‘Hot Shot’ proves size no issue in basketball
KNOWN as the Michael Jordan of dwarf basketball, Jahmani Swanson is only 1.34m tall, but he is now a Harlem Globetrotter, electrifying fans in the culmination of a childhood dream.
After signing with the world-famous exhibition team earlier this month for their 2018 world tour, the 32-year-old New Yorker, whose Globetrotter nickname is Hot Shot, proved in his debut match in Brooklyn that he is already the team’s most popular player.
He has become a social media sensation, with YouTube videos showing his unique style of play, dribbling the ball between the legs of challengers, and his thrashing of actor Jamie Foxx in a one-on-one or shooting a hoop from all angles.
Swanson, who is at least 22cm shorter than any other Globetrotter ever, is excellent advertising for the entertaining team who have dazzled millions around the world with basketball wizardry.
But Hot Shot is anything but a curiosity -- he is a real basketball player through and through.
Questions and doubts about his abilities are nothing new.
“Every gym, every city I walk into, people are staring down, some are laughing, asking, ‘Who is the little dude? What can he do?’ And that first shot, or that first move, people are going crazy,” Swanson said.
Born to a dwarf mom and an average-height dad, Swanson learnt to dribble and walk at the same time, mom Sabrina recalls.
When he started playing organised basketball at the age of eight or nine, Sabrina said, people wanted to treat him differently.
“I told them, ‘No, treat him like everybody else.’”
Swanson’s main role model was the towering legend of them all -Michael Jordan.
“Everything he did, I practised,” he said.
“I dreamed of this moment as a kid. I never thought I’d be a Harlem Globetrotter. It makes this a Cinderella, magical story.
“It’s just amazing. The journey. The work. Overcoming adversity. Proving to people that I could be here, that I could play.”