How South Carolina WBB assistant Jolette Law became a Harlem Globetrotter
.jpg "South Carolina assistant women’s basketball coach Jolette Law during her days as a Harlem Globetrotter.")
Not everyone can say their first real job was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Jolette Law can.
Law has been one of Dawn Staley’s assistant coaches for the South Carolina women’s basketball team since 2017. But there was a time when Law laced up her sneakers and donned the iconic red, white and blue jersey of the Globetrotters.
The Globetrotters made two stops on their current tour in South Carolina. Law, once her college career at Iowa was over, played with the Globetrotters for four years in the early 1990s before beginning her coaching career.
When one door closes, another opens
The opportunity to play for the Globetrotters basically fell into Law’s lap.
A representative from the famous traveling exhibition basketball program was present at the U.S. women’s basketball national team trials. Law was hoping to represent the USA in the Pan America Games, but she didn’t make the team.
Law had just wrapped up her time as an All-Big Ten player at Iowa. And her performance at the national team tryouts was enough for the Globetrotters to reach out with an invitation.
“I thought it was a joke at first,” Law recalled to The State. “I went back home, dealing with [my] first time ever being cut from a team, and they were like, ‘We want to fly you out to Orlando, Florida, to try out for the Globetrotters.’ And I’m like, ‘What?!’”
With no prior knowledge of how to spin a basketball on her finger or how to execute many of the tricks associated with the Globetrotters, Law was skeptical at first. But the Globetrotters assured Law that her charisma and style of play would make her a good fit with the organization.
The next thing she knew, Law was in the middle of a two-week training camp fighting (with men and women) for the right to join the Harlem Globetrotters.
The tryout wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Law was just “playing basketball, enjoying life” and learning some tricks along the way.
After surviving a few rounds of cuts, Law was officially offered a contract to play for the Globetrotters. She made a quick call to her agents — OK, it was actually to her parents — who both approved.
Law signed the deal.
“Ended up signing the contract and played four years with them,” Law said. “Traveled the world. Had an opportunity to be a queen amongst a lot of kings. It was a blessing just to be able to travel the world doing something that I love.”
Life as a Globetrotter
Law did world tours with the Globetrotters from 1991 to 1994.
While yes, being a Globetrotter is inherently fun, Law said the touring life is a grind.
“We went to Japan — you are in Japan for 30 days, and you’re performing for 30 days, practicing in between,” Law said. “Do a show in Tokyo. The next day, you go on to Osaka next. It was an everyday thing. It was a grind. When they say world tour, I went all over the world. I’ve been to Europe, I’ve been to Asia, I’ve been to Australia.”
An individual Globetrotter typically has a unique talent or skill that sets them apart on the roster. One player might be known for dunking, another might be a sharpshooter and some are just straight-up showpeople.
Although Law joined the organization with minimal flashy skills, beyond her general basketball talents, she found a niche on the team as a dribbler, juggler and half-court shooter.
Her teammates praised her passes as “poetry in motion,” and that helped her earn the nickname Jolette “Jazzy” Law during her time as a Globetrotter (though it had its origins in her days at Iowa).
“It was like a lot of on-the-job training,” Law said. “… My coaches were great. The guys were great, and they taught me a whole lot just about life.
“You’ve got to be ready. When the lights come on, you can’t complain — I’m tired, or I’m achy, or we didn’t get in until 2 o’clock in the morning. Once those people bought that ticket and the lights turn on, you’ve got to be able to perform.”
Law felt pressure as the lone woman on the Globetrotters’ roster. Law wasn’t the first woman to be a Globetrotter — that honor belongs to Lynette Woodward, who signed in 1985 — but she was still one of the first.
Law considered that pressure an honor and did her best to represent women in sports and in workplaces in general.
“Every time there’s an interview, I had to do it because I’m the only girl,” Law said. “And if there were any TV shows, I got to be on. So that was something that I had to adjust to … I couldn’t say I’m tired, or I can’t. I had to always be on. So that taught me a lot.”
While it was a busy life, there’s still plenty from her tenure that Law looks back on fondly. She still keeps in touch with her Globetrotters teammates, with most of whom she graced the fronts of Wheaties cereal boxes.
Her reputation as a Globetrotter also helped land Law a cameo in the music video for MC Hammer’s song “2 Legit 2 Quit” after he watched Law play in Los Angeles. Law only appears for a few seconds but is the only female athlete who makes an appearance in the 15-minute video alongside several Hall of Famers like Isiah Thomas, Deion Sanders and Wayne Gretzky.
“For that little take that I was on there it went, a lot into that … it took about four days out in LA,” Law said. “… That made me proud that I was the only woman in that video other than his dancers. So all the celebrities were men, basketball players, football players, and he wanted me.”
From globetrottin’ to coaching
When Law’s days as a Globetrotter ended, her mentor and former head coach, C. Vivian Stringer, helped push her into the world of coaching.
Law was having fun and wanted to keep playing for as long as she could. She decided to hang up her red, white and blue Globetrotters jersey in 1994. She had an offer to be a graduate assistant at North Carolina but opted to take an assistant coach position at Ball State instead.
Law was worried she wouldn’t know what to do as a coach, but her Globetrotter teammates helped calm her nerves.
Then-Ball State head coach Robyn Markey said, “I’m offering you a position … I’m like, ‘But I don’t really know what’s going on,’” Law said. “But then a couple of my Globetrotter guys were like, ‘You learned how to become a Globetrotter. So that should be easy.’”
Law’s one-year stint with Ball State kick-started what became a 20-plus year career as a coach. She’s had stops at Rutgers and Tennessee as an assistant and was Illinois’ head coach from 2007 to 2012. Law joined Staley’s staff at South Carolina in 2017.
“My on-the-job training with the Globetrotters helped me become the coach I am today,” she said.
Those days as a Globetrotter are far behind her now, but every now and then, a player will find out about Law’s playing days and be shocked.
“Raven (Johnson), the ones I recruited, they know, but I try to stay with, ‘I’m a coach now,’” Law said. “Back then, yes, I played with the Globetrotters, but a lot of them probably wouldn’t even know what the Globetrotters are. When the Globetrotters are in Colonial Life they say, ‘Oh my God, coach. So that was you?’”
This story was originally published December 7, 2025 at 7:49 AM.
