Harlem Globetrotters: America's Court Jesters | Full Documentary | Biography

hey everybody no problems in town you ain't seen  or heard nothing until you hear what we put down goose tatum marcus haynes  curly kneel meadowlark lemon   these clown princes have ruled  the court for over 70 years there was nothing else like them there's  never been anything like that in the world   together with their coach abe  saperstein they created one of   the most innovative basketball  teams the world has ever seen the big town welcomes the clown kings of  basketball the famous harlem globetrotters   in 1945 an 11 year old boy watched a movie  newsreel that changed his life he saw a   basketball team that played with such skill and  such joy that he knew one day he just had to be   a harlem globetrotter i guess that's where i got  my vision from that short clip my dream started   i knew where i was going i knew where i was  headed and i wasn't going to let anyone stop me as a child meadowlark lemon had heard of  basketball but he had never seen anyone play it   in the mid-1940s basketball's popularity  ran a distant third behind the older and   more established sports of baseball and football professional basketball had only caught on in  the early 1920s when neighborhood players began   forming barnstorming teams that toured the country  playing for money many of these early teams like   the cities they came from were divided strictly  along ethnic lines now you gotta understand   that all sports were segregated at that  time so basketball was no different than   any others so you would have the jewish team  here you would have the irish team here you   would have the black team here and again  because it was this urban community game   teams would develop in pockets in  neighborhoods and that's really the origin of basketball in many of the same neighborhoods where basketball  was taking shape a black cultural renaissance was   blossoming musicians like louis armstrong and duke  ellington had america swinging to a whole new beat   in chicago this revolution was being played  out in dance halls on the city's south side   by 1926 the savoy ballroom was looking for  a way to stand out from its competition   they thought this relatively  new sport of basketball   might draw in crowds for dancing after the game so  management brought in a local team and named them   the savoy big five players like tommy  brookings tootz wright and lester johnson   had played together at the all-black wendell  phillips high school on the south side of chicago   after graduating they formed a semi-professional  team and found themselves an unlikely coach a five   foot three jewish man named abe saperstein from  the beginning of his life saperstein was almost   always an outsider when abe was six years old  his father moved his family to america and opened   a tailor shop on the north side of chicago in  a predominantly irish and german neighborhood my dad and his family were the only  jewish family in the in the area that   that i'm aware of and i think that was a benefit  because he constantly i think had to prove himself   try a little harder work  a little harder and he did   saperstein grew up a self-confessed sports nun he  played baseball and basketball through high school   but he was too short to compete in college sports   after failing to make the basketball  team at the university of illinois   he dropped out and took a job as a playground  supervisor in chicago's park system   he was assigned to a small park on the south side  of chicago which was predominantly black and that   really gave him an opportunity for the first time  in his life to see the tremendous athletic ability   of black athletes and he really and truthfully  was this was a revelation to him he he felt that   this was what he wanted to do and what he wanted  to do was assemble a great basketball team and   he saw this as a great opportunity to do it here  saperstein met the original members of the savoy   big five they all shared a love for basketball and  were thrilled at the chance to make money playing but their big chance lasted less than  a month before management decided   the big five wasn't drawing the crowds they had  hoped for they replaced basketball with roller   skating and overnight the big five was left with  no place to play but abe saperstein had a plan he headed to his father's tailor shop  and asked him to design a set of uniforms   with the words new york across the front he  thought this would help him book local games   by giving the impression that his team had  come all the way from the glamorous big apple sapersteins new york hit the road to play  their first game in hinckley illinois   on january 7th 1927. tutzright  and his teammates won that night   and were so good that they went on to win 100  of their next 106 games but abe noticed that   midwesterners were less interested in his players  talent than they were in the color of their skin   when they arrived i'm sure they must have looked  fairly exotic there were not a lot of blacks   you know let's say west of chicago and a  lot of these smaller towns and it must have   been fairly exotic to see these guys come in  because most white americans never saw blacks   saperstein wanted to use this curiosity to his  advantage he decided to give his team a new name   one that would clearly let people  know that his players were black   so we looked to a neighborhood that was considered  the negro capital of the world he also thought the   team's name should give the impression that  they had been around so shortly after they   started touring saperstein's basketball quintet  from chicago became the harlem globetrotters life on the road for the early harlem  globetrotters was anything but glamorous   during the harsh midwestern winters of the  early 1930s