OSU's Titus gets chance to try out for Globetrotters
6/23/2010COLUMBUS - After notifying his parents and speaking with a reporter, Mark Titus had someone else with whom he wanted to share the news.
"I'm going to call Evan soon and let him know I was drafted before him," Titus said.
Two days before Evan Turner will hear his name called during the NBA draft in New York, his longtime antagonist on the Ohio State men's basketball team got a call from the Harlem Globetrotters Tuesday morning.
"I was at the gym. I'd just got done rehabbing my shoulder," said Titus, a former walk-on with the Buckeyes. "I had a voice mail from an unknown number. I listened, and some guy was telling me I'd been drafted."
Titus' first call was to his father.
"Do they know you're white?" Bill Titus asked.
No problem. The Globetrotters are colorblind. They have had two white players on their roster in their 84 seasons, said Brett Meister, vice president of communications - Bob Karstens in 1943 and Seth Franco in 2004.
"The Globetrotters have always looked for good basketball players, good people, and good entertainers," Meister said.
Titus was among six players drafted by the Globetrotters for the 2010-11 season, which begins Dec. 26. He will have a chance to make the roster during training camp in September and October.
The news release announcing the team's draft picks noted the "shooting prowess" of Titus, a 6-foot-4 guard who played 48 minutes in four seasons.
It also noted his status as a "cult phenomenon" online as author of the Club Trillion blog, which has had more than 3.1 million visits since it went up less than two years ago.