Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall, and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters

by Ben Green

Book Overview

Before Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Julius Erving, or Michael Jordan--before Magic Johnson and Showtime--the Harlem Globetrotters revolutionized basketball and spread the game around the world.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060555491
• ISBN13: 9780060555498
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Amistad Press
• Length: 414 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A three Pointer at the buzzer

It is an honor to be the first person to review this book. One of my greatest childhood memories is of my father taking my brother and I to see the Globetrotters in the late 60's. I fell in love with the show then and have gone to see them about ten times since then. I love introducing people to the trotters who never saw them in person before.Now this great new book comes along about the Trotters. It was too good to be true. This is a very scholarly tome. It is richly detailed. I came away from it marveling at the stamina and endurance of this team. Being in existence for 80 years is truly remarkable. This book traces the teams' history from their humble beginnings in the 1920's to their resurgence in 2005. I was startled by the poor conditions they played under early on. Abe Saperstein, the founder and owner of the team is an enigma. I found myself admiring him greatly at times and hating him for his veiled prejudice and sense of superiority.Mr Green devotes a lot of space to Goose Tatum and Marques Haynes. It is worth it to get to know these great players that came before my time. The story about Goose and his "son" was very funny. I was really looking forward to reading the section on Meadowlark Lemon. He was my globetrotter hero growing up and it was a bit sad to read about his career as a Trotter. The book really picks up steam when Mannie Jackson is introduced as the current owner of the team and all of his changes are instituted and the Globetrotters are returned to glory. The book has great closure.If I had one quibble with this book I would have liked to know more about the inner workings of the games and how the Trotters work with the Washington Generals or whichever team they are playing. I would have loved to have read what it is like playing against the Trotters night after night. It would have been interesting to read about the referees throughout the years. They have borne the brunt of many a globetrotter riff. It would have been nice to have seen them paid their due.I applaud Mr Green for an exhaustively written book about one of the greatest sports teams of all times.