Globetrotting

As experiences are the best gifts, my Christmas gift from Eddie was a surprise event: going to see the Harlem Globetrotters.  I'd mentioned it to him once in passing that I'd never seen them and might want to some day.  Yeay!  My some day came.

Attention anyone who goes to Nassau Coliseum: park in the cheap parking area if you can.  It was only 8 bucks.  The guy at the gate stopped us before we paid to make sure we knew we'd need to walk about a minute longer to get to the building.  We were okay with that.  Once we got inside and found our seats, we kept our coats on because it was freezing.  We were not okay with that.  We kept them on the whole time.  I suppose because it wasn't a packed house, the heat of the crowd was not warming up the arena.

We noticed that there were other adults there without children.  We were not weird.  Yes, those adults were like senior citizens, but still, we were not weird.  There were, of course, hoards of children there, and at one point, one was kicking the back of my seat.  However, Eddie and I understand that if we go to an event for children, we cannot be annoyed that children are actually there.  And for the most part, they were not annoying.

Globey, the mascot with the most noncreative name, entertained the crowd for a while.  He played Musical Chairs and cheated a lot.

Globey's brother, however, is the best mascot ever.  He dances and then falls flat on his face.  It's Hil. Air. Eee. Us.

After the pre-show of Globey fun and a local dance team, the Globetrotters appeared through smoke.

We were ready for them to stomp the Generals yet one more time.

And for perhaps an appearance by Barry Manilow.  He writes the songs, you know.

There were lots of stunts.  The tallest man alive is on the team, so he was fun to watch.  I mean, they're all somewhat tall, but he was like over seven feet.  All of them danced and did tricks. The first female team member ever was playing, so they needed to play songs about women every time she touched the ball, though they never did break out into "I Am Woman Hear Me Roar." They all bickered with the ref, not in the way the NBA players do after every single call, but in the way that only the Globetrotters could do.  It was my kind of basketball.

They followed a dragged out storyline about the ref being biased, but tied it all together and they gave us our money's worth.

Really, what we realized is that being a Harlem Globetrotter is the best job in the world.  You get to play basketball without all the pressure of the NBA.  You get to travel and entertain.  If you can't do tricks, you might be on the Generals.  Eddie is totally trying out for the team, and I'm going to look into being the MC--or maybe there's a Globey costume that can fit me. I'm not a fan of adults in costumes with big heads, but I'm not going to miss a shot at hitting the road with the best team ever.