The Harlem Globetrotters are a most unusual professional basketball team. They play in no league and have no regular opponents. Instead, they tour the world and take on all comers, blending basic basketball skills, razzle-dazzle athletic prowess, and physical comedy. On one level, the individual Globetrotters, all of whom are African Americans, are multitalented athletes and entertainers. On another level, the flamboyant dribbling, passing, and leaping that are so much a part of their act can be seen as outgrowths of the stereotype of African Americans as physically adept jesters who exist only to smile and amuse.

The Globetrotters came into existence in 1927. Their founder, promoter-businessman Abe Saperstein (1901–1966), owned and coached the team and booked its tours. At first, the Globe-trotters were merely a traveling basketball team that usually thoroughly beat the competition. Legend has it that Saperstein injected comedy into the Globetrotters' game to provide...