Man, did I get to check quite a few things off my bucket list already this year. Starting things off right with experiencing things I have put off for far too long and took advantage of each opportunity that I had. That is my theme this year, which is a bit of an extension of the last year’s resolution.
If this is how we are starting this year, how will the rest of it stay as funky as this?
Stay tuned:
Harlem Globetrotters – January 30th – American Airlines Arena – Dallas, TX
Talk about checking something off my list that has been LONG overdue – The Harlem Globetrotters, those superhuman ambassadors of positive role-modeling are celebrating their 90th season as an exhibition basketball team who combine dance, comedy & tricks into a class act.
90 years??? And I’m just now seeing it? How? Let me start by saying it was well worth the wait.
When I was a kid (& to this day) I was always Globetrotter obsessed – As a child Curley Neal, Tex Harrison & Meadowlark Lemon were like magical beings that could do anything & they were everywhere.
Turn on Scooby-Doo they were guesting on a few episodes – I saw every episode of both of their Saturday Morning cartoon series & who could forget when they landed on Gilligan’s Island? I once even bid (& lost) on the mythical 1976 Globetrotters pinball machine.
Sadly Meadowlark passed away last November & it affected me deeply & unexpectedly – I swore that the next time they came to my town, the procrastination stops & I was going. If anything I owed it to Meadowlark.
So I called up my closest friend of almost 30 years who also had always wanted to see the Globetrotters and said he was in.
We picked the afternoon game, thinking it would be less crowded & have a more Saturday Morning cartoon feel if that makes any sense.
Both of us stunned when we got to our seats that were practically court side and the giddy reality that we were finally at a Globetrotters game.
The comedy focused on slap stick humor and general silliness which had the kids in the audience in hysterics, one minute players would be climbing all over the basketball hoops and bouncing the balls off their heads, the next they would be making faces behind the referee’s back and pulling each other’s shorts down. They combined all this with a bevy of tricks including the ‘three man weave’, plenty of impressive slam dunks and the Globetrotters’ unique four point shot, which sees them score from close to the half way line.
One of the best moments was when the players called for an instant rewind and performed three minutes of the game in reverse, then replaying the manoeuvre in slow motion! The audience participation was also lots of fun, one little boy earned himself a shirt after scoring a basket for the Globetrotters, while two squabbling players ended up soaking the audience during a water fight.
Although there’s a score board and at one point we are told that – dum dum duuuum – the Globetrotters are five points down, the score doesn’t really matter.
It’s simply about putting the fun back into sport and providing a great evening of family entertainment.
The current roster that includes Nathanial “Big Easy” Lofton & Fatima Maddox, the first female Globetrotter in 20 years- continue this great legacy.
Bless this team & here’s to 90 more great years.
Photos –
Roy Turner
Globetrotters Archives