all five players piled into   the back of abe saperstein's model t and  drove from game to game without any heat once they arrived at their location they  rarely earned more than 25 dollars a game   for the whole team abe split the profits seven  ways giving one share to each of his five players   and keeping two for himself twits right byron long  kid oliver inman jackson runt pullins and their   substitute abe saperstein played seven nights  a week just to make ends meet if you were   desperate enough as i think the saperstein and the  globetrotters were you would take to the road for   weeks at a time and try and drum up a game where  you could find it i mean it was not necessarily   an opponent waiting for you in the hell on  a montana the globetrotters took on anybody   who dared face them on the basketball court they  played lumberjacks in wood fiber british columbia   and farmers in wheatland iowa by 1934  they had turned out over 1 000 wins   not only were the trotters more talented than  their small town rivals they were playing   a whole new style of ball as white opponents  hurled two-handed set shots toward the basket   inman jackson was dunking the ball i  always liken the difference in black   and white players to the difference that  exists between say classical music and jazz white basketball like classical  music was very strict very formal   for instance you make five passes and then  you shoot well if you make four passes and   shoot then you violated the structure  that's wrong black basketball was very   free the rules the structure were simply  suggestions for you to improvise in the   same way that in jazz there was a group but the  soloist was given precedent to express themselves and like great jazz musicians the globetrotters  gave many white americans their first taste of   black culture for many people in the united  states in the late 20s 30s into the 40s   the globetrotters were perhaps the first  experience that that white americans would have   with blacks but they certainly advanced uh  advance the presence of black americans in in   a white society that was pretty cut off from them  pioneers like bernie price remember facing racism   every single day the kids used to  come up follow us everywhere we went   rubbing the skin see if it would rub off  you know and we didn't pay no attention   but when they said we couldn't eat and  couldn't sleep and never had problems   as the globetrotters traveled the nation  they played in many communities where jim   crow laws enforce strict separation between  whites and blacks once when the team played   in a nebraska town that had no so-called colored  hotel the players had to sleep in the county jail one year we were playing in the deep south and  uh you know we went downtown to the hotel to   try to get rooms and they turned us down so we  went back across the track found us a little   dinky motel and checked in and stayed there  but somewhere someone had taught a chimpanzee   how to bowl and that chimpanzee happened to  be traveling all around the united states   putting on bowling exhibitions now this  chimpanzee had the biggest suite in the   biggest hotel downtown and all the bananas he  could eat and that's when it really got home   to me hold it here we are human beings and here's  our chimpanzee getting treated better than we are   in some ways the globetrotter's owner  didn't handle his players much better   in 1939 four players refused to play unless  aid gave them more of a voice in team policy   rather than giving in to their demands saperstein  simply cut the rebels and brought in four rookies   he had no intention of letting his  players tell him how to run his ball club the globetrotters may not have had much  power off the court but on the court they   were practically unstoppable executing plays no  one had ever seen in a basketball game before   the fellas would try to have fun with the  opposing players once the game was in hand   and they know that they were winning so they would  spend the ball on their finger make a trick pass   and they did notice that while  performing some of these attics   the other players were able to rest their  legs and catch their breath for a moment   even more importantly they noticed  that the crowd began to laugh   in fact the more the globetrotters clowned  around the more whites seemed to accept them   it was harder for the globetrotters to get games  being a black team and particularly being a good   black team i mean it was one thing to play  a black team instead of out of the goodness   of your heart and to sell a few seats it  was another thing to get your tail whipped   and so if the globetrotters could amuse  people then that got their foot in the door   these guys do humor but they can play so they  are the clowns they are the man tan more lands   the willy bests of basketball yeah yeah come  on come on come on come on come on come here   over here here you go hey boy that kind of thing   but you also knew that that ball had to go  in the basket and that was the climax so you   could do whatever you want to around here but to  finish the joke the ball had to go on the basket and the ball kept going into the basket even as  the trotters moved on to playing better teams   by the early 1940s they had moved out  of small town america and began playing   exhibitions against other professional  teams like the new york celtics   the globetrotters were becoming one of the best  known teams in america thanks largely to one man   rhys goose tatum i would say  reese goose tatum in my book   is the greatest globetrotter ever come along one  of the most famous globetrotters of all time got   his start not in basketball but baseball tatum  played first base for the indianapolis clowns   a negro league team famous for their hijinks on  the baseball