'Ace' attains her dreams to be a Harlem Globetrotter

Crissa “Ace” Jackson faced two fouls against her dream to become a professional basketball player. One, she was a female, and two, she was too short.

But Jackson, a Harrisburg native, proved the naysayers wrong. She talked her father into teaching her to play basketball when she was about 6, and little did he know that his Crissa — who would do 15 pushups when he asked for 10 — was a future Harlem Globetrotter. Jackson is one of four women on the 90-year-old, world-touring team, which makes its annual visit to Pittsburgh on Dec. 26. Globetrotters combine pro basketball with tricks and comedy.

You needn't be a male and 7 feet tall to be a good basketball player, Jackson says, and she proves it. Gender and height are overrated and overvalued, she says; it is courage, heart and drive that make an athlete.

“Right now, I stand a good 5-foot-4,” Jackson jokes. “Throughout my 27 years, I haven't grown too much. … Somebody can be tall, but they don't have the heart and the drive.”

This year, the Globetrotters will play both an afternoon and evening game at PPG Paints Arena. The Globetrotters are known for their acrobatic moves, like spinning basketballs on fingertips, and for making the audience laugh while they play, pretty much always beating their token opponents, for many years the Washington Generals, and now the World All-Stars. And that whistling jazz tune, “Sweet Georgia Brown,” plays constantly during a game.

Audiences, which include all ages and generations, see “how much fun we're having,” Jackson says, and watching the games can provide relief from the stress of daily life.

“You're really going to see … how much energy we have on the field,” she says. “We're playing that game … but we're there because we like to entertain our fans and put smiles on their faces. You never know what the person is going through.”

Then, off the court, each Globetrotter serves as a “Goodwill Ambassador,” promoting causes like bullying prevention and character development.

Players visit places like children's hospitals and schools to promote their programs, and this is one of the many things Jackson loves about being a Globetrotter.

Though men may dominate basketball and most of her teammates are male, a Globetrotter is a Globetrotter despite gender, Jackson says. She doesn't get the “She's a girl; go easy on her” attitude from other players and coaches.

“We're Globetrotters that happen to be female,” says Jackson, who lives in her Harrisburg hometown again. “We're part of the family just as much as one of the guys. … We're not treated differently because we're girls. We love each other all the same; we're like big brothers and sisters.”

Three years after college at Point Loma Nazarene University in California, where Jackson played women's basketball, she got a call from Chris “Handles” Franklin. The Harrisburg man had been her mentor before he became a Globetrotter. He asked Jackson if she wanted to try out for the team.

“My entire family was ecstatic,” she says. They realized that being a Globetrotter was her life's calling.

Jackson joined the team this year — as part of the Globetrotters' 2016 rookie class ­— after working in the fitness industry as a personal trainer, a side venture she still does in her free time. Not that she has much, with trotting around the globe, but Jackson loves her life.

“Growing up I always wanted … to be a professional basketball player, and I always wanted to travel,” Jackson says. “Now, doing what I'm doing, it's exceeding what I thought I was going to do.”

Kellie Gormly is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.