Go ahead and celebrate, Golden State Warriors. You may have the longest opening-season win streak in NBA history -- in fact, in the history of all four major American professional sports -- but in the grand scheme of things, you've accomplished nothing.
Here to remind you: who else but the Harlem Globetrotters, holders of the greatest run of dominance in sports?
Congrats to the @Warriors on their 27-game win streak. They're now just 3,562 short of our current mark.
— Harlem Globetrotters (@Globies) December 9, 2015
We're starting to get worried though...
— Harlem Globetrotters (@Globies) December 9, 2015
Some context is needed here. Most sports fans understand that the Globetrotters play the bulk of their games against teams where they are the heavy favorites. And sure, sometimes they may bend the rules of the game a bit -- all in the name of entertainment, of course.
And yes, their record win streak remains unconfirmed and almost certainly fudged by the team, which has had a fondness over the years of tweaking the numbers to expand their myth. But the Globetrotters still have plenty of street cred. In 1948, for example, they defeated the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers in one of the greatest upsets ever.
Both Mikan and the Lakers were dominant at the time, and the Globetrotters weren't expected to win. Over the years, the team has managed to hold its own against other semi-pro and college teams. They maintain -- and this is unconfirmed, but nonetheless -- a .985 all-time winning percentage.
So maybe the Globetrotters' mark deserves an asterisk. It still looms large over Golden State.
