A lot of sports teams have names that don’t have much to do with what they do or who they are. After all, the Chicago Bears aren’t really bears, nor are the Detroit Tigers really tigers.

In the case of the Harlem Globetrotters, the name really applies. Just ask Tay “Firefly” Fisher of the Globetrotters, who visit Honolulu for three games this weekend. As the shooter and ball-handling wizard for the team, he’s compiled an impressive “bucket list” and will be attaining another goal with this visit.

“I’ve been to 70 countries, but this is my first time in Hawaii,” he said. “So this will be the end of me hitting all 50 states.”

Fisher’s most recent long-distance trip was to Saudi Arabia in May, but he’s traveled throughout Africa and Latin America as well. The team’s members have been recognized as goodwill ambassadors for decades, but they still go the extra yard to make friends wherever they go.

“Wherever we go, we try to learn the language,” said Fisher, 31. “Obviously we’re not going to be as fluent as we are in English, but people appreciate us trying it. And even if you don’t get it right, the one thing that’s universal is a smile.”

Many of those smiles come at the expense of their hapless opponents. For years, that was the Washington Generals, who over six decades lost more than 13,000 games to the Trotters while winning only six, the last in 1971. The team was dissolved in 2015, but for fans of losers, there’s good news. They’re making a comeback, though they’re not quite ready to come out here.

The World All-Stars have been the Trotters’ rivals for the last two years. Fisher knows many of the players from his college days, and says despite the Trotters’ hoop high jinks, the competitive fires still burn.

NO GAME is predictable, Fisher said.

“I don’t know anything,” he said. “I would hope that we’re going to win — we’re the best team in the world. Ever since I’ve been with the team, we’ve been winning games, so I want to keep it like that.”

The great Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird was said to have perfected his game on the dirt courts of Indiana farm country. Fisher has a similar story.

“Where my father lived, he didn’t have a driveway. Everything was rocks,” Fisher said. “He put up a basketball hoop for me to play every time I’d come to visit on weekends. It was really difficult to me to handle the basketball because I went from playing on pavement to rocks. But it really helped my dribbling skills, because I had to master dribbling on the rocks and really concentrate on my skills. That definitely helped me get where I am right now.”

Blessed with a great shooting eye as well — “it was the main part of my game that blossomed before everything else” — Fisher became a top small-college player. He was the only senior on a team from tiny Siena College in Albany County, New York, that defeated major conference school Vanderbilt in the 2008 NCAA tournament, making all six of his three-point shots. His bio on the Siena team’s website calls him “one of Siena’s most revered student-athletes ever.”

Too small for the NBA — he’s 5-foot-9 — he was recruited (“drafted”) by the Globetrotters after he graduated, but didn’t make the team the first year. He made it on his second try and loves the travel and camaraderie of the team. That’s something he said the Globetrotters share with successful NBA teams, such as current champion Golden State.

“They’re a great team, but their winning streak isn’t as long as the Harlem Globetrotters,” Fisher said with a laugh. “They’re an awesome team, fun to watch. I love to watch teams like that, that have a strong bond and strong chemistry, because that’s how we are as Harlem Globetrotters. We’re together so much we’re like a family, and it shows on the court.”

FANS WILL see some history-making players, who like to go by their nicknames.

Along with Fisher will be “TNT” Lister, the first woman on the team, and “Too Tall” Hall, who at 5-foot-2 is the shortest Globetrotter ever.

Also coming will be “Thunder” Law, who, in addition to his spectacular dunks, holds the Guinness record for longest shot made backwards at 82 feet 2 inches, and “Ant” Atkinson, whose position is listed as “Showman.”

Look for Fisher, like his idol and mentor Curly Neal, to take off on a dribbling exhibition during the game, as well as make some spectacular long shots. In recent years, the Globetrotters have instituted a four-point shot, encouraging him to let it fly.

Fisher’s favorite stunt is the famous water bucket joke, in which he’ll chase down a teammate with a bucket and fling the contents at him, missing and getting someone in the audience instead. What’s in the bucket is always the big surprise.

“Sometimes it’s water and sometimes it’s confetti,” he said. “People look forward to that. You’d be surprised at how many people look forward to getting hit by water and how many want the confetti. It’s been something that’s been going for so long, it becomes a dream for a lot of people.”