The Harlem Globetrotters Just Signed A 4-Foot-5 Jahmani Swanson, Dubbed ‘The MJ of Dwarf Basketball’

The Harlem Globetrotters just signed their smallest player in its 90 year history. His name is  Jahmani “Hot Rod” Swanson, a 32-year-old, 4’5” baller who grew up making a name for himself on the courts of Harlem. That is where he earned the nickname, “The Michael of Jordan of Dwarf Basketball.”

Swanson, who claims he has a 45-inch vertical jump, played for Monroe College in the Bronx before joining on with touring exhibition teams. In 2011, he tried out for the Globetrotters and played in a few games in 2016 before the team finally signed him. He’s so bullish on his new team that he thinks they could beat the New York Knicks.

“I think the Knicks would be done in by our skills,” he said. “We have players that could play in the NBA and they chose this path.”

Unlikely, but I won’t rain on the little man’s parade.

Swanson will play his first team game in his hometown of New York on Dec. 26, claiming his entire block has been asking him for tickets.

“People underestimate me all the time and that’s what really motivates me more,” Swanson told the New York Post in 2014. “People think if they’re bigger than me they can post me up, but just because I’m small it doesn’t mean I’m weak…People come at me because they want to think that I’m not that good,” he said. “I love it. It’s been something I’ve been facing since I was one or two years old.”

Harlem Globetrotters employees earn $73,000 annually on average, according to Career Bliss. A fat paycheck for playing theater basketball.

[h/t New York Post]