WASHINGTON — Herbert “Flight Time” Lang made it look so easy Monday when he dribbled a basketball for the full length of a Potomac River bridge to promote the Harlem Globetrotters’ return to Washington.
Name: 9382780-201710.jpg Caption: Herbert "Flight Time" Lang, a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, spins a basketball on one finger as he crosses the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Washington, DC, March 19, 2012.
Traversing the Key Bridge into the Georgetown district of the US capital, Lang alternately dribbled the ball, slipped it through his legs, rolled it behind his neck and spun it on his fingertip to the amusement of passers-by.
“When I joined the Globetrotters, I couldn’t even spin the basketball on my finger,” said Lang, 35, who joined the world’s best-known exhibition basketball team in 1999 and also stars on US reality television shows.
“You just have to be willing to learn,” he said.
Lang added: “I’ve been to over 90 countries as a Globetrotter — and, I mean, we’re the home team everywhere we go. It’s always nice to always be rooted for, and not rooted against.”
Founded in 1926, the Harlem Globetrotters have played more than 20,000 exhibition games in 118 countries, winning virtually every match with their crowd-pleasing skills.
Their games in Washington this weekend, preceded by publicity stunts and school visits, coincides with the US college basketball championships popularly known as March Madness.