Globetrotters Bring Their Own Brand of Basketball Magic to UCI on Tuesday

Anybody looking for a sure bet should know that the Harlem Globetrotters will beat the Washington Generals on Tuesday at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center and Wednesday and Thursday at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Globetrotters captain Clyde (The Glide) Austin claims it’s conceivable his team might lose because the Generals “could capitalize on our weaknesses.” But don’t believe him. The Generals have been notoriously slow on the uptake.

Of the 8,975 basketball games the teams have played against each other over the last 25 years, the Generals have won just once, according to a Globetrotters press release.

“Yeah,” Austin confirmed by telephone from San Jose, “they haven’t beat us since 1971.” That was 6,122 games ago. The Globetrotters could make history and play for a tie--they’re in show biz, after all, not competitive basketball. However, the prospect of the Globetrotters’ losing to the Generals is only half as likely as seeing one of their razzle-dazzle exhibitions played in Harlem. That has happened only twice in 61 years, Austin said.

The Globetrotters started out in Chicago under sports promoter Abe Saperstein. Using “Harlem” in their name was Saperstein’s way of telling the world that the Globetrotters were an all-black team. Today, it’s anybody’s guess why they aren’t called the Hollywood Globetrotters. Hollywood has been their real home, literally since the mid-’70s and figuratively from the first time they worked their ball-handling tricks on Jan. 7, 1927, in Hinckley, Ill.

The Globetrotters’ legend is often gilded off the court. If you ask Austin about the highlights of his seven-year career with the team, for example, he’ll tell you about the time he played for the Pope. Picture it. The Pope sat alone. A few cardinals stood nearby. The Trotters passed the ball around their “magic circle” to the rhythms of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” their warm-up song.

“He was probably more amazed than we were,” Austin, an ordained Baptist minister, recalled. “We couldn’t see any angels, but we know they were there.”

Orange County spectators won’t see angels either, nor the likes of Goose Tatum, Meadowlark Lemon, Curly Neal or Marques Haynes, but they’ll probably see Austin sink three-pointers at will from half-court. Named an All-America player in high school and college, Austin also puts on the sort of moves that earned him a contract offer from the NBA’s Denver Nuggets.

“I know I could have made it in the NBA,” he said.

Meanwhile, fans of the hapless Generals--if there are any--can cheer on former U.S. Olympic star Nancy Lieberman, who signed with the Generals in December in an effort to put a few marks in the win column. While she hasn’t yet succeeded, she has been quoted as saying, “I love the challenge.” Anyway, it’s a living.