Harlem Globetrotters to tip off their 100th anniversary season at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden has framed some of sports and pop culture’s defining nights. The iconic Harlem Globetrotters are asking New York to add one more on Dec. 14 – their centennial season tipoff.

“When you think about the historic and seismic things that people still talk about that happened at the world’s most famous arena, there aren’t many brands able to say they’ve made it to 100 years — touring the world, impacting people’s lives, bringing joy, hope and laughter everywhere they go,” Globetrotters President Keith Dawkins told amNY. “To kick off this centennial, this historic, monumental centennial at the Garden, it’s just magical, right?”

Founded in 1926, the Harlem Globetrotters have spent a century pushing the game forward and breaking barriers, which is why the Garden makes sense as the starting point. With the opener at MSG, the franchise is foregrounding its New York lineage.

“The first player to sign a professional basketball contract with the Knicks was a Harlem Globetrotter,” Dawkins said, referring to Sweetwater Clifton, who broke the NBA racial barrier in 1950. “So all of these things that we take for granted today, that are just normal, the Globetrotters ushered all of that into not just basketball, but into professional sport as we know it, [and] forever changed the landscape.” Framed that way, what better place to start the next hundred years than the Mecca of basketball?

This “Once in a Century” presentation is built to honor every era of the Globetrotters’ 100-year history. On the floor, more than 60 current Globetrotters are slated to form the largest Magic Circle in team history. Inside the action, the team will debut “Gold Ball” moments that nod to how Globetrotter creativity helped shape the sport, and fans can pick up a limited Spalding Gold Ball in-arena. The day features alumni and celebrity appearances, a postgame fan celebration with autographs and added access, and New York edition collectibles available only at this game. The idea is a fast, family-friendly show that threads 100 years into what you’re seeing now.

The Harlem Globetrotters is kicking off their 100th season at MSG.

Visually, the brand is resetting its look for the next century and returning to the Globetrotters’ roots. “We brought back the iconic red, white and blue, in partnership with legendary designer Jeff Hamilton,” Dawkins said. Hamilton — long known around the NBA for his 75th anniversary jackets and player collaborations — is the kind of designer whose work perfectly honors the legacy of the storied franchise.

Other sports have experimented with entertainment, but hoops remains the most flexible canvas, with handles, lobs, music and movement all working together in real time. Dawkins leaned into that lineage: “Before you saw what Kyrie or Steph — Luka too — could do, the Globetrotters were doing that,” he said. “They laid the groundwork for the magical kind of entertainment style, the blending of entertainment and sport, of fashion and music as part of the fabric of the sport. The Globetrotters were doing that before you even saw that.”

And while the centennial show looks back, the Globetrotters always focus on whoever is seeing the game for the first time. “For some people, that’s their first introduction to just the sport of basketball overall. And in some cases, it’s their first introduction to the wizardry and magic — the skill and the excellence,” he said. “But… It’s also their first introduction to the sport, to American culture, to Black culture, to women playing, right? So it really starts to expand.”

That outlook ties into the Globetrotters’ “Ambassadors of Goodwill” identity that dates back decades. “We were coined by the State Department as the Ambassadors of Goodwill… the way we were bringing this export of… basketball, [and] the best of American values and ideals expressed through the sport… all over the globe,” Dawkins said. “It’s just great to hear that feedback from people of maybe ‘my first introduction to basketball [or] American culture was with the Globetrotters.’ We do it in a special way.”

That “special way” is also the tone in the building. “When you show up… at a Globetrotter game, no one’s yelling at the referees, and no one’s yelling at… the opposing team,” Dawkins said. “It’s just… the best of all of us shows up there, and it’s really pretty special.”

Later this month, the Globetrotters roll the centennial across the map, weaving the same history-forward show into each stop. The Globetrotters kick off their 100-year tour at MSG at noon on Dec. 14.

When/Where: Sunday, Dec. 14, 12:00 p.m., Madison Square Garden

Tickets: Ticketmaster and the MSG Box Office; group and accessibility options available