((Note of the editors: This week, in honor of Black History Month, Athletics will emphasize the Harlem Globetrotters and their contributions to basketball, vision of entertainment and overall dedication to goodwill. This series will be closed on Sunday, February 16.)
Sonny Hill remembers a time when he and his childhood friend, Want Chamberlain, would go to the film to watch news rays where the Harlem Globetrotters often appeared. Seeing players such as Reece “Goose” Tatum and Marques Haynes, two of the top shows of the franchise at the time, resonated with Chamberlain and managed an ambition.
The mission of the Globetrotters to split up racial barriers and stereotypes. But the concept of entertainment was something that stayed with Chamberlain until he died on October 12, 1999.
Chamberlain played 14 seasons in the NBA, but one season before he became a face of the competition, he was a face of the Globetrotters.
“Playing with the Globetrotters was Wilt’s Childhood Dream,” said Hill, a Philadelphia Sports Hall of Famer and the current sports radio personality, said Athletics“And he was able to fulfill it.”
Chamberlain did not have the long term of office that other Globetrotters had. He played the entire season, 1958-59, and sparingly during a few NBA-Offseasons and after retirement. But Chamberlain didn’t need much time to lay a bar for the future of both the Globetrotters and the NBA, and became a basketball and social icon that bridge two entities.
“Then Want and I grew up together, the Globetrotters were the team with which we wanted to identify ourselves,” Hill said. “So when he got older, he wanted to play for the Globetrotters.”
Chamberlain, In an interview about ‘MSG’s Kluis’, Said that playing with the Globetrotters first instead of starting his career in the NBA, was completely about ‘the roots’.
“The days with the Harlem Globetrotters were some of the most pleasant of my life,” he said. “They were fun. They were an opportunity to see the world, to learn and meet people. Let it also be known that it was the Harlem Globetrotters who helped the NBA to really get started. They are so powerful at the moment and at the top of popularity, but the early years passed, it didn’t work so well. Boys like the Globetrotters came in and helped to bring people to the stands to view NBA teams. “
Reminded by many for his 100-point scoring outing Against the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pa., In 1962, Chamberlain led the NBA in scoring seven consecutive seasons and was the NBA -Rebound leader for 11 of his 14 seasons. He also won two competition championships and was a four -fold League MVP.
Chamberlain is one of the most dominant athletes of all time of the game, but his stint with the Globetrotters was an opportunity to show his skills as an entertainer. He started his professional career at the Globetrotters in 1958 as part of a Sold out world tour in Moscow After his collegial career at the University of Kansas. He spent three years in Lawrence, Kan., Basketball with a coveted track and field career. In addition to an average of 29.6 points and 18.9 rebounds per game on the field, he was also a triple Big Eight Conference champion in the high jump.
The Globetrotters gave Chamberlain the chance to become a versatile individual as soon as he left Kansas. The Globetrotters perform their famous Magic circle As a warming for every match “Sweet Georgia Brown”. Chamberlain fits in well and has tightened his art from Showmanship by participating in one of the most important routines of the Globetrotters as Rookie.
“When I say he was in that circle … you can’t be in that circle and be unable to (perform),” Hill said. “That’s how good he was. That is how agile he was, how good he was. That is how quickly he could learn what was going on. “
Hill also noted that the franchise assisted with Chamberlain the basketball player who thought outside the box. A 7-foot-1, 275-ponder was expected to play in those days. However, the Globetrotters had different ideas.
“He didn’t play with the Globetrotters,” said Hill. “He usually played on the outside.”
Abe Saperstein, founder and owner of the Globetrotters, was known as a masterful promoter with a Corporate conscious mind built for sports. He saw the immediate potential that Chamberlain could bring the team. For some, adding the dominant 7-foot was considered a financial risk, but Saperstein paid a considerable amount in the $ 50,000 series for Chamberlain to wear a Globetrotters uniform, according to Hill. The Average median income From families in 1958 was $ 5,100.
“Abe Saperstein saw the opportunity to be with the Globetrotters and for them to earn even more money, because WANT was seen as this phenomenal basketball player since he was in high school,” Hill said.
The NBA only integrated in 1950, when Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton History made. The competition struggled with increasing its preference. The popularity of Chamberlain came naturally a conversation for the Globetrotters in the university. He was a hit on and next to the field. In addition to a must-watch player, he had also grown up to a must-watch television sensation, which means that regularly performs at ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’.
