Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Sweet Georgia Brown

Last weekend we didn't just go to the museum to meet my "let's do something" expectations, we also saw the Harlem Globetrotters. Cue Sweet Georgia Brown...

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this team, they are a "fake" basketball team made up of former college and NBA players. They play an "international championship game" against the International Elite (fake team), and of course win. In the course of play, there are lots of choreographed dancing moves, ball tricks, interaction with the audience, and comedy sketches. Think Laurel and Hardy or the Three Stooges meets High School Musical.

Our seats made it a bit tricky to get any decent photos, but you can see a dunk here. The kids were excited to see so many! Although the game wasn't very fast-paced, it was neat to see really good basketball players live. There was even one player who was 7'8", and one who was 5'2", and they were fun to see playing in tandem.


A special treat was to see one of our favorite Amazing Race contestants live, Flight Time. (Every player had a nickname like that.) You can see him below in the bottom left corner. I'd say he's the bald one with the headband, but that wouldn't be too helpful, would it? During one of the warmups, he even walked into the stands and made a swish basket from there. Awesome!

We liked Flight Time and Big Easy so much because they worked so well as a team, always encouraging each other and having fun, even in the face of difficult challenges. Great examples for the kids.


I tried to get some video of the team in action. Below you can see them passing the ball back and forth to one another in a circular fashion. Some of the best moves I didn't get on camera, because they were so great about just suddenly and surprisingly breaking into synchronized dance moves or distracting you while one player climbed the basket for a special alley oop.

(Sorry the video is so small; I'm not sure how to make it bigger without distorting the quality.)


If you ever get the chance to see them, take it! It was a night of laughs and entertainment for the whole family. I remember seeing them as a kid in Charlottesville myself, and I'm sure my kids will remember this night, too. Hopefully not because Anson threw up in the lobby (yes, he did), and Charlotte got separated from us, and they had to page me multiple times to come get her (embarrassing).

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