Harlem Globetrotters in Budapest

The famous basketball show of the Harlem Globetrotters team will be hosted by Papp László Sportaréna at 7 PM on the 23rd of March. The amazing jugglers of the basketball, who play around 300 matches each year all around the world and win almost all of them, come straight from the Madison Square Garden of New York and will entertain the audience with an excellent team-play worthy of the NBA, with fantastic tricks and an exhibition game that combines athleticism, theater and comedy.

Created in 1927 in Chicago, the team of professional basketball players chose their name a couple of years later, as a reminder of the major African-American community that resided in Harlem. Legend says that their remarkably unique sytle existed from the very beginning: whenever they had a nice advantage in the game, they started fooling around, making audiences laugh. Their first great success came in 1948 when, in front of eighteen thousand fans, they managed to beat the national champion, Minnesota Lakers - this was followed by a winning streak of 113 matches, making the team the best of the world.
Beginning with the fifties the team started living up to its name and toured the United States, then travelled around the globe, playing in front of huge crowds as well as an audinece of one person only: the Pope. They conquered the cinema screens with their acting skills, got a star on Hollywood Boulevard, and signed a contract with ABC, so all their shows can be recorded and broadcast at all times. During the next two decades the Harlem Globetrotters became part of history not only as far as sports myths are concerned: while American society was struggling with racial issues, they helped destroy cultural prejudices and shape the way Black people were perceived. In the nineties the team played for Nelson Mandela and became even more popular when they decided to offer for charity one dollar for each mile they travel during their tours.

Sometimes accused of not playing real basketball, they admit that to them humour and entertaining show elements are justas important as sport itself – but they always invite current top teams and players for a game, just to prove that they can still easily compete with the best. After showing the link between basketball and comedy, in more than twenty thousand matches and more than a hundred countries throught its career, the Harlem Globetrotters will surely impress Budapest viewers as well, with their technical feats as well as their buffoonery.