YouTube Gold: The 1950’s Harlem Globetrotters

Today, The Harlem Globetrotters are a touring exhibition team that is more famous for tricks than for basketball, but that wasn’t always the case.

Originally the Globetrotters were a barnstorming team that played anyone, including the then-dominant Minneapolis Lakers (little known fact: the Lakers were originally the Detroit Gems).

When the NBA began to integrate in the 1950’s, the Globetrotters began to turn more to comedy, but there was always skill and talent. If they had been allowed in the NBA, they would have dominated the league.

In the ‘50’s, the Globies had players like Chuck Cooper, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, Goose Tatum, Meadowlark Lemon (from Wilmington), Curly Neal (from Greensboro) and, briefly, Wilt Chamberlain. Later, Connie Hawkins played with the Globetrotters for a time after being kicked out of Iowa during the 1960’s point shaving scandal, despite not being involved.

This promo reel from 1956 captures the entertainment side of the Globetrotters, but you also see a tremendous amount of skill.

They created a unique niche in basketball history, but you wonder where the game might have gone if players like Tatum, Haynes and Neal had been free to play in the NBA in their primes, because when you got past the clowning, those guys were very talented and skilled basketball players. They would have radically changed the game.

Incidentally, in 1926 the Globetrotters will celebrate their centennial.