I remember when the Globetrotters featured players like Curly Neal, Meadowlark Lemon and Sweet Lou Dunbar entertaining audiences to the sound of “Sweet Georgia Brown.”
But under team president Keith Dawkins, the current version of the Globetrotters isn’t what my generation is used to seeing.
Earlier this year, on February 24th, I, along with 12,000 other fans, packed in Madison Square Garden to see the Globetrotters return to MSG for the first time in four years.
Most in attendance who remembered seeing the Globetrotters of old now had their children in tow to experience the same fun and joy they once had when they were kids.
What we got was a time of reminiscing and more, and that’s because of the leadership and hard work of Dawkins, whose vision has modernized the nearly 100-year-old brand.
“This thing is awesome already and it’s still just arrow up in terms of its possibilities in terms of now and its next ten years,” he told me during our interview.
That’s an interesting position considering the team’s history.
The organization was founded in 1926 in Chicago as the “Savoy Big Five,” after the famous Chicago ballroom where they played their games. After buying the team in 1927, Abe Saperstein changed the name in 1930 to align it with the importance of Harlem and the Renaissance.
Before Keith took over in January 2022, the Globetrotters had become stagnant and most recognized as the team that consistently beat the Washington Generals.
But in two short years, Keith has grown the team to become a global brand and a flywheel operation with 250 US dates and 150 dates abroad. That’s a massive operation for a team, but Keith’s undying passion has made the Globetrotters into more than a team.
“I’m more excited now than I was two years ago,” he said.
Allow us to Reintroduce Ourselves
Dawkins is a former Executive Vice President at Nickelodeon, so he understands the value and importance of media and distribution.
So he signed a partnership with Hearst Media Production Group and launched the 30-minute weekly series, Harlem Globetrotters: Play It Forward as part of NBC’s The More You Know weekend educational programming block.
That put the Globetrotters back on network television for the first time in 40 years, which was crucial for growing the brand.
Other deals followed, including Spalding, IMG and Jersey Mike’s Subs. This helped cure the “dormancy” (as Keith calls it) that the league was experiencing over the last few decades.
With distribution, sponsors and new partnerships locked in, the next step was to determine how the brand would attract both old and new audiences.
To Keith, the formula is simple. Know who you are and stay true to your core but understand what that entails.
“Sports is entertainment. We’re in the entertainment business. If you’re in the entertainment business, that means you should be thinking about all of the different things that live in the entertainment business,” he said.
“Because we’re a unique brand that way, different from all of those other brands, that allows us to think about theatricals and docs and social media and consumer products and the live tour and the everything in our tentacles.”
But are the Globetrotters a sports or entertainment brand?
“We are undoubtedly an entertainment brand, but sports is entertainment,” he responded. “On the sports side of us, we can recruit the best athletes that the planet Earth has to offer in basketball and we are here to entertain the masses and bring joy and possibilities to their lives.”
Not Basketball? Think Again.
At its core, the Globetrotters is about basketball.
Some might doubt that because of the trick shots, crowd engagement, music and other antics, but Dawkins has a simple message for those doubters.
“I would tell them to come on out to tryouts and lineup against any of our players and see.”
After looking at the roster of players in Globetrotters history, it’s easy to see why he says that.
“Our players run the gamut- from elite junior college players, elite division one players, recognizable division one teams, HBCUs, the whole thing…this is real athleticism, it’s real basketball, our players are players,” he said.
But to be a Globetrotter, you must be more than a baller, understand the new vision and be on board with what a Globetrotter means and does.
“It’s a tough assignment,” said Dawkins. “You need to be a basketball player, you need to be highly skilled in the way that we’re talking about the tricks, and you also need to want to, as the number one idea, really engage with the audience, the fan base, the consumer in that way, because that’s why they show up for the Globetrotters.”
Finding players that embody those traits is no easy task, so the team’s scouts have to constantly be on the lookout for talent, and that includes both men and women.
This season the team signed former LSU star and national champion, Alexis Morris, making her the seventh current woman to join the organization per the team’s website. That’s the highest single-season number in organization history and another piece of history that adds to the Globetrotters’ legacy, one that includes making Lynette Woodard the first woman to sign with a men’s professional basketball team in October 1985.
That history and the organization’s basketball roots are two of the things that Dawkins wants all prospective players to think about as they ponder their next move.
“I want the Globetrotters to be on their mental menu of a thing they’re thinking about…we’re an awesome opportunity, we have a rich tradition and legacy and we have an awesome future.”
The Comeup in Today’s Media Landscape
The Globetrotters that Keith has crafted is not the organization of old. Couple that with today’s rapidly evolving media landscape and his team has more to think about, adjust to and do.
He wants to reach audiences at every passion point, and that’s where the flywheel strategy comes into play. Whether it’s gaming, the tour, social media, licensing, the show, consumer products or traditional content, he wants you to experience the Globetrotters where you are.
“It’s just about getting the Globetrotters in the hands of the audience in the ways that make sense for the demo and the opportunity,” Dawkins told me. “That’s when all of the ways that we connect to the audience will benefit from each other.”
Some choose to work with influencers to grow their brand. Dawkins sees the benefit of that, particularly through the team’s partnership with IMG, but he believes that his organization has to “do the work around bolstering our own talent because they have great influence, so they can be even greater influencers.”
While connecting socially is vital in today’s digital age, having a tangible, in-person connection with fans is still of the utmost importance.
That’s why today the Globetrotters announced that this August they’re launching the first-ever sports residency in history, with The Harlem Globetrotters Experience at American Dream in New Jersey.
“This residency, and its many commercial extensions, represents another way to reimagine the experience we bring to our millions of fans. We are excited about its potential to be replicated around the world,” said Dawkins in a release.
The residency, which is the latest example of Keith’s vision to take the Globetrotters to new heights, includes 16 live games against the Washington Generals, special events and other activities over 10 days.
The Future
Keith has accomplished a lot since his appointment in January 2022, and he has no plans of slowing down or diverting from the culture change he’s worked hard to institute
“We’re not a tour,” said Dawkins of the mentality he challenged others to adopt. “We’re this beloved, intellectual global media entertainment property.”
The team will continue to tour and return to MSG, which was the organization’s highest-grossing single game in its history.
With the licensing deal they signed with IMG just getting underway, and more events and partnerships like the American Dream residency, the Globetrotters will continue its ascent and carry the momentum created under its president into the 100-year celebration in 2026, which he expects to be a year-long celebration that everyone everywhere will partake in.
So don’t miss the Globetrotters when they come to your city, because it’s definitely not your parent’s Globetrotters anymore.
