Eighty-five years after starting life in a Chicago ballroom where business was slow, the Harlem Globetrotters are still innovators in the game of basketball and the world of showbiz.
The team that made former pope John Paul II an honorary member, helped to develop the slam dunk — when a player leaps into the air and slams the ball into the net — and performs skits on the court is due to launch into its 51st tour of Europe with a game in Frankfurt, Germany, on March 18.
From there, the players, their mascot Globie, his big brother and a back-up crew of entertainers who number some of the best break-dancers ever to grace a basketball court, will visit 42 European cities in two months, including 10 in France, nine in Britain and eight in Italy.
Photo: AFP
Also on the cards is a week’s visit to the United Arab Emirates next month.
Players like Herb “Flight Time” Lang — whose nickname was given to him by a Globetrotters boss who said he must earn frequent flyer miles every time he jumps in the air — will treat fans to familiar Globetrotters routines like the behind-the-back pass and three-man weave.
Although they’ll also introduce a new feature in basketball, the four-point shot, taken 10.7m from the basket.
Photo: AFP
The Globetrotters score about 35 percent of the time from the four-point mark, according to Lang, who pointed out that many US college and professional, NBA teams have a similar shooting average from the three-point spot, which is 3.7m closer to the basket.
During a stop in Fairfax on the Globetrotters’ tour of the US and Canada early this month, “Dizzy” Grant shot two four-pointers in a row, helping to carry his team to yet another win over the Globetrotters’ perennial rivals, the Washington Generals.
The Generals haven’t beaten the Globetrotters since 1971, but watching the two teams interact on the court at George Mason University begged the question whether there wasn’t some -crossover -between them.
It turns out there is: Four-point ace Grant was once a General.
The Globetrotters were founded in 1926 by Abe Saperstein and began life as a “barnstorming” team, taking on anyone who would play them.
Thirteen years later, the team played in its first professional basketball championship tournament, but was knocked out by the New York Rens.
That same year, 1939, in a game in which the Globetrotters were crushing a local team by the score of 112-5, the players delighted the crowd when they started to clown around.
After the game, Saperstein gave the green light for player shenanigans in future games — but only if the team had a safe lead like 112-5.
That was also the year that Globetrotter Inman Jackson created the team’s “Clown Prince” of basketball role.
Inman also created the pivot position now used at all levels of basketball, just one of many Globetrotters’ innovations that have become a part of mainstream basketball.
“But today, our focus is on putting on a good show,” said Lang, a former high school and college all-star player.
After the Fairfax game on Saturday, 13-year-old Luke Symon dribbled one of the US$25 red, white and blue Globetrotter basketballs that were being snapped up like hotcakes, as he said to a friend, “I’m going to be the first white Globetrotter.”
He’s already been beaten to the punch, but not by many.
“Bob Karstens made history in 1943 by becoming the first-ever Caucasian to ever be under contract with the Harlem Globetrotters,” said Eric Nemeth, director of live event publicity for the storied team. “Seth Franco, who played on the 2004 tour, is the only other Caucasian player to ever be under contract with the Harlem Globetrotters.”
These days, the Globetrotters use scouts to find talent and recruit at a training camp in New York state.
“We’ve had players from -Mongolia, the Dominican Republic, Brazil. So you don’t have to be American to become a Globetrotter,” said Lang, who, with 12 years on the team, is the longest-serving Globetrotter.
Lang has played in 85 countries, from Argentina to France, Japan to Libya.
The big question about the Globetrotters is: Which came first, the basketball player or the showman?
“First, you have to be a great basketball player,” Nemeth said. “You also need to be a good person, with an outgoing personality, but most players learn the Globetrotters’ signature moves after they make the team.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS