03/17/17 Maine Red Claws - Dajuan Eubanks, President

Posted by John Marr
 
(Photo: Bob Clark, Dajuan Eubanks, and President Laura Young.)
 
Rotarian Bob Clark, Chief Professional Officer at the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Maine (BGC) had the pleasure of introducing, Dajuan Eubanks, a member of the Board of the BGC. It’s easy to understand why Bob looks up to Mr. Eubanks as a role model for the kids at the Club. Mr. Eubanks is the current President of the Maine Red Claws, the development league team associated with the Legendary Boston Celtics, as well as the creator of the Blue Wave basketball instructional team. Bob made it clear that it is far more than Dajuan’s sports prominence that make him an ideal role model for the BGC. Dajuan, alternatively listens to such introductions and wonders, “are they talking about me?”
 
Dajuan Eubanks is more than a basketball success story, he is an inspiration. Dajuan and his three daughters live in Portland and love being in Maine. Dajuan started life in Alabama, but his father moved the family to Texas, where he expected there to be greater opportunities for the family. His father was right and his young son grew emotionally, intellectually and, especially, physically in Texas. As a freshman in high school he was 5’8” but shot up to 6’3” by the end of his sophomore year. It didn’t take much to figure that basketball was in his future. What makes the story so inspiring is that the prominence and notoriety of basketball in his life was not the all-encompassing success factor, merely a vehicle. You might think that a 6’9” man who goes on to play on the famed Harlem Globetrotters team would be high on himself and basketball, but Dajuan is a humble, unassuming man who capitalizes on success because of his forward-thinking vision. He does not deny that basketball was instrumental in the development of his character...teaching him the value of team play and dealing with disappointment while playing for Rice University in Houston, Texas.  He was enjoying success with the Rice basketball team when adversity struck in his junior year and he had to put the game aside due to having life-threatening surgery that took him out of the game for the remainder of his college career. With a solid college education, he thought he would like to become a civil engineer, because he loved being outdoors. Fate, fortunately saw it differently, and after graduation he was asked to join the Harlem Globetrotters.
 
Dajuan soon realized that life with the Globetrotters was more than just basketball. They played games 7 days a week all around the world. He learned that he was more than a basketball player...he was expected to be an ambassador of the team, the game and “the red, white and blue.” He grew into the role and enjoyed having the opportunity to see the world of the rich and famous, but not become consumed by it. He used his world experiences with the Globetrotters as a learning experience and means to develop his self-confidence and ability to mesh with a diverse world. He likens the philosophy of the Globetrotters to Rotary because both clubs are committed to making the world a better place. His travels brought him to Maine where he met a girl from Ellsworth, who also loved and played basketball, and went on to marry and have a family. Being a family man required that Dajuan step out of basketball and parlay his contacts into a business focus. He did a short stint with an Apple affiliate and moved on to an associated company, OmniCom, which grew magnificently and got the family to Maine, as part of Pierce Promotions.
 
The past three years Dajuan has been the President of the Maine Red Claws. He declares that the job “isn’t rocket science, it’s entertainment.” He utilizes his experience with the Globetrotters and Pierce Promotions to promote the interests of the founders of the team, who are not just investors, they are fans of the team and have an expanded vision of purpose that goes beyond basketball. He pointed to how the team has embraced and made improvements to the Expo and loves their home court as an integral part of the Maine image. He is not pushing to move the team from the Expo to a new home at Thompson’s Point, but will take what the future might bring.