The Harlem Globetrotter visit Tony Gemignani at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana
The Basketball World Collides with the Pizza World:
When you get World Champions together you know you are in for something special. When the Champions are from totally different areas, well you get a total mash of talents.
That is exactly what happened when the Harlem Globetrotters visited Tony Gemignani at his Tony’s Pizza Napoletana.
Tony explained his fond memories of his Dad taking his brother Frank and him to see the Harlem Globetrotters play. “It’s one of your childhood memories you grow up with and it stays with you forever,” he stated.
Now the amazing stars and legends of basketball were going to be visiting and playing basketball with him at his restaurant.
Tony, a Legends of Pizza, has distinguished himself as both an incredible pizzaiolo (pizza master) and World Pizza Champion as a pizza acrobat. As a matter of fact he is a 9 time World Pizza Champion.
Inside the pizzeria, Tony amazed the Globetrotters with a few tricks and showed them the finer points of pizza tossing. They explained not only does Tony have some of the best pizza around, but they dubbed him: “He’s a Globe Trotter With the Pizza dough.”
They said: “We want to know the secrets to what you do..What is the first thing? ” And there was Tony giving a pizza tossing lesson to the Harlem Globetrotters! He gave them an intro lesson into pizza tossing. “This trick is the basis for all pizza tricks…” he stated. “Grab it and turn it..”
Then they showed Tony the basics of spinning a basketball. After that they invited him to join the Globetrotters. “He’s got a lot of skills…” they said.
After mincing a few words, the Globetrotters took Tony outside. They explained they were at: ” Here at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, (right on the corner), we are going to have a going to have a Magic Triangle A.K.A. a magic pizza slice…”
And there they were, two Harlem Globetrotters and Tony Gemignani, doing their acrobatics to the familiar strains of “Sweet Georgia Brown“. Tony tossed and flipped his pizza dough. at one point bouncing it off his shoe while the basketball experts tossed and flipped and did everything imaginable with the basketball. They bounced the ball everywhere imaginable. Of course they balanced the ball on the tip of their fingers and spun it. The ball was balanced on the tip of their nose, on their backs, and even the top of their heads. All the while Tony was manipulating the dough in every way possible.
Then they brought out 2 basketballs and Tony brought out two pizzas. Each trying to outshine the other. Laughs, jokes and hugs continued throughout the demonstration. Tony got on his back still tossing the pizzas. Through his legs, under his body and he never missed a beat!
You can see the video of their performance right here:
You can get a copy of Tony’s book: The Pizza Bible, here
You can discover Harlem Globetrotter stuff at this link.
And claim an official Harlem Globetrotter Basketball: