The San Francisco Chinese Basketeers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Harlem Globetrotters thawed the Cold War a bit when they played 9 games in Moscow in 1959 – watch this 30 For 30 short all about itÂ
but instead of playing a bunch of Soviet punching bags, they brought their own opponent…
The San Francisco Chinese Basketeers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHINESE!!!!!!!!!!!! Â BASKETEERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but ZERO pictures or footage exist of these Chinese Basketeers!!!
all I could find are these programs, of when they traveled to England during the same year
thankfully someone posted the roster found within the program, so the Chinese Basketeers’ names (real and pretend, although it’s hard to read them clearly, so I tried my best to transcribe them) can live in infamy…
- Willie Lee (Wey Li Lee)
- Taddy Song (Te Day Song)
- Ronald Kim (Lo No Gan)
- Robert Akeo (Da Se Al Keo Oh)
- Lelan Wong (Way Lan Wong)
- Robert Rees (Lee So Chin)
- Donald Ho (Don No Hall)
- Ronnie Hold (Ming Tai Sam)
- Harry Higs (Yip Chang Fong)
and it turns out – most of these dudes were Hawaiian! Â
and some of these dudes also played on other teams the Globetrotters played against, like the ‘Hawaii 50th Staters’, the ‘Honolulu Surfriders” and the ‘San Francisco All-Nations’!!!!