'Zeus' goes from office to Globetrotter

Four months ago, former New York Institute of Technology basketball player Kirk Stewart was working in an office. Beyond pickup games, basketball did not play much of a role in his life.

"I was sitting at a desk, filing paperwork, entering information on a computer," said Stewart, 25.

Then a call came from a friend that changed his life, practically overnight. The Harlem Globetrotters were holding open tryouts.

The friend, on the Globetrotters' taxi squad, simply asked Stewart if he still could jump.

Oh, yes, he could.

The player whom NYIT coach Sal Lagano recalled as a "dunking machine" was on his way. In a matter of days, he literally jumped over the competition, and today he is known as Zeus Stewart, a rookie with the Globetrotters. He will be with them Friday and Saturday at Madison Square Garden and Sunday at Nassau Coliseum. Also on the roster is Solomon "Bam Bam" Bamiro, who played at Stony Brook.

"Some days I wake up and it still seems very surreal that I'm wearing Harlem Globetrotters gear and that I'm actually really a Harlem Globetrotter," Stewart said. "Every time we have an autograph signing, I still can't believe it." He has a six-figure salary and his jersey is on the web for about $75. "Wow, I didn't even know that," Stewart said.

The 6-7 Stewart, who attended Springfield Gardens High School in Queens, already has been to France and Poland. He visited NYIT Thursday, and a large group of supporters are expected to watch him perform this weekend. "He's our first guy to get on that big stage," Lagano said of the Division II school. Stewart played for upstate Corning CC before attending NYIT for two years. He graduated in 2008.

His main forte with the Globetrotters is, naturally, dunking the ball. In every which way one can imagine. One-handed, tomahawk, reverse, windmill, 360, anything that crashes through the rim.

"I'm a finisher. I dunk," he said. "But with the Globetrotters, you have to be able to do a little bit of everything . . . You have to have the personality. You have to have a great smile."

Stewart's first dunk came at age 14 when he stood just 5-7. "I was playing pickup ball and I don't know what got into me," he said. "I just told my teammate, 'Throw the basketball off the backboard.' He did. I caught it one-handed and dunked it. I became like a celebrity in my high school for a week."

At NYIT, his points were loud, but he had conservative stats, averaging 8.5 points and 3.9 rebounds. After college, he took a job as a clerk in an oil company. When the Globetrotters got him, they changed his name to Zeus. He has a chiseled frame; someone at the workout said he looked like a Greek god, and Zeus just fit. "I like the name," he said.

The Globetrotters may make it look easy, but Stewart said the routines are hard to master. "It's very difficult to play every single night," he said. "I do think that gets overlooked sometimes. I don't think people understand how much work it takes to be a Globetrotter . . . There's an aura of invincibility and perfection that people look for from the Globetrotters because of the legacy and history. People think, 'The Globetrotters are perfect; there's no way they could make a mistake.' Guys do a great job of trying to put down their dunks. We do understand what the fans expect from us."

Being with the Globetrotters has turned Stewart's world upside down. "This came out of nowhere," he said. "I didn't think I'd be playing basketball for a living. I appreciate the opportunity. I'd like to do this for as long as I can."