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But, as Red always said, you never stop trying, right? Red Klotz died a year ago at the age of 93. Yes, beating the Globetrotters was a challenge. In the end, the Globetrotters would go into their famous “Sweet Georgia Brown” weave offense, which has no defense. The referees consistently missed blatant Globetrotters rules violations. True, they faced a few disadvantages, such as the fact that the Globetrotters would sometimes hide the ball under their shirts, or attach a string to the ball, or pull down the Generals players’ pants, or soak a player with a bucket of water. Weird as it sounds, the Generals were always playing to win. Read that again: The team’s purpose was to PLAY the Globetrotters, the purpose was not to LOSE to the Globetrotters. The team’s purpose, as you no doubt know, was to play the World Famous Harlem Globetrotters. He dubbed the team the Washington Generals after the country’s new president, Dwight D. They were also the scoreboard for Ferrari’s father-in-law, Red Klotz, who founded the team in 1953. He continued to watch the people in the stands.

It was the most wonderful life they could ever imagine, though they almost never won a game. He and his wife, Jody, ran the Washington Generals. Maybe 20 years ago, he became something more, a position without a real title. How many basketball games had he been to in the last 35 years? Eight thousand? Ten thousand? More? Yes, this felt like home. John Ferrari sat in the Wildwood, N.J., convention center, and he watched the people in the crowd, and the thing that struck him was how normal it all felt.