diamond it took tatum a few years   to hone his basketball skills but once he did he  became the first true clown prince of basketball   there was a slight air of anarchy to him in  that you didn't quite know what he was going   to do was he going to pull down the pants of of  one of his opponents was he going to make fun   of somebody was he going to laugh uproariously a  lot of big smiles a lot of elbows a lot of knees   he just knew how to project himself he had long  arms big hands and he could handle the ball   reach out with one hand and pass from his wrist if  he didn't do that he would take it twist his wrist   and he would push off with his  left hand and he would holler round two points the six foot three inch tatum  was more than a clown he was a ringmaster   directing his team through routines  that would become globetrotter classics the most popular part of the globetrotter act was  the magic circle a quick paced passing routine   inspired by a baseball warm-up game called  pepper in the late 40s the trotters decided to   put their version of the routine to music they  found the perfect tune when their halftime act   an artist named brother bones suggested  his rendition of sweet georgia brown the song and the magic circle were a  perfect fit and have been linked ever since in 1946 saperstein hired langston university  standout marcus haynes at a time when players   rarely dribbled the ball more than three times in  a row haynes could dribble the ball three times a   second well marcus haynes was and i guess perhaps  still is one of the world's greatest dribblers   and was a great basketball player  marcus could have been in the nba   long time if there was room in the nba forum but  the year that marcus haynes joined the trotters   most of the teams that would later form the  nba had an unwritten rule against signing   black players well the the nba was a white boy  club and many players in the league thought you   had your place to play and we have our place to  play it's kind of like you have your bathroom   we have our bathroom wasn't more complicated  than that comparisons inevitably arose could   the clowning globetrotters compete in a serious  basketball game against a traditional white teen   abe saperstein realized that thousands of  people would buy tickets to learn the answer   so in 1948 he challenged the  world champion minneapolis lakers   led by superstar george miken to a  one game showdown winner take all it wasn't like the nc2a final  four it wasn't like the playoffs   this was kind of a societal thing happening right  before your eyes if you were participating in it   you were carrying a big load i just you  were gonna make a jump shot that night   but you were gonna make a statement  for this thing called democracy   up to that point the 610 miken and his lakers were  the most dominant team in professional basketball   few people thought the globetrotters had  a chance but from the opening tip-off the   globetrotters dropped their clowning and showed  they could play straight basketball with anybody for 40 minutes the trotters and the  lakers fought tooth and nail then in   the closing seconds with the score tied  59 all the globetrotters irma robinson   put up a 20-foot set shot well that night uh  20 000 people in chicago saw that the harlem   globetrotters could play the best in the land  and beat them the globetrotters came and beat   the team considered to be the best and in essence  what they were doing was saying to america we are   very much a part of this society and you will  be forced to deal with us one way or the other the globetrotters made history by defeating  the world champion minneapolis lakers in 1948   a year later over 20 000 fans in chicago  stadium saw them do it again by beating   the best the nba had to offer the globetrotters  sent a clear message to the newly formed league   any general manager in the nba or any owner  would have been a fool to miss the implications   that the harlem globetrotters could come out and   play dead even with the minneapolis  lakers the champions of the nba jackie robinson had broken baseball's  long-standing color line in 1947.   three years later the nba realized it was time  to open its doors to african americans the   first black player to sign an nba contract  was a globetrotter the six foot seven nat   sweetwater clifton sweetwater probably  was the best athlete of all time sweets   was a hell of a basketball player i mean he  was just terrific he was a great rebounder   great pair of hands sweetwall was quite  a character quite a character and and   he loved to make people happy and loved  this thing called the harlem globetrotters   clifton had joined the trotters in 1947  but over the next three years he had   grown increasingly frustrated with  the way saperstein was treating him   in 1950 clifton learned that saperstein  was paying a group of college all-stars   touring with the trotters more  than he was paying his own players sweetwater turned bitter and  threatened to leave the team   what he didn't know was that the new  york knicks had approached saperstein   to buy out his contract you know abe was quite  an egotistical individual he had the best black   basketball players in the united states they  were all on the harlem globetrotters and to   know that the nba wanted one of his ball players  was something that he relished in uh it fed his   ego so they'd say well i can solve two problems  i can send a harlem globetrotter to the nba i can   receive some compensation and then this little  bickering that sweets and i have will be over   saperstein claimed that he'd sold  clifton's contract to the knicks   for five thousand dollars and gave sweetwater   half years later clifton learned that the  knicks actually paid saperstein 20 dollars abe would have viewed himself as