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Harlem Globetrotters Englishman Carlos “Dizzy” # 2 will run against Washington General Shaquille Burrell 11 in his show game at the Orleans Arena.
Ethan Miller / Getty Images
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Ethan Miller / Getty Images
Harlem Globetrotters Englishman Carlos “Dizzy” # 2 will run against Washington General Shaquille Burrell 11 in his show game at the Orleans Arena.
Ethan Miller / Getty Images
Harlem Globetrotters says it’s high time for the NBA to make them part of the highest professional basketball league in franchise form.
In an open letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Harlem Globetrotters urged Silver to recognize the team’s decades-long contribution to the league. “As the NBA grew, you were able to attract the best black players, but we remember who helped the NBA get it all started,” the letter read.
It was then said, “You can’t just act like we don’t exist anymore. It’s time to correct the injustices and rewrite history. It’s time for the NBA to respect what the Globetrotters have done for OUR sports, both here in the United States and around the world.”
The team is an exhibition basketball team that since its inception in 1926 has won 27,000 games and played in 123 countries. In its letter, the team stated that it believed it was on an equal footing with the other professional teams there.
Prominent players like Wilt Chamberlain, Connie Hawkins and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton got their start with the Globetrotters before entering the NBA.
In 1940, the Globetrotters won their first World Basketball Championship by defeating the Chicago Bruins. In 1948 and 1949, the Globetrotters twice won the NBA Minneapolis Lakers World Championship, contributing to the debate over black players who were allowed to join the game at a professional level, According to the history of the Globetrotter.
After the Lakers victories, Clifton became the first black player to sign an NBA deal when he joined the New York Knicks in 1950.
The NBA and its players have advocated for social justice and racial equality in recent years. But Globetrotters said their innovation and contribution to the league – namely NBA integration – brought it to where it is now.
“Don’t get us wrong, we love what you’ve done lately, and we’re proud of how players stand up to change their communities,” the team wrote. “But don’t understand it; basketball wouldn’t be like it is today without us.”
The NBA has not yet responded to this letter.
The expansion of the NBA is already under consideration
In order for Harlem Globetrotters to join the league, the NBA would have to approve the expansion of the league, a process to add new teams.
In December, NBA Commissioner Silver told the press before the start of the season, the expansion of the league was on display.
“I think I’ve always said it’s kind of the obvious destiny of a league that you’ll expand at some point,” Silver said at the time. “I would say it has caused us to dust off some of the analysis of the economic and competitive effects of enlargement. We have spent a little more time on it than we did before the pandemic. But certainly not to the point that enlargement takes place in the front burner.”
Seattle has been told that the league has chosen the best option. The city was once home to Supersonics, but the team left for Oklahoma City in 2008. It was renamed the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The NBA last expanded when the Charlotte Bobcats, now the Hornets, were added in 2004.
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