Sports

Globetrotters back to its origins
by Claudia Sonea

The Harlem Globetrotters is an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism and comedy. Created by Abe Saperstein in 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, the team took the name of Harlem due to the major Afro-American community. They played more than 20000 exhibition games in 118 countries, mostly against teams that were intentionally bad like Washington Generals (1953- 1995) and New York Nationals (1995- present). On Tuesday, they ended one of the longest tours in basketball history and they played for the first time in 20 years in the black neighborhood of Harlem, New York. In front of 500 students at the Harlem Armory Center they defeated once more the Washington Generals with a score of 54 to 50. The entire game was foreplay to the upcoming tour "Magic as Ever" and introduced new players like Special K, The Blenda and Sweet Pea. Tex Harrison, 74, a former Globetrotter from 1954 to 1972 said it's amazing and he reminds everything about the game: their usual tricks of sinking very long shots, funny dribbling and the always crowd-pleasing water-bucket custom in which a bucket of confetti is tossed onto the crowd. In order to catch up with the times, the 81 year old team will launch a reality show looking for the next Globetrotter, according to the official statement of Kurt Schneider, chief executive of the team. Moreover they already elected five players to compete in June for a place in the team. Sun Ming Ming, a 7-foot-9 (2.36-meters) player from China will be one of the contestants. Don't wait anymore, start booking a ticket for the grand opening on 15 November in Sacramento, California, with a four game stand. Enjoy!

related story: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20071009/ten-uk-harlem-globetrotters-90f61ed_2.html

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

posted by Blog TechSource @ 5:42 PM