Monday, June 24, 2002 | 10:51 a.m.
At a glance
"Sweet Georgia Brown" won't be blaring over the loudspeakers of Cox Pavilion when the Harlem Globetrotters take the court to play in the eight-team World Pro Basketball Challenge, which begins tonight.
And this Globetrotters squad won't be throwing confetti into the crowd or squirting water at unsuspecting fans.
Nor will they perform the dribbling and passing tricks that have made them worldwide fan favorites for 76 years.
"To the Harlem Globetrotters, winning is not everything," forward Alex Sanders said Sunday. "It's the only thing.
"That's what the team has taught us from day one. If we didn't think we could win this, we wouldn't be here."
The Globetrotters will play their opening game against ABA Select at 8 Tuesday following the 5:30 p.m. contest between the London Leopards and Vasco da Gama of Brazil.
Coaches Milt Barnes, former NBA guard Pooh Richardson and Clyde Sinclair conducted an intense practice Sunday, consisting of running, shooting drills, free throw attempts and running plays.
"This isn't your father's Globetrotters, your uncle's Globetrotters or your grandfather's Globetrotters," team owner Mannie Jackson said. "The 12 guys on the roster right now, all of them played college basketball."
In other words, they can ball.
About 35 players are on the complete Globetrotters roster. During the year, they are divided into two teams which Jackson estimates play in roughly 300 games.
"There's a distinction between the players and not the teams," said Jackson, a former Globetrotter. "Each team has six or seven great basketball players, a comic, a dribbler and a world class leaper.
"When we play serious competitions, we combine all of our best ball players."
When Jackson purchased the Globetrotters in 1993, he felt the team had become too far removed from the original squad formed in 1926, whose main purpose was playing -- and winning -- serious games.
Jackson revitalized the organization by hiring more talented players who could also handle the many responsibilities of representing the Globetrotters on and off the court.
Sanders and guard Kareem Reid know first hand that being a Globetrotter requires acting as a goodwill ambassador, working with kids and public speaking.
Once he had the right players, Jackson's next objective was to schedule real basketball games.
In 1995, the Globetrotters participated in a 12-game tour of Europe, playing an all-star team of former NBA players and top European players put together by former Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
"We finally got beat after the third game," Jackson recalled. "We won 11 or so of those games and it told me that back in the day that we were a great basketball team that knew how to entertain."
Two years later, Jackson resurrected the World Series of Basketball, an annual game between the Globetrotters and a team of top college players that ran from 1950-62. Again, the Globetrotters were successful, posting a 126-114 victory over the College All-Stars and confirming to Jackson that the Globetrotters could entertain as well as be a winning team.
The team continued to thrive in both arenas the following year when it won the LA Summer Pro League.
"Then people began to realize that this was a different brand of Globetrotters," Jackson said. "It did a few things for us.
"Outside the U.S., the credibility of the Globetrotters rebounded greatly. Within the U.S., it improved our recruiting. We attracted better players and competition."
In Reid's senior year at Arkansas, the Razorbacks played the Globetrotters in the 1999 College All-Star series and he became a believer.
"When I was first introduced to them as a little kid, all I knew about them was the tricks," Reid said. "I played in the college all-star game and then I knew there had to be some real basketball involved."
Reid played one season in the International Basketball League and in Turkey before joining the Globetrotters this year.
Sanders never wanted to be a part of the Globetrotters until Jackson and Jeff Munn, the team's director of operations, convinced him that they were intent on making the squad competitive and respectable.
The Globetrotters won three games against top college seniors the spring of 1999. In January 2000, the club began a partnership with the National Association of Basketball Coaches to play an annual game called the NABC Roundball Challenge against the College All-Stars during the Men's NCAA Final Four weekend.
The same year, the team started embarking on a Fall College Tour, playing college teams in exhibition games. In 2001, the Fall College Tour grew from three games to nine and the Globetrotters posted wins over St. John's Minnesota and Iowa en route to a 8-1 record.
"Crowds have been incredible," Jackson said proudly. "They're startled that we're playing that well.
"All in all, it's been all good. A lot of fun."
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