Next Stop for Harlem Globetrotters: Outer Space

Trotters to Journey Where No Other Basketball Team Has Gone Before, with Team
Basketball Aboard NASA`s Final Mission to Hubble Space Telescope

PHOENIX--(Business Wire)--
The world-renowned Harlem Globetrotters, whohave already left their indelible
mark on 120 countries and six continents during their 83-year history, will now
expand their historic travels to outer space.

The Globetrotters will become the first basketball team to send a ball to the
Hubble Space Telescope when they launch an authentic Spalding Harlem
Globetrotters ball from Kennedy Space Center in Florida today on board the space
shuttle Atlantis - part of NASA`s fifth and final shuttle mission to the Hubble.

The team`s signature red, white and blue ball, a Globetrotters` staple since
1985, will accompany the seven-member Atlantis crew on their 11-day mission to
service the 19-year-old observatory, which orbits 350 miles above Earth.

"It is only fitting that the team that has seen more of the world than any other
in history would have a presence beyond the stratosphere," stated Globetrotters
CEO Kurt Schneider. "This Globetrotters basketball will serve as an
intergalactic symbol of accomplishment."

NASA has taken pieces of historical and pop culture significance on an array of
voyages in their 50-plus-year history. The Wright Flyer got only a few feet off
the ground during its maiden flight in 1903, but wood and fabric from the Flyer
was carried to the moon 66 years later by Apollo 11. A lightsaber prop used by
Mark Hamill in his role as Luke Skywalker in "Return of the Jedi" was taken on
Discovery`s trip to the International Space Station in 2007. And, of course,
there are the two golf balls that astronaut Alan Shepard carried to the moon on
Apollo 14 in 1971 and hit with a makeshift club.

Upon its return from space, the Globetrotter basketball will be placed in the
team`s exhibit at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, where the
Globetrotters are one of only six teams ever to be inducted.

The Original Harlem Globetrotters have entertained over 130 million fans in 83
consecutive years of touring, crossing barriers between cultures, societies and
people from all walks of life. For the latest news, visit
www.harlemglobetrotters.com.

Harlem Globetrotters, Phoenix
Brett Meister, 602-258-0000, ext. 104
meister@harlemglobetrotters.com

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