At a quarter past nine, two Harlem Globetrotters walked into the gym of Pimlico Academy in south west London.
Sitting around the outside of the court, still a little asleep, were 50 of the school’s basketball players. As wake up calls come, they don’t get much better than what followed.
Wearing the Globetrotter’s distinctive outfit – part stars and stripes, part circus suit – the two, known as Slick and Tiny, set about showing the kind of skills that make their team the world’s most recognisable basketball entertainers.
Slick casually spun basketballs across his fingertips, while ‘Tiny’, at 7”8 the world’s tallest professional player, only had to reach over his head to demonstrate the slam dunk. Most of the 13-14-year-old pupils were eye-level with his belly-button.
Five players were selected to be given a crash-course in Globetrotter secrets. “The tricks and skills we’ve learned by practising all our life” said Slick, “we’re going to teach you in five minutes.”
He started by flipping a ball through his legs a couple of times, before showing passes off his elbow, then his knee, then his backside. Slick asked the crowd if they thought their team-mates could do the same. Judging by the hoots, they didn’t think it was likely.
But the Pimlico players did manage all three skills. Slick said: “It’s all about belief, in sports and all walks of life. You’ve got to believe in yourselves.”
This is the third year the Globetrotters have visited London schools, as part of an arrangement with Greenhouse. Sarah Louis, the Greenhouse Programme Manager who first attracted the Globetrotter’s to visit, backed up Slick’s message: “This wasn’t just for the young people to see celebrities, it was about the American attitude too, that belief that you can achieve what you want, no matter where you come from.”