Harlem
Giebetrotiers
play tonight

Beb Mackin

Sports Reporter
inmackin@nsnews.com

SOMEDAY Troy
Pennington will taste
victory.

Maybe it will happen
tonight at GAY Place. (That's
a big maybe, baby.)

Asa member of the New
York Nationals, Pennington
gets about 200 chances a year.

But it’s hard to win if
you're playing the Harlem
Globetrotters every night.

“We try hard. It’s not for a
lack of effort,” Fennington
said.

The most famous barn-
storming team and comedy
act in sports doesn’t lose often
on the basketball court. The
Globetrotters went 8,829
games from 1971 to 1995
without « loss until meeting
an all-star team assembled bv
legendary Kareem Abdul-
Jabbar.

Despite the Globetrotters*
perennial domination of the
Nationals, and their predeces-
sor the Washington Generals,
Pennington said all the games
are legitimate.

“They really are a skilled
team, We’re sometimes in awe
of what they do.”

The Globetrotiers were
founded in 1927 by Abe
Saperstein. The team was an
outlet for the best African-
American basketball players in
North America and won the
1940 World Professional
Basketball Tournament in
Chicago. In 1946 they played
their 3,000th game in
Vancouver (a year ago they hit
the 20.000 mark). The team
has boasted characters like
Gees Ausbie, Curly Neal,
Meadowlark Lemon and
Sweet Lou Dunbar. The
greatest to don the blue, red
and white Globetrotters jersey
was Wilt Chamberlain. He

. played in 1958 before
embarking on a cecord-break-
ing career.

Pennington has been with

Harlem Globetrotters’ photo

THE legendary Harlem Globetrotters meet the New
York Nationals tonight at GM Place.

the Nationals since his debut
on Christmas Eve in 1995 at
Dayton, Ohio. He was discov-
ered by the team’s owner, bas-
ketball legend Red Klotz, at a
tryout camp in Albany, N.Y.

Pennington is a product of
Methodist College in North
Carolina and is originally from
New Bern, N.C. The six-foot-
two point guard served as
player/coach last year of one
Nationals’ squad last year and
captains the one that is tour-
ing with the Globetrotters on
this side of the continent.
(There are owo Globetrotters
and Nationals” teams on the
oad simultancously because
there aren’ enough days in a
year for one team of each to
satisfy audience demand.)

He said it’s every basket-

BC Hydro is asking you not. to
attach posters and advertisements
to power poles because it presents
a hazard to lineworkers.

B.C. Workers’ Compensation Board
regulations prohibit posters and
other such attachments on utility
poles because of possible injury to
workers slipping on nails. staples
and cards. BC Hydro has the right
to remove any signs, posters or
advertisements found on power poles.

For additional information please
contact your local BC Hydro office.

TNE

POWER

1s youas

BEhydro

ball player’s dream t> plav in
the Nationa! Basketizail
Association, but he has neo
regrets.

“I get paid to play the
game [ fove and [ meet so
many nice people all over the
world,” Pennington said.

Stamps on his passport
include Lebanon, Croatia and
South Africa, places most
NBA players never see.

Despite their sad-sack rep-
uation, Pennington said the
Nationals do get fans who
show up and cheer them on
against the Globetrotters.

The Globetrotters and the
Nationals tip-off at 7 p.m.
tonight.

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