Harlem Globetrotters return to Berlin with thrilling victory

Harlem Globetrotters dazzle Berlin with a last-second win and historic ties

Behind the security checks at the U.S. Embassy on Pariser Platz in Berlin, diplomatic restraint usually prevails. But on Friday, the ground is buzzing. The Harlem Globetrotters are in town. Within minutes, the embassy transforms into a basketball court.

It's the kickoff to Berlin's show weekend—a meet-and-greet with the "Ambassadors of Goodwill." As players spin balls on their fingertips and dribble in slapstick rhythm, embassy staff clap along, laughing. A taste of what's to come the next day at Max-Schmeling-Halle.

"You need three things to join this team," explains coach Saul "Flip" White. "First: you have to be an outstanding basketball player. Second: you need the drive to entertain. And third: the desire to change the world." Behind the marketing slogans lies an impressive historical legacy for Black emancipation—not just in the U.S.

The Harlem Globetrotters were founded in 1926 in Chicago when entrepreneur Abe Saperstein took over the team then known as the Savoy Big Five. Racism barred them from official white basketball leagues, but Saperstein had a vision: send them around the world as a show troupe. It worked. The Globetrotters became a global brand, an American export phenomenon.

Seventy-five years ago, they made sports history in Berlin. "It electrified the city," the Tagesspiegel noted at the time. Seventy-five thousand spectators turned out—a long-standing world record in basketball—and the players were "laughed at, marveled at, and rewarded with honest applause."

The U.S. Army had lured the Globetrotters to West Berlin for a reason. In August 1951, East Berlin was hosting the "III World Festival of Youth and Students," drawing participants from 104 countries. Thirty-five thousand members of the FDJ—recently banned in West Germany as unconstitutional—traveled from West Germany alone.

The timing, however, wasn't perfect. The Globetrotters, on their European tour, couldn't play in Berlin until August 22, three days after the festival ended. "It's a shame this superb event couldn't have taken place a week earlier," the Tagesspiegel lamented. "Instead of a few hundred FDJ members in the crowd yesterday, thousands could have experienced sports in the free world."

Meanwhile, the festival had marked the first public appearance of an East German basketball team. The Soviet players who attended had installed the first basketball hoops in East Berlin—and left them behind when they departed.

The U.S. had similarly promoted basketball in the West. In 1951, the U.S. Army built the Columbiahalle opposite Tempelhof Airport's hangar—a venue now known for concerts but, until 1997, one of West Berlin's most important basketball arenas.

At the Olympic Stadium in 1951, the Globetrotters left a dazzling impression. The Berliner Zeitung (East) raved about the "elegance of their play and fluidity of movement," while Der Spiegel (West) praised: "It's all burlesque, yet basketball of the highest scientific standard."

On Saturday evening, around 3,000 spectators—many of them families—pack Max-Schmeling-Halle. One of those nights when kids are allowed to drink soda. The lights dim, the team takes the court, including captain Torch George. Women have been part of the team for 40 years, a natural extension of its emancipatory legacy.

What follows is a flawlessly choreographed spectacle. Mascot Globi tumbles across the floor, the Washington Generals play their usual role as perennial foils, and a young boy from the audience becomes the hero after sinking a perfect shot. In the end, the Globetrotters win 94–92 on a buzzer-beater. As the crowd files out, some grumble: one wanted "more aggressive defense," another expected a higher success rate on trick shots. Even an organizer admits, "Once is enough."

The Globetrotters don't sell athletic rivalry—they sell carefree joy and the preservation of a myth. Commercialized to the limit, the show still delivers on Coach Flip's promise: "We want to bring people together and keep the legend alive."

With three Globetrotter teams touring at once and over 400 performances a year, this brand of diplomacy in short pants remains an impressive mission—even after a century.