Professional basketball is coming to Cape Cod on Sunday
Adam Blake, the GM and head coach of the Mass Wolves ABA team. David Hevenor.
After his football and basketball playing days were over due to a torn Achilles tendon at the age of 28, Adam Blake found a new passion in coaching. Blake has coached at the AAU, high school and collegiate levels.
One level was missing: the pros.
Last winter, that changed when Blake signed a contract to become founder, owner, general manager and head coach of the Massachusetts Wolves for the American Basketball Association (ABA).
“I was sitting on my couch last year in my apartment and saw some clips of the ABA on Instagram, and started looking into it (thinking), 'I should start my own team. I think it's that time,'” Blake said. “I (thought), 'You know what? I’m going to do it. I’m not going to put it off for a year. I’m just going to get it started now.'”
Blake wasted no time and did a lot of research in the spring and summer and hosted the first tryouts for the Wolves in September. After finalizing his roster in October, Blake coached his first professional game on Oct. 29 against the Binghamton Bulldogs, the ABA's current top team, and lost 143-85.
“It was a tough game but we learned a lot going there,” Blake said. “It’s been good, but a lot of work. It’s more than I anticipated, but it's been fun. I got together a good representative team in the area.”
The Mass Wolves of the ABA Basketball League. David Hevenor.
ABA's return
The original incarnation of the ABA was established in 1967 and merged with the National Basketball Association in 1976. In 1999, Joe Newman and the late Richard P. Tinkham relaunched the league.
Fast forward to today and there are 132 teams across the country in seven regional divisions. The Wolves play in the Northeast Division with 14 other teams, and play once a week on the weekend for a 20-game slate.
Blake will return to the place where he started his coaching career at Barnstable High when the Wolves take on the Bridgeport Kings at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Blake has 20-25 players involved with the team, but only 15 dress each game. He also has a handful of coaches.
“I didn’t think it would be this much work,” Blake said. “I thought it would be more simple where we go out and play games, but there are so many logistical things. As far as the competition in the league, I don’t think any of us envisioned it would be this tough. It's a really good league with great players.”
Blake grew up in Virginia and Washington D.C., but has lived in Massachusetts (Quincy and Plymouth) for the past 12 years. Most of Blake’s family are from the Cape or southeastern Massachusetts.
Learning curve
Since losing their first game, the Wolves have won two of their last five games, and are 2-4 on the season.
“The first couple of games we struggled obviously because we played some of the better teams in the league,” Blake said. “Ever since we developed a full roster, we kind of got it going. We’ve been a tough out for any team. We are getting better and better and figuring it out now.”
Although this is Blake’s first team he put together from the ground up, it is a process with which he is familiar. For the past eight years, Blake has been the assistant coach and recruiter for the UMass Boston men's basketball team.
“UMass Boston is kind of my home. I’ve done a lot of the recruiting (for men’s basketball) and kind of made a name for myself with coaching and recruiting,” Blake said.
He has also coached with Franklin Pierce University, Lexington Christian Academy, Barnstable High and the Cape Cod Warriors (AAU team).
Meet the team
Charles Mitchell, one of the team's players, went to New Mission High School in Hyde Park, where he helped lead the Titans to two state championships. He then took his talents to UMass Boston, where Blake was coaching. Blake told him about the Wolves and he went to the tryouts.
“Since the first practice, I saw these guys got it and I believe in us, so I joined them,” Mitchell said. “The hardest thing right now is the connection. I know we can get there because I see it, but we just haven’t had that practice or game where we are all connected yet.”
Anthony “Ant” Parker played at Taunton High and Bristol Community College. He previously played for the Providence Pirates in the ABA, but decided to join the Wolves after Blake contacted him.
“The Mass Wolves are closer to home for me, and also I’m from Mass, so I might as well play for the team where I’m from,” Parker said.
For Parker, the ABA is different than other leagues because of the talent and the physicality.
“Usually in college or high school, it’s usually one or two guys that are good, but in this league, it could be a whole team of seven or eight guys that can play at a high level. It's more about chemistry in this league,” Parker said.
Parker will have some chemistry on this team with his little brother Dante Law being his teammate for the first time, ever.
“My brother Anthony texted me, asking if I wanted to play ABA. I never played with my brother because he’s older than me (by five years), so I was like I might as well give it a shot. Playing with my brother would be fun,” Law said.
Dante Law of the Mass Wolves ABA team catches a alley-oop dunk. David Hevenor.
Law played basketball at Taunton and Rhode Island College. In his first season in the ABA, Law is still making adjustments, good and bad.
“The hardest thing is probably the minutes because I play a lot of minutes and I am tired,” Law said. “I like the extra point rule. If you get a steal in the front court, that’s an extra point.”
Aaron Strothers from Onset grew up playing basketball in his neighborhood. He went on to play at Wareham High, followed by a year at Marianapolis Prep School, which earned him a scholarship to play at Merrimack College. He then played overseas for the Cape Verde National Team in 2013, and played in Costa Rica after that.
Following that, Strothers started volunteer coaching with AAU and became an assistant coach with UMass Dartmouth for five years. During his time there, UMass Dartmouth played UMass Boston, and that’s how Blake and Strothers got to know each other.
“Initially he reached out to me to see if any players would be interested and I was like ‘Hey, I still play too,’” Strothers said.
This season, Strothers started his first year at Bridgewater State as an assistant coach, but he has never stopped playing since college.
“The hardest part for me right now is staying in shape because of coaching, and keeping my commitment to the Wolves team because I got two basketball seasons going on at the same time. I also run a non-profit, Village Hoops, to provide resources for the basketball community. The hardest part is trying to do everything at once,” Strothers said.
Strothers said that Blake and his teammates have made the process easier because they know coaching at Bridgewater State is his priority.
As far as the Wolves recent success, Strothers knows they are a new team.
“It just takes time gelling together, learning each other’s games and our team chemistry. I think we’re finally starting to click now and getting to know each other better,” Strothers said.