sweets  agent so you call the transfer fee   if you will the fact is i think  sweet was misled i think he was upset   i think abe should have been kinder  and more respectful in that situation clifton and a few other african  americans went on to experience   great success in the early nba clifton  drops it in to put his team ahead   but it would be years before there  was true equality in the league   back then there was still a color line i think  most of the players that at least the black   players that played on the team i think there  was a minimum maybe one or two max on each team   the globetrotters were instrumental in helping to  establish the fledgling nba in the late 1940s the   nba struggled to fill a few thousand seats while  the globetrotters played to packed houses the nba   often asked the trotters to play a double bill  just to help build up interest in the new league   i think i was nine years old and my father took me  to see the harlem globetrotters and we were way up   top at the philadelphia arena and i laughed and  they made baskets and they played the first game   and i didn't know there was a second game because  as soon as the globetrotter game was over there   was a stampede to leave i think the philadelphia  warriors must have played in front of about 700   people after that in the early 1950s when the  nba was still struggling to get off the ground   goose tatum marcus haynes and the rest  of the globetrotters starred in not one   but two of their own hollywood movies the harlem  globetrotters and go man go introduced america's   greatest basketball show to a whole new audience  not just in this country but around the world   the trotters had become more than just basketball  players they were full-fledged entertainers   audiences from morocco to  manila flocked to the theaters   in 1952 saperstein decided it was  time to make good on the team's name   and travel the globe during the team's 25th  anniversary season the globetrotters packed their   bags and set off on a five-month 52 000 mile tour  around the world the response was overwhelming they had heard of the globetrotters they  had seen the newsreels they had read about   the globetrotters and tens of thousands of  people turned out to see the globetrotters   in london at the wembley empire stadium in paris  at the palais de sport in rome at fourier italico   these were the biggest venues in europe and  it was just a phenomenal phenomenal response   there was nothing else like them there's  never been anything like that in the world   nothing i mean it's like imagining that   michael jordan was also you know eddie murphy  at the same time that's what these guys were what began as a five-month tour  became a globetrotter way of life   for years to come they traveled  from large cities to small villages   and everywhere in between few places they  visited had ever seen the game of basketball   even fewer had a proper court for them to  play on as the trotters toured the world   a regulation basketball court became an almost  distant memory wherever there's a basketball fan   we'll find a surface to play on to entertain  that fan that's what we're all about when the   globetrotters played in stuttgart germany they had  put a floor so that the audience could see them   they raised it off the floor with beer barrels we  played right out in the middle of a cow pasture in   christchurch new zealand cologne germany bottom  of the swimming pool barcelona spain bull ring   the bull fighter in it and i'm the one who  was a dribbler so i had to dribble in the   bulls we played in all kinds of weather cold  rain stormy but uh you know the show went on the globetrotters brought their star-spangled show  to all corners of the globe and spread good cheer   every step along the way to  honor their diplomatic efforts   the u.s state department proclaimed the  harlem globetrotters ambassadors of goodwill   well uh would you believe i've had tea  with queen elizabeth and prince philip   i've had caviar with the late nikita khrushchev  i've had private audiences with the late pope   pius the late pope john and the president pope  john paul i played roulette in monte carlo   and i even finished getting my suntan on the  french river era so you put all that together and   that just about embodies what all of this travel  has meant and done to me as a harlem globetrotter the globetrotters were spreading goodwill abroad   but within the organization dissension  was building between abe and his players as more black players got contracts with the nba   some of saperstein's stars began  questioning his business practices   my father had some excellent relationships with  with individuals and and i think he had some very   tenuous relationships with others my father was of  a different age in a different time and sometimes   he would do things that people might interpret  as paternalism or not treating people properly   apes said that negroes didn't need as  much money as the white man needed why   see uh and i asked abe not to ever say that  to me again because i had uh family and if   i go out to buy a bottle of milk for my family  it's gonna cost me the same thing as it cost him   in 1953 marcus haynes quit the  team over a contract dispute   two years later goose tatum also became unhappy  with saperstein and left with goose and marcus   gone abe had lost two of his biggest stars and  some wondered if the globetrotters could carry on   in the late 1950s the harlem  globetrotters were so popular   and had so many great players that abe saperstein  put four teams on the road at any given time   as an organization the trotters played more  games than the entire nba but times were changing   and abe saperstein's monopoly on black players  was quickly coming to an end in 1956 one of the   most dominant college