honor roll. And that's something I think I'd remember. We were happy if you came home with C's."

With that my boys were all over me.

"What a hypocrite," chided the oldest. "You used to hammer us if we even brought home one B!"

"But I ... "

"Yeah, I remember when I came home with a B in chemistry," said the youngest, "and you said, 'Well, that's not quite an A, now is it.' And now we find out that you were a C student?"

"Sometimes worse," added my mother.

"Thanks a lot, Mom," I muttered.

Fine, so I wasn't exactly a brainiac when I was in school. And what's wrong with wanting more from your kids and giving them a little shove in the right direction? Whatever my wife and I did, it seemed to work ... both boys were honor students in high school and have had academic success at the college level.

"I always managed to do well enough to get by," I told the boys after Mom went home. "And in the winter of 1962 I did well enough to get to a Harlem Globetrotters game."

The boys thought about that one for a while, then asked almost together, "Hey, how come you never took us to a Globetrotters game?"

"Well," I explained with a smile, "I guess you just never got good enough grades."

Score that one for the C student!

Want to talk? Give me a call at 408.354.3110, or write to dsparrer@svcn.com.