With their gravity-defying basketball trick shots, the Harlem Globetrotters can make a school assembly feel like the final matchup in 1996's Space Jam. Promoter Abe Saperstein founded the legendary exhibition team in 1926 as a way to showcase the talents of Black athletes, who were not yet allowed to play on professional basketball teams. For 12 years, the Globetrotters played standard basketball, but then began adding the comedic routines that would earn them the title of "Clown Princes of Basketball." Today, the team doubles as goodwill ambassadors, constantly speaking out on the importance of bullying prevention and mental health, among other topics. In their 97-year history, the Globetrotters have drafted 10 honorary members, including Henry Kissinger, Bob Hope, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Whoopi Goldberg, Nelson Mandela, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Jesse Jackson, and Robin Roberts. Two others — Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis — added the title to what may already be the most famous job in the world.
In fact, both popes were literal globetrotters well before receiving the honor. During his more than 27-year papacy (1978–2005), polyglot Pope John Paul II visited 129 countries, more than all his predecessors combined. Yet Pope Francis, the first Latin American to lead the Catholic Church, is accruing frequent flyer miles at a faster pace — 10 years into his term as pontiff, he has greeted crowds in at least 53 nations. The Globetrotters, meanwhile, remain the best-traveled basketball squad in history. Pope John Paul II welcomed the team to the Vatican in 1986 and 2000. The latter meeting fell on the eve of the Globetrotters' 75th anniversary, so they presented His Holiness — then aged 80 — with an autographed "75" jersey and basketball. Pope Francis was slightly younger when he became an honorary member, in 2015. Player Flight Time Lang even helped Pope Francis briefly spin a basketball on one finger, to the delight of revelers in St. Peter's Square.
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