basketball players in the  country was the university of san francisco's   bill russell saperstein visited san francisco to  court the foot nine and a half inch center but   would only talk business with the player's  white coach outraged russell said that if   he wasn't smart enough for abe saperstein to  talk to then he was too smart to play for him   i don't have a doubt that he was racist i think  he was a product of of his times i think that   they were running a factory he probably  had a white fountain and a black fountain   i think that he would have done  all the things that were acceptable   in our society at that time but i also believe  that somehow another he saw a bigger picture   i think he also knew clearly what his  product was and his product was putting   a black basketball team on the floor that could  perform and entertain better than anyone else   saperstein lost bill russell to the boston celtics   but coming up the ranks was a young  player who had been working his whole life   just to become a harlem globetrotter his name  was meadowlark lemon meadowlark learned to play   basketball by shooting an old carnation milk  can through a wire hanger he shaped into a hoop   lemon practiced every single day hoping that  one day he would get his chance to play with his   childhood idols the harlem globetrotters it was  a dream come true for me i started when i was 11.   and by the time i was 22 23 i was ready even after  he made the team meadowlark never stopped working   to be the best nothing came natural i had to work  at it i was caught i worked on the court off the   court and meadow was determined he was going to be  better than goose and so meadow used to practice a   lot and after the game was over i wanted to go to  sleep at night he'd be practicing all this stuff   keeping me awake he was a great roommate otherwise  but he worked hard sometimes to my consternation   doesn't matter you gotta you know you're all right  you're gonna be all right just go to bed you know   meadowlark's hard work paid off in 1958 he  landed the role of clown prince a job he held   for the next 20 years when meadow went into  the game the tempo of the game increased   he pretty much directed what he wanted done how  he wanted it done and when he wanted it done   and he kept the tempo of the game going i can remember playing with metal art i  didn't want to miss a minute of this show   and i must have sat there for 500 maybe  a thousand games and i'm never tired of   watching him do what he did every night shortly  after meadowlark took his place in the spotlight   he was joined by a man who would become one of  the biggest globetrotter attractions of all time   the seven foot one philadelphia  phenom wilt chamberlain saperstein signed chamberlain to a one-year  contract and took him around the world you know wilt played god with the harlem  globetrotters and i guess he's the first and last   seven foot guard in the game of basketball  but we wanted him to handle the ball more   because that's what the people came to see wilt  later said that the most fun he ever had playing   basketball was with the harlem globetrotters but  after fulfilling his one-year contract he left   to play competitively in the nba which by now was  attracting more and more african-american players   while abe paid his average player about four  thousand dollars a season nba stars were making   at least five times that much superstars like  oscar robertson and elgin baylor opted for the   money and the prestige of the nba without even  considering the globetrotters it was only when   the nba began to get better and began to attract  the same black athletes who once upon a time had   gone to the harlem globetrotters that there became  no real need for the globetrotters except as a   comic jack before that the globetrotters had been  comedy and drama and now they just became comedy   the globetrotters had been performing many  of the same routines for over 20 years by the mid to late 60s the civil  rights movement had evolved into   a demand for a stronger black identity to some the globetrotter's style of comedy  seemed like a throwback to an uncomfortable past they were very stereotypical they were coming they  were rolling their eyes they were scratching their   head they were laughing at things that weren't  funny and there came a time when people would no   longer accept that there came a time politically  when those images were called into question when   they were rejected by a whole new generation of  african-americans i used to hear about that and   i'm like well it's a job basically what it was it  was a job and i thought of it as a job at the time   but a lot of people thought it was uh uncle tom  and i guess the terminals used to be back then   you know but you also have to understand that  if if the negro players were the uncle toms   what were the white people this is the thing  that has to knock you out saperstein gets   five white people to be the straight men and  look foolish and not know where the ball is and   the guy says hop and the white guy turns and the  black guy makes the basket and the people laugh the straight man known at various times as the  washington generals the boston shamrocks the   atlantic city seagulls and the new jersey reds  have been touring with the globetrotters since   1952. saperstein asked his friend red klotz to  develop a team that would play the globetrotters   as competitively as possible with one exception  they had to allow uncontested passes to meadowlark   or whoever was running the show when you played  against the washington generals that was a team   that you played against every night their  job was to lose and they were very good at it   even though it was clear that the trotters weren't  going to lose saperstein never stopped taking his   