Full-Court Entertainers

They’re pro athletes who don’t spit on refs, punch opposing team members or abuse fans; they’re funny, as American as apple pie and a slam-dunk crowd-pleaser from Iceland to Zimbabwe.

To the strains of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” the red-white-and-blue-uniformed Harlem Globetrotters are in town this weekend with their newest entertainment spectacular.

A show for all ages, the team’s “What Sports Should Be” world tour is a mix of family-oriented, rib-tickling comedy, a hot new musical score, lavish theatrical trimmings and what may surprise some: world-class professional basketball.

Indeed, this 71-year-old, groundbreaking team--Times sports columnist Jim Murray wrote that “no team in history has done more for its sport”--is made up of skilled basketball players who are also skilled entertainers, not “clowns,” who play basketball, said owner Mannie Jackson.

A former Globie and nationally prominent business leader who bought the team in 1993, Jackson is making the restoration of its athletic credibility his mission.

“We have three audiences--the kids who are just being introduced to professional sports and who watch the entertainment side of it,” Jackson said. “Then there are athletes who want to know if these guys really can jump as high or run as fast and do the stuff they say they can do. And there’s always the dad or someone sitting there wondering how good these guys would be against the best in the world.

“We’ve tried to develop our credibility across these three areas. We’ve played the best college All-Americans, with first-round draft picks [in 1997] and we beat them pretty easily, and we’ve challenged the Dream Team [the pros who will play in the 2000 Olympics] to play us. And in terms of exhibition--with our world record holders in the slam-dunk and our dribblers and ball handlers--we challenge anyone to try to top the records we have.”

What isn’t going to change, Jackson stressed, is the commitment these internationally known “ambassadors of goodwill” have to well represent the U.S. and to be seen as role models for youth.

“We always have an emphasis on being model citizens. We live it day by day,” said Jackson, who decries bad sportsmanship and “salary structures and promotion of league sports that have gone beyond being rational.”

“We’re not putting ourselves on a pedestal and saying we’re perfect, but we’re always trying to do the right thing.”

To that end, there has to be more to a Globetrotter candidate than basketball prowess, including the ability to care about other people, Jackson noted. Training camp is only half basketball; “the rest of the time we’re evaluating behaviors and attitudes and speaking abilities and how well they adapt to our format.

“We don’t trade bad kids for good basketball players,” he said.

One player who epitomizes what the Globetrotters stand for, according to Jackson, is Orlando “Hurricane” Antigua, the team’s first Latino player and the first non-African American team member since 1943.

“He’s a role model for all of us,” Jackson said.

“It was a dream come true,” said Antigua, 25, about being signed to the Globetrotters in 1995. A star player for the University of Pittsburgh and recipient of the U.S. Basketball Writer’s Assn.’s “Most Courageous” award in 1994 (he was the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting as teenager), Antigua had idolized the team when he was growing up.

“My friends and I would go out afterward and try to do the things they were doing. It seemed so magical to me. For me to be doing it as an adult, to be able to be part of that image that is being transmitted to kids growing up now, has been unbelievable.”

“Being the first Latino to don the red-white-and-blue uniform, I mean, there’s no words to really put it into perspective,” he said. “And then, it not only allows me the opportunity to play the sport I love and travel the world, but I’m getting a chance to affect people in a positive way and leave kids and families with a positive image, not only of basketball, but of U.S. citizens wherever we go.”

Note to fans: This team doesn’t do a fast disappearing act after a game. Greeting audience members and signing autographs is a post-game priority.

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* The Harlem Globetrotters, Pond of Anaheim, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Saturday, 7:30 p.m., $9.50-$16.50, (714) 704-2500, (714) 740-2000, (213) 480-3232; Forum, 3900 Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, Sunday, 3 p.m., $9.50-$16.50, (310) 419-3257. $2 discount for seniors and ages 12 and under.