Photography provided by the Harlem Globetrotters
Just hearing the name Harlem Globetrotters will evoke bright images in the minds of anyone who attended a game when they were small: red-white-and-blue balls spinning on a child’s finger, acrobatic dunks, astonishing ball-handling tricks.
Thunder Law, a rookie on this year’s barnstorming squad, remembers watching the Globetrotters on TV as a kid. “I just thought it was magic; all those guys had magic,” Law says. He dunked for the first time in sixth grade, and he’s been working on a couple of original slams for the upcoming tour. You can see him in action at Scottrade Center (scottradecenter.com) on January 3.
The Globetrotters were recently purchased by Herschend Family Entertainment, the company that owns Branson’s Silver Dollar City. To prevent their shtick from getting stale, the Globetrotters have added three “never-before-seen revolutionary rules.”
For the “trick shot challenge,” coaches can throw NFL-style challenge flags to make their opponents perform stunt shots. The winner nets five points. In “make or miss,” each team starts a quarter with just two players. Make a shot, gain a teammate. Miss a shot, and you must leave the floor. And the “hot hand jersey” doubles the points of the player wearing it.
“We know we want to get the hot hand jersey on Ant Atkinson, who hit 22 four-pointers in a game,” Law says. Four-pointers, you say? Thirty-five-foot heaves worth eight points with the special jersey? That’s just how they play in Harlem.
