Entertainment

This 'Bachelorette' Contestant Was A Harlem Globetrotter & His Skills Are Jaw-Dropping

ABC/Craig Sjodin

There are no shortage of former professional athletes on Becca's season of The Bachelorette, but one of the guys has a particularly awesome item on his resume. Videos of The Bachelorette's Christon as a Harlem Globetrotter are kind of amazing, and the official Globetrotters' YouTube channel, linked below, even features one of them.

Apparently, Christon (Chris) Staples specializes in slam dunking. His Bachelorette biography says that one day, after he'd grown weary of his corporate job, he hit up the famous, theatrical basketball group to see if they had a place for him, and they did. Now, according to the bio, he is a "professional dunker" based in Los Angeles. And while that's definitely a bit of an unusual profession to list, videos of the 31-year-old quickly explain why he achieved so much success. Christon, who goes by "Smooth" has his Globetrotters' name, can pull off some seriously impressive stunts.

The Globetrotters aren't his only accomplishment, either — he's won competitions with his dunking skills. According to NBC Los Angeles, Christon won a charity Dunk Fest in 2016 after leaping over a moving corvette, and jumping over four children before a 360-degree spin. So, yeah, his skills are pretty impressive.

See For Yourself:

If you've somehow made it this far through life without hearing about the Harlem Globetrotters, oh boy, are you missing out. Their events are a blend of impressive athletic skill and family friendly entertainment — it's more a performance than a game or competition. But that doesn't mean they're any less of an historic team — the site also states that the Globetrotters won their first World Basketball Championship in 1940, and defeated the World Champion Minneapolis Lakers in 1948 and 1949.

According to the Chicago Tribune, this 1948 victory over the Lakers was a huge milestone toward fully integrating basketball, as it proved once and for all that black players were just as talented and likely to draw a crowd as white players. Now, the team has changed pace a bit, and has put on their shows for more than 146 million fans in 123 countries.

The Oakland Press also reports that Christon also utilized his skills for commercials for ABC and McDonald's before stepping into an actual, bona fide acting role. And apparently, this role in Slamma Jamma last year was the reason he left the Globetrotters, at least for a while. “I had to take a step back and think about my career at that point. I had great success with the Globetrotters and was making moves as far as branding myself and getting my name out there," he told the paper. "I decided to take a chance and resign from the Globetrotters and try acting and make this movie.”

He also said in the same piece that he wasn't really looking toward what was next for him, signalling that perhaps he wasn't thinking that far back about appearing on The Bachelorette. “I’ve been so busy promoting this film that I don’t know what’s next,” he says. “Hopefully this is the first step to open the doors to other acting opportunities.” Hmmm... let's hope Christon is competing for Becca for the right reasons, but it does sound like he sure wouldn't be opposed to any national television exposure that could help his brand. And who could really blame him? That's what plenty of people who appear in the franchise do, and he seems like a perfectly nice guy — only time will tell if he and Becca are truly a good match.

For now, though, he'll be wooing Becca along with the other 27 men in the house, and it's clear that he could probably school any of them if there's a basketball hoop anywhere around the house.