Still Hot to ‘Trot

It was the opening seconds of the second half of a basketball game at Michigan State in November when a panic, of sorts, swept through the sold-out Breslin Center.

The Harlem Globetrotters, clown princes of basketball and international ambassadors of goodwill, had taken a 37-29 lead over the defending national champion Spartans. And while it was merely an exhibition, Michigan State’s 28-game home-court winning streak was in jeopardy.

Weren’t the Globetrotters supposed to be throwing confetti out of water buckets at fans and hiding the basketball under someone’s jersey while playing keep-away with the referees? Just what in the world were the guys in the red, white and blue uniforms thinking by playing a serious game and taking it to the Spartans, in their house no less? The Michigan State fans were confounded.

“They booed us,” Globetrotter owner and chairman Mannie Jackson said with a satisfied laugh. “We’ve been to Beirut and China and they rooted for us there.

“But [at Michigan State] the fans were like ‘Oh, damn, these guys are pretty good.’ So they booed us.”

Oh, sure, the Globetrotters planned on performing their ritualistic routines and putting on a show against the Spartans. But “Sweet Georgia Brown” wouldn’t play over the arena’s sound system and the Globetrotters wouldn’t break out the gags, the magic circle or the three-man weave until building what they considered a safe lead of 10-15 points.

It didn’t happen.

Michigan State stormed back and prevailed, 72-68, ending the Globetrotters’ five-year, 1,270-game winning streak.

“We just lost momentum,” Jackson said. “And then the officials took control of the game.”

Bitter? Not Jackson. Playing competitive games actually follows his plan. Since taking over the franchise in 1993, the former Globetrotter player has made it his mission to tweak the team’s reputation. Through competitive affairs such as the Michigan State game, Jackson wants the world to see his team not only as lovable showmen,

but to admire the Globetrotters as one of the most respected competitive squads on the globe.

Today, however, the Globetrotters will be in full entertainment mode for their doubleheader against the New York Nationals, the modern-day Washington Generals, at the Forum (2 p.m.) and the Arrowhead Pond (7:30 p.m.) and Thursday at Staples Center (7 p.m.).

Celebrating their 75th year, the Globetrotters have three teams visiting more than 200 cities during the 2000-2001 tour, which began in mid-December and will last through mid-April.

Wun “The Shot” Versher, a native of Compton who played collegiately at Arizona State, plays on both the competitive and entertainment teams. Versher is an advance ambassador for the Globetrotters, hitting cities before the team arrives, as he did here last week with Orlando “Hurricane” Antigua, the first Latino Globetrotter.

“It was different but a good thing, a change of pace,” Versher said of the team’s three-game college tour in the fall. “We’re not only the clown princes of basketball or the magicians of basketball, we’re a good team.”

Neither Versher, 30, nor Antigua, 28, planned on becoming Globetrotters.

“I didn’t think I was good enough to be a Globetrotter,” Versher said, “I didn’t think they were human.”

Antigua agreed.

“First and foremost, we’re skilled basketball players,” said Antigua, who was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the Bronx. “But I remember, as a little kid, seeing them on ‘Scooby Doo’ and ‘Gilligan’s Island’ and the ‘Wide World of Sports’ and ‘The Love Boat.’ They were more like superheroes to me than a team. To think that somewhere in this world there’s a kid looking up to me the same way I looked up to them, that’s a phenomenal feeling.”

It’s a feeling the team has earned over the years, having visited with presidents and popes, bringing smiles to young and old, black and white. It’s still what the Globetrotters are about, at heart.

Paul “Showtime” Gaffney has assumed the throne of Goose Tatum, Meadowlark Lemon, Geese Ausby and Sweet Lou Dunbar as Master Showman. And while Gaffney enjoys the competitive side, he said the Globetrotter experience should serve as a microcosm of society.

“For those two hours that people come to a Globetrotter game, there’s no racial differences, no financial differences, no sexual differences,” Gaffney said. “It’s just people having a good time, and that’s how the world should be.”

Buckets of confetti are expected to be emptied on fans here. But that doesn’t mean the gag has lost its charm.

“I’ve seen [the confetti-in-a-bucket routine] 10,000 times and I’m amazed that people still laugh at it,” said Jackson, who was a Globetrotter from 1965-68. “But I don’t like it when we are seen as just an act or when people say, ‘The clowns are coming back to town.’ It’s demeaning.

“We’re a great barnstorming team that’s entertaining. We are a legitimate team.”

Purdue found that out two days after the Michigan State game. The Globetrotters beat the Boilermakers by nine points, 74-65, giving the Globetrotters a 2-1 record against college competition last fall. They began the tour with a 76-69 victory over Metro State College of Denver, the 2000 Division II national champions. Since 1950, the Globetrotters are 153-66 against college competition and will face the NABC All-Stars, a group of college seniors, at this year’s Final Four in Minneapolis.

“The competitive juices are always flowing, even in the exhibitions,” said Antigua, who played college ball at Pittsburgh. “I mean, you still have to play D, box out, contest shots. Even when we’re in the entertainment aspect, you have to stay mentally sharp.”

The evolution of the Globetrotters has actually taken them back to their roots.

When the Globetrotters began their run under Abe Saperstein on Jan. 7, 1927, in Hinckley, Ill., they were strictly a barnstorming competitive squad, forced to take that route because of the segregation of the day. The trickery and high jinks didn’t become Globetrotter staples until 1939, when the team, beating some poor opponent, 112-5, started to clown around on the court. Thus was born the show.

But the Globetrotters would continue to play competitive games over the years, beating the NBA champion Minneapolis Lakers and center George Mikan in 1948 and 1949. Even Wilt Chamberlain played with the Globetrotters for a season before beginning his NBA career.

More recently, the Globetrotters, who have played before more than 120 million fans in 115 countries, added Magic Johnson to their roster for a game against a group of college all-stars on April 19, 1997. The Magic-led Globetrotters beat a team that included nine NBA draft picks, including Charles O’Bannon, Jacque Vaughn, Kelvin Cato and Scot Pollard, 126-114.

In 1998, the Globetrotters won the Los Angeles Summer Pro League before traveling to Beirut to play the top four teams from the Lebanese Basketball Federation in a single game. Facing a different team each quarter, the Globetrotters won handily, 120-71.

Before losing to Michigan State, the Globetrotters’ previous loss was on Sept. 12, 1995, when the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Legendary All-Stars beat them, 91-85, in Vienna during an 11-game European tour. Before that, the Globetrotters had not lost since Jan. 5, 1971.

Jackson, who was born in a railway boxcar in Illmo, Mo., and became senior vice president of Honeywell Inc., revels in blending sports and entertainment with the Globetrotters.

“It’s like a painting,” Jackson said. “You see different things depending upon when you came into the Globetrotter picture. It’s about a balance of great entertainment, competitive games and keeping it all fan- and kid-friendly.”

Jackson, who was the first African-American captain and All-American at Illinois in the early ‘60s, said he has received nothing but positive feedback from elder Globetrotters since the team’s swerve to more competitive ball.

Plus, a movie with Columbia Pictures based on the historical impact of the Globetrotters is in the works, as is a Broadway musical with Disney.

“We had a reunion in January in Chicago and you could just see it in their faces,” Jackson said. “In the past, there was a lot of bitterness about who they were and how they were portrayed.

“Everybody loves the respect aspect [that comes with competitive games]. There was a lot more swagger when we won the L.A. summer league.”

Even if it makes the Globetrotters not so lovable and a target to opposing teams?

“Oh yeah,” Antigua said. “Everybody wants to beat the Globetrotters.”