Harlem Globetrotters' antics delight fans

Harlem Globetrotters' antics delight fans

JAKARTA (JP): Basketball refers to far more than just the big
National Basketball Association (NBA) stars, like the Chicago
Bulls' Michael Jordan, Los Angeles Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal or
Houston Rockets' Hakeem Olajuwon.

All real basketball fans are familiar with the name of the
Harlem Globetrotters -- the team whose cartoon was broadcast on
Indonesian TV many years ago.

Jakartans had the opportunity to witness firsthand the special
style of the "Magicians of Basketball" when the team played to a
capacity crowd in the Jakarta Convention Center Plenary Hall on
Saturday and Sunday night.

The Harlem Globetrotters, founded in 1926 by Abe Saperstein,
fulfilled the promise made last week that the team would emulate
the style of the famous boxer, Muhammad Ali, to "float like a
butterfly and sting like a bee". The team pleased 4,000
spectators, with players' antics prompting regular ripples of
laughter.

The Globetrotters started the fun with their traditional 30-
minute Magic Circle warm-up, which was accompanied by the song
Sweet Georgia Brown. They also showed off their slam-dunks, the
basketball maneuver which the team had popularized decades
before.

The 10 players -- Michael "Wild Thing" Wilson, Wun "The Shot"
Versher, James "Jumbo" Bacon, Paul "Showtime" Gaffney, Daron
Jenkins, Curley "Boo" Johnson, Townsend Orr, Spencer "The Doctor"
Rhynes, Clyde "The Glide" Sinclair and Michael St Julien -- then
made a circle and each span the ball in turn.

Communication between the players and spectators was a key to
capturing the audience's complete attention.

Gaffney, the team's forward, demonstrated how he earned his
nickname, Showtime. The 28-year-old "Clown Prince of Basketball"
amazed the audience, especially the children.

The crowd enjoyed his attempts to provoke the referees, Larry
Burton and Jimi Polous, by making fun of them behind their backs.

Another Globetrotters' star, Johnson, dubbed the Fastest
Dribbler, managed to dribble while sitting, sliding and stooping.

The duet impressed the audience, who paid Rp 30,000 (US$12.7)
to attend the show which was organized by the IMG and sponsored
by Enervon-C and the commercial RCTI TV channel.

Unfortunately, Gaffney failed to shoot the ball using a
pitcher movement. Despite multiple attempts, he was unable to
execute the trick.

"Everybody misses shots sometimes. We can't make every shot
but we're so glad Showtime was very good. Hopefully tomorrow
he'll make more shots. It could have been better if he'd made
those shots," coach Charles Tex Harrison, who visited Indonesia
as a player about 30 years ago, said after Saturday's show.

Although most spectators were satisfied with the show, a few
were disappointed.

"It's boring. The attraction does not hold any surprises for
me," said Tuti Gunawan, the national women's team defense player.

Her comment was possibly the expression of the nation's
basketball aspirations. How long will we watch the skills of
foreign players without being able to perform to the same
standard ourselves?

Maybe our problems stem from a generation which is interested
in basketball because it wants to look like the Globetrotters or
the NBA players without paying attention to technical skills.

"Clothes come first, success may come later", may be what this
generation has in mind.

While in Indonesia, the Globetrotters, whose new animated
cartoon will air on the TNT Cartoon Network, have also visited 12
orphanages and several high schools for coaching clinics. (yan)