Globetrotters set to slam dunk RI

JAKARTA (JP): The legendary American basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters is to show off its prowess in four shows in Indonesia.

The first two exhibitions are scheduled for Oct. 29 and Oct. 30 at the Kertajaya Sports Hall, Surabaya, and the final two are to be on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 at the Senayan Basketball Hall, Jakarta.

Solikhin Kasum of the organizing committee told a press conference Monday that the exhibitions, sponsored by private TV channel RCTI and PT Medifarma Lab, are aimed at helping the public develop an appreciation of basketball.

The Globetotters, dubbed "the Magicians of Basketball," will perform the combination of basketball skills and stage performances they have shown to more than 100 million spectators in 113 countries in the past seven decades.

The team, recognized as the world's best basketball entertainers, have had its slam dunk records included in the Guinness Book of World Records.

It has also played basketball on ice, in a drained swimming pool and on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Solikhin said that the Americans' individual skills and well- knit teamwork, which are often blended with humor, can be a model for developing basketball and increasing the sport's popularity.

Solikhin said that the country's younger generation could learn from the team's technical skills during its visit.

The Globetrotters scheduled to perform in Indonesia, are Randall Neil Edney, Thomas A Gillespie Bennet, Morgan Kelley Klotz, Sean Boyle McGovern, Nathan Anthony O'Neil, David Michael Shrivers II, Anthony Demetrius Stewart and Douglas Kelley Stewart. (yan)