Customer Reviews

Harlem Globetrotters: 6 Decades of Magic [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

you take away all the flash,Dash,&Entertainment Value&See a History of Guys who Simply are Incredible BasketBall Players.a League all there own&something that hasn't been matched with yet.this is not only a Fun Video but also showcases there Fundementals as Players.Enjoy.

An enjoyable video about the history, and some of the great players who were with
the Harlem Globetrotters. It would have been even better if they had shown the magic circle
routine from start to finish. The one minus is the script, and delivery by Lou Gossett Jr.
It gets a bit tiresome the way things are described - too much of overly dramatic phrases in the narration,
to make everything sound extremely important and dramatic. Simpler would have been better - just
give us the details without the overblown rhetoric.

My Mom loved this tape of all the HGT's greatest skills and tricks! She couldn't attend a live performance and this was the closest thing to being there with a court side luxury seat! Cheers and Bravo!

I once borrowed this documentary video of my basketball coach who recomended it for me to watch as I am one of the youngest players in the team and therefor unexperienced in performing tricks and playing the game to have fun,but everything changed after I watched this tape, the ammount of tricks I performed in games made the coach think about putting me in the starting lineup which is a respectable success...

Fantastic Video, just ignore all the negative crap from Mr. Lister in his "review",...just sour grapes about a missed opportunity or the lack of it, seeded with praise to disguise the whine.

This is the Harlem Globetrotters' officially authorized video history. It is a finely crafted general history that highlights the team's most notable individuals: Abe Saperstein ( the team's creator ), Reese "Goose" Tatum, "Meadowlark" Lemon, Fred "Curly" Neal, etc.
This video history describes the team's origin in Hinckley, Illinois and their trials and tribulations in evolving into a rags-to-riches sports team story. The video contains rare film footage. The video's theme music is well choreographed and cheerfully inspirational.
The video shows some players displaying their unusual basketball trick shooting and trick ball handling and trick dribbling skills. I feel the video should have focused more close up and in depth on these unusual skills. It could have shown a much wider variety of these difficult trick feats for this is one of the primary reasons people are interested in this clowning team.
Since the Harlem Globetrotters created this video themselves you can assume they would paint a rosy red picture and ignore their own inherent faults. The video talks about the racial discrimination they faced in rising to being analogous to the highly beloved "Disney World" of basketball. However this video does not discuss the accusation that the Harlem Globetrotters practice extreme racial discrimination towards Caucasian ( white ) basketball comedy show players. The video cites Bob Karstens as the only white player to play full time for the team. This was for a year and a half during the 1940's when Karstens filled in for Goose Tatum while Tatum was stationed in Europe during World War II. The video doesn't mention that a white man Harold "Bunny" Levitt performed halftime free throw exhibitions for the team for five years during the 1930's. He took on all challengers and made 98% of his shots. The video also doesn't mention that since 1927 the team has had approximately five hundred players on their team but only two were white. It also doesn't talk about the fact that when Peter Press "Pistol Pete" Maravich graduated from Louisiana State University ( LSU ) the Globetrotters offered him one million dollars to travel with them for one year to display his showmanship and scoring skills. Maravich turned down the offer and went to the N.B.A.'s Atlanta Hawks. Although this video gives an excellent interview with "Clown Prince" Meadowlark Lemon it would have been interesting to know how "Meadowlark" would have reacted to "Pistol Pete" Maravich traveling with the team. Maravich could have played on the court only ten minutes and upstaged "Meadowlark" Lemon which theoretically could have made for a very bitter "Meadowlark".
Although this video cites Lynette Woodard as being the first female Harlem Globetrotter it doesn't focus on a recent team star "Sweet Lou" Dunbar. The video also doesn't mention the fact that there has never been a nationally famous white male comedy trick basketball team. It also doesn't discuss the fact that the Globetrotters ban certain pregame and halftime basketball entertainers such as myself ...
Despite the glossing over of their own intrinsic discriminatory defects I would rate this fine Harlem Globetrotters' video history as a MUST SEE for all fans. It is the best video history I have ever seen on them. Although I feel tears come to my eyes and my heart is deeply saddened every time I watch this video ( because I lost out on the opportunity in my lifetime to play with the Globetrotters ) this video is a sheer joy to watch because of the childish, philanthropic clownishness that the Globetrotters radiate!