No, if they were top of the line, they would be in the NBA. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t very, very good — probably good enough to beat almost any college team.
But they must have been AWESOME back in the days when black players weren’t allowed in the NBA.
The Globetrotters do sometimes play ‘real’ basketball games, and always have. In particular, they did so in 2003.
From Wikipedia:
Two years later they “set aside the hallmarks” for a “three-week, no-nonsense tour against college teams” from men’s Division One. “There are no ballhandling displays to the tune of “Sweet Georgia Brown”, no buckets of water or confetti thrown, and no Washington Generals to act as their inept foils.” On November 10 and 11 at Vanderbilt University and the University of Maryland, another defending champion, they lost close games to both teams, their first consecutive defeats since 1961. Yet the tour probably marked a decade of improvement as a competitive team.[11] On November 3, 2003, the Globetrotters had a streak of 288 consecutive victories snapped after suffering an 89-88 loss to the UTEP Miners, who had just six victories the season before. It was their only loss during an eight-game college tour, where the Globetrotters had defeated Michigan State (97-83), UMass (77-68) and defending national champion Syracuse (83-70).
Side question - I oftern wonder how a awesome Division III team would do against a poor Div I tem. I’m thinking spefically the Bo Ryan era UW-Platteville Pioneers in one of thier undefeated seasons. I think they could beat some Div I teams.
Brian
Hmm.
Seems Anthony didn’t play in that game. One other starter didn’t play either. ~45% of their starting points didn’t play. MSU wasn’t very good that year and UMass didn’t make the tournament.
Still, seems like they’re decent. About equal to a midlevel college team.
Well, they’re made up of the best players from midlevel college teams, essentially (or rather, the good players from small schools and some of the shitty ones from bigger schools). They’re roughly NBADL level talent, with some old showmen mixed in. So it makes some sense.
Let’s make it a slightly more interesting question: could a college basketball all-star team, given a couple weeks to practice together, beat an NBA team?
To keep it fair, let’s say the NBA team has had only a couple weeks to practice together, too, so it’s not just about knowing teammates. But they individually still have their experience with the faster pace of the pro game. We’re also assuming each team is trying hard to win.
The NFL used to match a team of graduated college all-stars vs. the defending NFL champion. The college guys lost the last 12 games, tho they had an overall record of 9-31-2.
Hey, I’m pretty sure there used to be a college all-stars vs. NFL champs game.
? Whoosh ?
It’s only been mentioned in this thread about five times.