Trotters Score Off the Court

Slam dunks, high bounces and high jinks--the Harlem Globetrotters, entertaining family audiences from Argentina to Zimbabwe, are back in town for a 66th season of basketball and buffoonery.

The Trotters, on a 20-year winning streak, go up against longtime rivals the Washington Generals, Sunday at the Los Angeles Great Western Forum and Monday at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center.

The teams do get down to serious play, but mostly serve up eye-popping ball tricks and slapstick, with lots of interplay with the audience.

That interplay continues off the court, especially with children: In their free time, Trotters such as Sterling (Smooth) Forbes Jr. and Sandra (Sweetness) Hodge, use their basketball skills and star quality to impart lessons of self-esteem to disadvantaged children.

“Sometimes kids grow up in the wrong environment and just having someone like an athlete or an actor take the time to say I care, or, you can talk to me, that means so much to them,” said Hodge, 29, the only woman on the Southland tour.

The 5-foot-8 1/2-inch Hodge, who was recruited 4 1/2 years ago while playing for the University of New Orleans, offers kids pointers and support at community centers in one-day “basketball clinics.”

“Kids are our future,” she said. “If we don’t try to grab them now, if we don’t get their attention and let kids like the 13-year-old who’s using drugs know there’s a better way out than that, what’s going to happen to the world?”

Hodge has a message for parents too. “Take the time to listen. Don’t ignore problems they come to you with. It’s the little things that matter so much.”

Forbes, 28, is the first and only second-generation player on the team, following in the footsteps of his dad, Sterling (California) Forbes Sr., who played with the Trotters in the ‘60s.

He and fellow teammate Kelvin (Special K) Hildreth take the mentor idea even further by running their own “Smooth and Special” basketball camps in Los Angeles for boys and girls ages 7 to 16, during and after the season.

“We teach the fundamentals of basketball and try to stress the importance of education and drug awareness,” Forbes said. “We build on those two pillars.”

He and Hildreth also give time to Big Brothers of L.A., the Make a Wish Foundation, Guadalupe Homes for Boys, Athletes and Entertainers for Kids and “last year, me and Kelvin started Athletes for Troubled Youth, where athletes go to youth facilities like Juvenile Hall and try to let kids know their lives aren’t over just because they made mistakes.”

Forbes wants to pass on the kind of support he received from his family--a sister, “who helps me with my camps” and who as a high school city all-star “beat up on me on the basketball court,” his mother, “the big influence in my education”--he holds a business marketing degree from Southwest Texas State University--and his father, who patiently gave him the foundation he needed in his sport “without ever pushing.”