About a week ago, Kerry asked me if I would take Ethan to a fundraising event at one of the local high schools. Apparently, the student body government was doing a fundraiser by having the Harlem Globetrotters play against a team of teachers and students. I thought, "Sure, I'll take him." (OK, so I was really like, "Hot diggity!! That'll be suh-weet!!")
All day yesterday I caught myself whistling their jingle. I was genuinely looking forward to it. I mean, come on. Basketball tricks and slapstick comedy? Two fun things. Put them together and ka-blamo, you got yourself an evening full of family-fun hijinks. Buckets full of confetti and the opposing team getting pantsed to the point of indecent exposure. Ahh, the nostalgia was palpable. Nevermind that I had the nagging thought that the Globies must be having some rough times to be booking such soup-line-esque gigs.
Ethan and I were walking up to the school and there it was by the entrance, the tour "trailer." Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I saw the words on the side, The Harlem Wizards - Trick Hoops and Alley Oops.
Who the hell are these posers?
It turns out that Kerry wasn't exactly wrong. A couple of the guys are former Globies (or, ahem, have been loosely affiliated with the team at some point in time). The rest of them seem to be NCAA-flunkies who thought they were going to The Show, and therefore, never bothered getting an education. Sorry, that's too harsh. I'm sure the Wizards do a good job and probably help lots of organizations raise hundreds of dollars. Good on ya', Wizards!
But I still couldn't help but think that we were watching a really bad copy, like in that Michael Keaton movie, Multiplicity. Remember, Doug #4. Yeah, I like pizza, too, Wizards.
The whole surreal experience made me curious. So I went to their website, and you'll be happy to know that the Harlem Globetrotters are still around and doing well. "Curly" Neal has long since hung up his Chuck Taylors, but they're still entertaining families across the globe on their 2006 "Unstoppable" World Tour.
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