Thousands of children and parents of Syracuse were hitting the floors laughing Saturday night in the Carrier Dome [8] because the Harlem Globetrotters put on a show to remember. The world-famous event had amusement coming from all corners of the court- from dancing to jokes to water-bucket tossing to massive mascots- there was even some basketball to be played.
The Globetrotters [9] were celebrating its 90th year of making people smile. They've spanned the globe and visited six continents and over 200 countries!
The night began at 6:40 when the host, Frenchy, came onto the stage to rile up the crowd. "Everyone say ayooooo, ayoooooo." The fans followed along. Frenchy adorned a sparkling blue blazer and his charisma shined just as bright.
Frenchy introduced Globie, a friendly blow-up mascot who loved to mess around. Globie played musical chairs with three boys, and seemed to have the game in the bag until the final round, where he was beaten for being a bit too confident after losing sight of his chair while taking selfies with people at court-side seating. Then he danced around with three adults in a contest to see who could boogie the best. Then it was Globie and the Globie crew who took the stage! They did some break-dancing and more.
There was a quick pause in action for the Star Spangled Banner.
The perennial opposing team, the World All-Stars [10], came running onto the court dressed in all black jerseys. Welcomed by boos, coach Shawn Walli addressed the crowd.
"You probably think you came here to see the Harlem Globetrotters," Walli said. "But by the end of the night you'll see why the World All-Stars are the best in the world!"
Then the Globetrotters were welcomed on court behind full support. They performed in the Famous Magic Circle while each player played with the basketball and got introduced.
The team [11] comprised of Ant, Smooth, Stretch, Dizzy, Firefly, Smooth J, Clutch, Flight Time, and Bull. Afterwards, they began to shoot around and make some high-flying dunks and showoff their smooth dribbling skills. It basically turned into a quick dance party from there.
Then the team took the time to teach the young kids in the crowd about sportsmanship- the Globetrotters way. They went ahead and started cracking jokes at the referees, calling them Shrek and Donkey.
The game started. There were dunks with feet, cool passing and steals. Sweet J, the only woman on the court, made her ball-handling a spectacle during a one-on-one against an All-Star.
Alley-oops and extravagant celebrations and Justin Bieber fiascos, where Ant sang the song "Sorry" to one of the referee's.
The Globetrotters stole a purse from a woman in the crowd and had her come onto the court to retrieve it. As she walked on the "Here Comes the Bride" song was playing. They eventually gave her a gift wrapped box that when she opened was filled with towels, and underneath all the towels was her purse.
Players got their pants pulled down while taking foul shots. Adele's "Hello" became an event, as Ant again was singing to a referee, and then he jumped onto him. There was a mix of balls on the court, a balloon that looked just like the real basketball flew into the roof of the dome after being shot. Players ran around the stadium throwing water on each other. When they hid behind crowd members, they put paper machete into the bucket and everyone just got flurried with paper instead of being soaked.
There was an entire play in rewind, with the sounds coming from the speakers as if a tape was going backwards, and all the players were retracing their steps and making funny faces. Then there was a slow motion play with the balloon ball. Players were slow-dancing, doing handstands, riding each other like horses.
Between the third and fourth quarters of play, the YMCA music was playing- the entire crowd stood up and danced the classic song.
In the fourth quarter, goaltending was hilarious. A player stood atop the rim and caught each shot that would have went in and did some tricks 17 feet in the air.
Near the end, the All-Stars messed with the scoreboard, putting themselves in the lead, but there was no way the Globetrotters would let that be the end. During the last minute, the Globetrotters went on a tear and eventually won 87-33. Ninety years of dominance continues.
To end the night, kids could come onto the court and get autographs from their favorite players.
