363: Sports Promotion Pioneer Abe Saperstein - With Mark & Matt Jacob

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Despite their name, the Harlem Globetrotters weren’t originally from New York's Harlem neighborhood, nor did they start out as true world travellers. This all-Black basketball team, founded by Jewish immigrant Abe Saperstein, originated on Chicago’s South Side and began touring the Midwest rather humbly in Saperstein’s unheated Ford Model T. With his sharp promotional skills and the players’ incredible talent, the Globetrotters quickly grew into an international sensation.

Author-brothers Mark & Matt Jacob ("Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports") step into the box office this week to discuss their definitive new biography of Saperstein, a diminutive visionary whose outsized innovations made a profound impact on basketball - and beyond. Starting in the 1920s, the Globetrotters battled everything from harsh weather to rampant racism, all while building an iconic reputation for excellence and comedy that would captivate audiences worldwide.

But Saperstein's influence stretched far beyond the Globetrotters. He helped keep baseball’s Negro Leagues alive, was a force in getting pitching great Satchel Paige his shot at the majors, and befriended Olympic star Jesse Owens when he fell on hard times. When Saperstein was denied an opportunity to own an NBA franchise, he started the rival American Basketball League, where he helped pioneer the three-point shot, now a staple of the modern game.

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READ EARLY AND OFTEN:

• "Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports" (2024): https://amzn.to/3TNDFaM

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