The Harlem Globetrotters have a heck of an origin story.
Sometime in the late 1920s, when basketball was essentially in its infancy on a national scale, a group of African Americans started barnstorming around the country in an attempt to make a living. They'd drive from city to city in cars that usually had a short shelf life, and take on all comers. They were good, really good - to the point that they usually beat most of their opponents handily. In fact, they sometimes had to clown around once the game was decided in order to keep the interest of the spectators.
And the leader of the "band" was a 5-foot-3 Jewish immigrant named Abe Saperstein. There were a handful of sports promoters in those days who made a name for themselves, and Saperstein was as good as any of them. Somehow, the Harlem Globetrotters became nationally - and then internationally famous.
That's the story that Mark Jacob and Matthew Jacob tell in "Globetrotter." It's billed as the first biography of Saperstein, which makes it a worthwhile enterprise right from the start.
The Globetrotters are still around today, which gives this story more relevancy. The fans who are still turning out to see the Trotters may not know just how good the team used to be.
Let's face it - there weren't many opportunities for Black basketball players to earn a living in the pre-World War II era. There were some very primitive leagues back then, but they were mostly for white players only. Saperstein, once he formed the team, had his pick of some of the best players in the country who happened to be Black. And if you take a team like that and play several nights a week, you're going to have a very competitive squad in no time at all. Saperstein made it all work financially, setting up the games and publicizing the team as word spread about its exploits.
The Globetrotters were good, and at one point in 1948 even knocked off the powerful Minneapolis Lakers, who at the time were the defending champions of the National Basketball League. The Lakers had Hall of Famers such as George Mikan and Jim Polland on the roster, so that was quite a notch on the Trotters' proverbial revolver.
The National Basketball Association was created by a merger of two leagues soon after that, and African Americans started to show up on rosters in 1950. So the Globetrotters had to adapt, emphasizing entertainment first and basketball second. With the Cold War going on, the team even played a role in international relations. America's racial laws were the subject of a heavy dose of propaganda from the rival Soviet Union in those days, and the Trotters became something of ambassadors for the USA as they played overseas. They also spread the gospel of basketball along the way, helping the sport become second to only soccer in international popularity.
Running the Globetrotters should have been enough for Saperstein, but he couldn't help himself. He was involved in an attempt with Bill Veeck in the early 1940s to buy the Philadelphia Phillies and turn them into an all-Black baseball team. Abe helped Veeck sign Satchel Paige for Veeck's Cleveland Indians in 1948. Saperstein was the guiding force behind the American Basketball League in the early 1960s, which introduced the three-point shot to basketball. The book tells about how the NBA offered Saperstein a franchise in San Francisco if he'd fold the ABL. He unwisely turned the deal down, and the new league lost a bunch of money before folding.
The authors deserve some major credit for bringing up the major issue surrounding the Globetrotters, which concerns their role in the entertainment picture. Some writers have described the team's antics as a modern-day minstrel show, in which Black performers travel around the country in performing for white audiences. On the other hand, there were few aspects of life - particularly in those early days - when Blacks could make fun of white authority figures like referees and opposing players and not start a riot. No matter where you stand on this issue, few people have anything but good memories of attending a Globetrotters game, particularly if they bring children along.
If there's a small drawback to this book, it's that Saperstein has been dead for more than 50 years. That means there aren't many people alive today who worked with him. The authors did get the cooperation of family members, which helps, and uncovered some correspondence and records. But the story feels a little thin in details in spots, which is very understandable.
Even so, Saperstein's life was a unique one, and deserves to be told. "Globetrotter" serves as a good way to catch up on a memorable character in sports history.
Four stars
Learn more about this book from Amazon.com. (As an Amazon affiliate, I earn money from qualified purchases.)
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