“He would talk about how phenomenal he was as a basketball player (in the show),” said Hill. “He had developed to the point that people knew who he was, and he was someone with whom people wanted to identify.”
The Globetrotters had already won millions of fans by making the Slam Dunk, fast break and them too popular Weaving legendary in-gameBut the fan base of the franchise, now consisting of more than 148 million people in 123 countries and areas, saw an increase when the 7-foot wore the uniform. In addition to legends such as Meadowlark Lemon and Charles “Tex” Harrison, Chamberlain played the way for a few future legends, including Louis “Sweet Lou” Dunbar, Fred “Curly” Neal and Hubert “Ganzen” Ausbie.
Meadowlark Lemon on the shoulders of Wilt Chamberlain during a Harlem Globetrotters game.#Harlemglobetrotters pic.twitter.com/nvp9j40uts
– Bubble Gum Comics (@Vinsportnutz) July 28, 2023
The one successful year of Chamberlain with the Globetrotters played the heads of NBA executives and made way for Eddie Gottlieb of the Philadelphia Warriors to prepare him in 1959.
“Then the competition wanted to enter, the NBA actually wanted to build,” said Hill. “The basis of the NBA is really built from Wilt. The reviews went up, the fan base went up, the coverage went up, the fame went up. Everything went up because people knew who Chamberlain was, and that gave the NBA an international person with whom people could identify. “
But even after making his NBA debut, Chamberlain remained faithful to his carrots and played in the summer for the Globetrotters during their European tours. He was an unstoppable force in the NBA, but the daily grind was tiring. Chamberlain, who played with the Globetrotters during the low season, reminded him of how he could enjoy a game that didn’t feel like work.
“Want to create the precedent,” said Dunbar, director of the team of player staff and coach who played 27 seasons with the franchise and has been affiliated with the team for 48 years. “Boys could have played all over the world, but said they were the best years of his life, playing with the Harlem Globetrotters, because that will be your family.
“He went to the competition and established all those records, but Want was a dominant factor (with the Globetrotters).”
Dunbar thought so much of Chamberlain that he chose no. 13 as his sweater number in high school. He said he “thought that nothing wants nothing wrong” when he first started watching the game. Like a 6-foot-9 Big, Dunbar modeled his game to that of Chamberlain. It resulted in Dunbar with a decorated career at the University of Houston, where he became an all-American and was later admitted to the University of Houston Athletics Honor. Dunbar was also a fourth round NBA Draft Pick of the Philadelphia 76ers in 1975.
“I wasn’t as long as I want, but when I grew up, I was the highest child there was, so (the game of Chamberlain) etched my mind,” Dunbar said. “Want was strong. He was just a real athlete. I thought it was great to see the man play.
“I looked at him when he was in Philadelphia and I looked at him when he went to the Lakers. I looked at him all the way until he stopped playing the game. ‘
Dunbar remembers the first time he met Chamberlain. The two met Hawaii together with Harrison. Although the majority of the time of Chamberlain was spent on catching up Harrison, who was Chamberlain’s roommate with the Globetrotters, Dunbar was awe for the presence of Chamberlain and called it an “absolute honor” to meet the Hall of Famer.
“Tex always talked about him, about how (Chamberlain) could do everything,” said Dunbar.
Want Chamberlain from the Harlem Globetrotters. pic.twitter.com/fhqqadddux
– Paul Knepper (@paulieknep) October 29, 2023
The Chamberlain basketball barrel will lead with all its NBA performance, but the league to work with the Globetrotters gave Chamberlain a certain freedom of expression. His No. 13 Globetrotters sweater retired on March 9, 2000 in high school in Philadelphia. However, the legendary university career and several professional awards only played a small part of whom Chamberlain was.
He was really about the fun nature of the game. And that pleasure was improved and supported by the Globetrotters.
Hill said that the Globetrotters made sure that Chamberlain felt at ease, similar to the young boy who saw the Globetrotters on Nieuwsreels.
“The feeling of want was that he was free. He could just be himself, “Hill said. “He could include what the Globetrotters were known for. The entertainment, the ball handling, that made him all free. ‘
(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / Athletics; Photos: TPLP / Getty images)