Even though I do enjoy an occasional soccer match or basketball game, I am not a big sports fan. However, I was miffed three years ago when Harlem Globetrotters made their way into a venue right down the block from my apartment, and tickets sold out before I had the chance to saunter down from my apartment and make the purchase. So, I jumped at the chance when I heard that they would be coming again this year.
No matter how out of tune you may be with sports, basketball is second only to soccer in popular culture. And, as a kid and teenager of the 90s, I grew up with the names Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Shaquille O’Neal, who brought basketball out of the sports world and into our daily lives. The boys in school fought hard to fit a slam dunk or two into the fifteen-minute recess. A few envied talents could give the ball long, smooth spins the ball on the tip of their finger! I was a bookworm and not into sports at all. However, even I took joy in games where we tried to break dribbling records. I think my best score was a figure in the 300s. And, with such fond memories, basketball is a field of sports to which I remain affectionate.
With these thoughts in mind, I grabbed a friend and ventured to the Ulker Sports Arena. It is true that I did not see as much “playing” as I had expected – it was not an NBA game. However, I saw a lot of fun, a lot of talent, and a lot of positive energy. The Harlem Globetrotters utilized the word “game” to the fullest extent. I witnessed both a sports game with competing teams and slam dunks and high passes; and a game of fun and play, where there were time-outs to make room for goofing around, for welcoming individuals from the audience on stage only to then chase them off stage with buckets of confetti, and for Thriller zombie walks or hip-grinding grooves in celebration of a score made.
Actual playing was only sprinkled among these moments of fun. The Globetrotters would play basketball for a few minutes, and then play games of fun for several more. The highlight of the game were the “rules” that the opposition team, the Washington Generals, demanded the Globers to perform. There were integrated into each and every period, and determined by the number of votes that they got from the audience. And the audience cast their votes via Twitter! This was when I couldn’t help but snicker and think “Thank God the ban on Twitter has been lifted!” Can you imagine how awkward it would have been if we had been instructed to cast our votes via Twitter and had to inform HGT that “Sorry, we aren’t allowed to tweet in Turkey!” Well, thankfully, the ban was no more, and the more Twitter-savvy cast their votes while I watched in amusement the results and the action they yielded.
The general rule was that if you successfully completed the requirements of the “rule,” you gained three to fıve extra points. If you failed, you not only lost your shot at the extra points, but gave them up to the opponent. Needless to say, the HGT never missed their shot. They successfully slamdunked a ball spinning on their fingertips. They slamdunked two basketballs at one go. And, they grabbed the rim of the basketball loop, nestled the ball between their sneakers, and hoisted themselves up pull-up style, heaving their legs higher and higher until they slamdunked the ball with their feet!
It was a unique experience. The Harlem Globetrotters took the tenseness, the pressure, and the rogue competition out of the game, and transformed it into fun, games, and friendly competition. This is not to say that they were not competing! They were competitive and willing to go out of their way to keep up their advantage in the game. And just how ambitious were they in this? Ambitious enough to hoist themselves up to the rim of the hoop, STAND on it, and kick away soccer-goalie-style any of the opponent’s shots – and yes, this is when we also testified to the endurance of the hoop rim, as it withstood a 7-foot basketball player climbing atop it!
When it became apparent that the Globies were in the lead, they decided to add a bit of excitement to the game. The score was 101-92, with a 9-point HGT lead. They called a little boy from the audience to come and have a shot at the ball. If he scored, the HGT would get five points. Fat chance. If he missed, the opponents were to get nine points, leading to a tie in the last 60 seconds of the game. As expected, the boy missed. And the score was 101-101 in the last fifty seconds of the final quarter. It went up to 103-103 with seventeen seconds to the end. This is obviously a game to bring the audience to the edge of their seats, but what if, I thought, they somehow didn’t make it? Well, they of course did in the final nano-seconds of the game, which ended with a 107-103 victory for the Harlem boys.
Needless to say, the victory was theirs. But the audience had won as well, for they’d been treated to nothing but fun and games on this Sunday afternoon.
