Globetrotters vow to sting like bees

JAKARTA (JP): The Harlem Globetrotters, dubbed the "Magicians of Basketball", arrived here from Surabaya yesterday for their entertainment shows on Saturday and Sunday.

The team of 10 promised that they will perform basketball feats the likes of which people would never have imagined.

"We'll make you happy, we'll make you laugh and we'll make you have a good time," coach Charles Tex Harrison said yesterday.

"We'll float like a butterfly and sting like a bee," he added, "Our spectators will have the best basketball show they'll ever see."

The shows, which will last for about two hours, feature a match between the Globetrotters and a team of International All- Stars at the Jakarta Convention Center Plenary Hall.

Curley "Boo" Johnson, Wun "The Show" Versher, Paul "Showtime" Gaffney and Clyde "The Glide" Sinclair performed their skills yesterday during the press conference.

The Globetrotters, who have come from Australia and New Zealand, visited the Vincentius and Muhammadiyah orphanages before having dinner at the Regent hotel.

Founded in 1926, the club has two teams, each comprising 10 players.

"They have to be very good players. It's easier for tall players than shorter ones to join us," Harrison said.

Good players usually join the team for between 12 and 18 years. However those with only average skills last for eight to 10 years.

The Globetrotters have entertained more than 100 million spectators in 113 countries. They do not only perform the show on a basketball court but also on ice rinks, dry swimming pools, the Olympic Stadium in Berlin and once on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

The team, which goes to Japan next week, is the sixth generation. Harrison said that TNT Cartoon Network will broadcast the Globetrotters new cartoon series in March 1997.

Ary Sudarsono, a former official of the Indonesian Basketball Association, said that the team is due to visit several high schools in the city for coaching clinics.

"It's the best way to make young people like basketball," he said.

"The youths should not only know basketball as a game, where they can win or lose, but also as a means of entertainment," said Ary, host of a sports program on the privately owned RCTI TV channel.

Tickets for the shows, which are sponsored by Enervon-C, cost Rp 30,000 (US$12.8) each. (yan)