Globetrotters ready to visit Saskatchewan

The Harlem Globetrotters keep coming up with new twists — even after 87 years.

That will be evident when the legendary basketball team visits Saskatchewan as part of the “You Write The Rules’’ tour.

Fans are invited to visit the Globetrotters’ website (www.harlemglobetrotters.com) and select offbeat rules that will be used when the tour stops in their communities. Not only that, the team has incorporated a pink basketball into each game.

“This year, the Globetrotters are embarking on a tour in which we bring awareness to breast cancer,’’ the Globetrotters’ Chris (Handles) Franklin says. “We play a portion of the game with the pink basketball to bring awareness to that dreadful disease.’’

As for the rules, fans can vote on the following options:

■ Using two basketballs at once.

■ Doubling the point total awarded for each basket.

■ A four-point shot, from 35 feet away.

■ A hockey-style penalty box.

■ A short-handed situation, with five Globetrotters facing six opponents.

“The audience or the fans write the rules that we play in the game,’’ Franklin says. “It’s so unique.

“They go online before the game, and whatever rules they vote on, we find out right before the quarter starts and we have to play by those rules. It can be anything.’’

The Globetrotters are playing three games in Saskatchewan, beginning with a Jan. 6 date in Estevan (2 p.m., Spectra Place).

They then appear at the Brandt Centre on Jan. 7 before hitting the court at Saskatoon’s Credit Union Centre the following evening. The games in Regina and Saskatoon are to begin at 7 p.m.

“You don’t even have to be a basketball fan to love the Globetrotters,’’ Franklin says.

“We try to emotionally connect to and thrill every member of the family. Fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters, and grandparents, they all enjoy our brand of family entertainment.’’