Elbert “Tree” Gordon
President/CEO, Global Legends Youth Foundation, Inc.
Former member of the Harlem Globetrotters
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Sport: Basketball
Elbert "Tree" Gordon - former Harlem Globetrotter
Now retired from a life of exhibition basketball games and entertaining crowds with the Harlem Globetrotters, Elbert “Tree” Gordon is on a mission … a mission to help kids develop from mediocre players into players with solid fundamentals and a firm foundation for future success. In July of 2010, Tree Gordon arrived in Bettendorf with his two sons in tow to put on a Global Legends Basketball Camp through the Bettendorf Park Board.
After a number of years with the Globetrotters, traveling from city to city and playing in front of crowds around the world, the 20+ camps Tree has run this summer is all part of a larger adventure. A summer on the road with his boys is fun – they help demonstrate drills and techniques at each camp. And Tree takes the camps as opportunities to pass along important life experiences to both his sons as well as other kids.
“Kids come to the camps I run to learn fundamentals and wind up learning how to be successful in life as well as basketball,” he explains. “I teach kids that everything they work on needs to get 100% of their effort.”
Whether there are a hundred kids at the camp or fewer than twenty – like the Bettendorf camp – they all get a healthy dose of Tree Gordon’s brand of optimism and outlook on life. The Global Legends camp is a fun learning environment with lots of positive reinforcement.
“It’s how I give back for what I’ve been given,” he continues.
But basketball hasn’t always been Tree’s life. “Football was my sport. I didn’t start playing basketball until I was a junior in high school,” he explains. And that didn’t happen until he watched his older brother playing the game. Once he started playing, though, Tree’s life changed. “My life took off,” he says.
A successful career as a Division 3 college athlete eventually lead to the opportunity with the Globetrotters and five successful seasons.
For Tree Gordon, “giving back” for his career and opportunities means keeping kids moving, learning and growing … whether they’re meeting him for the first time at a Global Legends Camp or they’re his own kids, learning about life while on the road with their dad.
Here’s Tree’s Story in his own words, along with some video taken at his camp held in Bettendorf, Iowa in July of 2010:
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