When the Harlem Globetrotters take to the court at the Lake Charles Civic Center on Wednesday, Feb. 20, one player won’t be far from home.

The showmen (and show woman) of the basketball court will put on their zany play at 7 p.m. in the Civic Center coliseum.

Flight Time Lang, a native of Arkansas, lives in Bossier City and is a graduate of Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport.

“I’ll be looking forward to some good crawfish in Lake Charles,” he told the American Press in a telephone interview this week.

He calls his time at Centenary as “the best four years of my life. I got a good education.”

He was a star of the Gents basketball team and in 2011 was inducted into the Centenary Athletics Hall of Fame. While a student he was on the honor roll a couple of times and was named to the first team All-Conference basketball team.

But that may be overshadowed by his 14 years with the Harlem Globetrotters.

“I’ve been to 90 countries and met so many different kinds of audiences,” he said.

Basketball is not Lang’s only appearance before audiences. He and teammate Big Easy Lofton of New Orleans were seen by millions of TV viewers on ABC’s “The Amazing Race” reality show.

“I had to listen to Big Easy’s big mouth for two trips around the world,” Lang joked.

In their first season as a team in the race they had some success but bombed out on a tea-tasting trial. They had to give up on the task and wound up in fourth place overall.

“Yeah, the tea thing knocked us out,” he said.

In the “Unfinished Business” season, they redeemed themselves with a second-place finish.

Flight Time has also appeared on “Hell’s Kitchen,” “The Bachelorette,” Disney XD’s “Kickin’ It,” “Today,” “Good Morning America,” “The Price is Right,” “The Bonnie Hunt Show” and “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” where he answered each question posed to him. He has even shot hoops with President Barack Obama at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

“It was tough,” Lang said of the transition to straight basketball competition to the show-off, trickster mode of play for which the Globetrotters are known, “but it’s a great bunch of guys, and girls, to work with,” noting that three ladies are on the team roster.

One of those, rookie T-Time Brawner of Oakland, Calif., will be with the team in Lake Charles. However, the exact team roster is subject to change according to circumstances.

The current season for the Globetrotters is dubbed the “You Write the Rules” World Tour. Fans can go online and vote for the rules of play in Lake Charles.

“Fans will decide the rules for the game that could affect the final outcome,” Lang said. “This could be anything from having a penalty box, playing with two basketballs at once, to getting double the points for each basket made.”

The team encourages fans to go online with their children at www.harlemglobetrotters.com to vote for which rule they want to see implemented in the game. Then, get your tickets, and see the winning rules in live action at the Globetrotters’ world championship game.

A unique 30-minute pre-show, “Magic Pass,” will allow families to spend time on the court with the Globetrotters one-on-one, shooting, trying out ball tricks, and getting autographs and photos.

After virtually every game, Globetrotter stars remain on the court for autographs and photographs with fans.

“We are really having as much fun as the audience,” Lang said. “The smiles on the kids’ faces make the job worthwhile.”

(Harlem Globetrotters / Special to the American Press)