Watching the NBA playoffs this week, I felt I already knew one winner. That would be — the Harlem Globetrotters. Why? Because pro basketball in North America has become, along with whatever else it is, Showtime.

Look at Steve Nash, one of the few white stars — from the Great White North, in fact, which also sends black stars like Jamaal Magloire. He knifes toward the basket, arms and hair flailing, the ball magically slides across his back, moves eyelessly to teammate Amare Stoudemire, who slam-dunks! It’s Globetrotter ball. They did it first. Sixty years ago, before U.S. pro sports integrated, slam-dunks were considered tasteless. Even in the ’50s, after integration began, a modest behind-the-back pass by Boston’s Bob Cousy was rare enough to catalogue in year-end wrap-ups.

The Globetrotters began as a normal team in “Negro” leagues in the 1920s. They were acquired by Jewish businessman Abe Saperstein, who gave them their name. They gradually built in the goofing, entertainment component — their pre-game routine, the ball they suddenly took a bite from — partly for similar reasons, I’d say, that jazz, blues and rock ‘n’ roll developed: as ways to stay sane and even somewhat happy in a psychotically racialized society. They played occasionally against the best white teams, and usually won, just to show they could. After integration, they lost many players, like Wilt Chamberlain, to the NBA.

During the civil-rights and black-power years, the Globetrotters came under a storm of criticism: They were Uncle Toms, they were a minstrel show placating the honkies etc. It was censorious and judgmental, like much of political rhetoric in the ’60s, and it didn’t stick. How sanctimonious can you be toward people who, in a clever and athletic way, make you laugh?

In the ’70s, they got their own TV show for kids, met Scooby-Doo on his, even went to Gilligan’s Island. (I haven’t seen it, and I can’t imagine what they do there.) They remained prestigious among blacks. (In a searing documentary this week on TVO about absent black fathers, the dad’s job as a Globetrotter is treated with great respect.) But their true triumph was the NBA’s turn to Showtime. It wasn’t just a game now, it was a show: cheerleaders, acrobats, music, mascots, slam-dunk contests, human highlight reels. The Globetrotters didn’t only survive, their spirit of entertainment conquered, it took over.

There was a 1954 Hollywood film on the Globetrotters, called Go, Man, Go! Sidney Poitier was in it, but it starred Dane Clark as coach/owner Abe Saperstein. In a memorable scene, a young black shows up at the seedy, segregated hotel where the team must stay and tells the coach he can dribble by him in the tight, dim hallway, which he does, winning a job. In a way, the film was about an alliance between Jews and blacks, against what was seen as an anti-Semitic, racist Christian majority (or a WASP establishment). It reflected the politics of a time now past.

Today, Jewish officials sometimes ally with right-wing Christian fundamentalists in joint defence of “Judeo-Christian values” against non-white foreigners led by militant Islamists. Relations between American Jews and blacks, meanwhile, have grown fraught. On the other hand, there’s apparently a 1951 film on the Globetrotters with a mainly black cast that may portray things differently again.

This is a great thing about mass, or popular, culture: its ability to reflect and refract the central issues of any era. I think that’s because the “masses” have a stake in those issues, which they tend to sort out through music, film, sports and other diversions. It’s why I disagree, as I’ve said before, with Steven Johnson’s new book, which argues that Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. Where pop culture is smart, it’s because “the people” are smart, not because outside experts make them so.

In fact, I’d say that, to the extent that Showtime in the NBA was injected by the marketers and owners, it has been a distraction and a distortion of the game itself. For the Globetrotters, the entertainment was always embedded in the game and the players, not the gewgaws surrounding it.

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Rick Salutin

Rick Salutin is a Canadian novelist, playwright and critic. He is a strong advocate of left wing causes and writes a regular column in the Toronto Star.