role of coach seriously much more seriously  than the players did i saw this little man   about five foot nothing and he started to talk  to how to play the game of basketball which i   thought was amusing because i already know how to  play the game of basketball i think he could tell   me how to play basketball but he was going  to sign a check so i listened very intently   through his mid-60s saperstein sat on  the team bench every chance he could   he had dedicated his entire life to making the  globetrotters the world's greatest basketball show   on march 15 1966 as the team approached its  40th anniversary saperstein suffered a fatal   heart attack he was 63 years old i felt that  the world had lost somebody big and important   because at one time a lot of black ball players  couldn't get jobs and he offered us jobs gave us   an opportunity to play the globetrotters were once  the most dominant basketball team in the country   but by the late 1960s the professional  game was passing them by threatened with   extinction the trotters were forced to reinvent  themselves or fade completely off the map in 1970 the globetrotters appeared in  their own saturday morning cartoon show   and became superheroes for a  whole new generation of fans   their visibility transcended basketball  at this point the fact that they were   celebrities had become more important than  the fact that they were basketball players the real-life trotters were still packing the  crowds in but they were no longer the only game   in town the nba was joined by the upstart aba  with its flashy red white and blue ball and even   flashier style of play the globetrotters were  virtually eclipsed by competitive professional   teams that seem to be using moves lifted from  the pages of an old globetrotter playbook   you look at the fast break offense that you see in  basketball today it started with the globetrotters   the weave offense the no look passes it all  started with the harlem globetrotters the fancy   dribbling the crossover dribbling that you see  popularized in the nba started with marcus haynes   the globetrotters were the first to  bring this black style to the public   and over time the nba was able to  incorporate this style or the aba   was able to incorporate what had become the  extension of this style in this competitive arena   the globetrotters were no longer  a force in competitive basketball   when meadowlark lemon left the team in 1978 the  trotters were left without a marquee entertainer   for the first time in almost 40 years by the  mid-1980s the harlem globetrotters had lost   more than 75 percent of its  audience from the previous decade they managed briefly to make headlines in 1985  when they signed lynette woodard to the team   woodard became the first woman to play on  a regular basis with a men's professional   basketball team so they were able to you know make  a bit of noise when they signed lynette woodard   but they were not able to do much more than this  because the fan base and the cultural significance   had completely evaporated in 1993 former player  manny jackson purchased the team he became the   first african american in the country to  own a major sports team he hoped to turn   around a dying institution by returning  the globetrotters to their athletic roots in 1997 jackson revived an old saperstein  tradition by scheduling a game against   the college all-stars he hedged his  bets by putting magic johnson in a   red white and blue uniform for the game the  globetrotters beat the all-stars 126 126-114   but the victory attracted very little attention  some say it's because their time had passed   there was a time when the best basketball  was being played on the harlem globetrotters   and if you were a player that's where you  wanted to be but eventually the time came   when the best basketball was being played in  the nba or the aba so there's a point at which   the globe trout as i will say definitely  started to become passage or not today's   globetrotters can still make people smile just  as they've been doing for more than seven decades i think the globetrotters were an important  part of sports i mean we've got to remember   that for a long long time in this century the  globetrotters were the only team that anybody knew   they in a way sort of carried  the sport on their backs they had the dream team couple years back but  we've been america's dream team for 73 years   nobody never knows the score but everybody knows  that they had a good time when you come to see   us we're going to do something to make you happy  make you laugh and make you forget your trials and   tribulations of everyday living and you'll go home  knowing you had the greatest time of your life   there's no one in the world that can  do that like a harlem globetrotter   as long as there's a ball the ball is round  the globetrotters will continue bouncing yes that was that shot all right you

Channel: Biography

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Keywords: history, bio, biography, Harlem Globetrotters bio, Harlem Globetrotters, harlem, basketball, entertainment, sports, black history month, aetv, telephone, boating, driving, intervention, voice, full biography, bio channel, biography channel, biography tv, documentary, biography documentary channel, the biography channel, biography documentary, biographies, biography channel documentary, biography a&e, documentaries, biography of famous people, America's Court Jesters, Clown Princes of Basketball

Id: EV_YTl1rkj8

Length: 43min 56sec (2636 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/ReasonableReasonably]

I grew up in the time when the Globetrotters had become just a novelty act. They were fun to watch but the NBA was real pro basketball. I had no idea of their history or their influence on the game.