The iconic basketball team Harlem Globetrotters petitioned NBA commissioner Adam Silver to be considered as a candidate to join the league as an expansion franchise. In a letter sent to Silver on Monday, they asked to be rewarded for the team’s work in helping spread basketball around the world by welcoming him to the league.
“As an organization whose history is already closely interwoven with that of the NBA, the Harlem Globetrotters are seeking a seat at the table that they should have done a long time ago,” Globetrotters general manager Jeff Muun said in a statement. “Our players were instrumental in the integration of the league dating back to 1949. We are proud that our players were drafted by NBA teams. “
“Now, after years of attracting the best black players, it is time for the NBA to recognize our contribution to the game. With the league already considering expansion, the time has come. The Harlem Globetrotters are ready to negotiate a franchise “, Held.
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Silver has fueled speculation that the NBA is considering adding a 31st team to the league, telling ESPN In an interview last December that expansion was inevitable: “It’s kind of a manifest destiny for the league that you expand at some point.
Seattle has long been considered the favorite of any new NBA franchise. The city has been without a team since the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 and would theoretically have a stronger case than the Globetrotters given that New York already has two NBA representatives.
The Globetrotters were founded in 1926 and are best known as a traveling exhibition box that has played thousands of games in 122 countries around the world. However, the team has contributed several key moments in NBA history, most notably when Globetrotter Nathaniel Clifton became the first African-American player to be signed by the league in 1950.
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With information from AFP
