New Berkshires ABA Basketball Franchise Holds Tryouts this Weekend
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The largest professional sports league in the world is coming to the Berkshires, and the league’s newest owner is looking to find local talent to fill out his roster.
Ellis Green acquired a franchise in the American Basketball Association with hopes of giving players a chance “to express their love and dedication to the game.”
This weekend at the Berkshire Family YMCA, aspiring pros will have a chance to prove their skills and earn a spot on the Berkshire Mountaineers, who are set to launch their inaugural season this fall.
Tryouts are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the 292 North St. facility. The tryout fee is $100 in advance or $125 at the door.
A New York City native who attended and played basketball for Berkshire Community College, Green also was a member of the ABA’s Harlem Underdogs..
“It was a great experience as far as teammates, meeting new people, building bonds and forming long-lasting relationships,” Green said this week. “But on the other hand, I’ve seen where, being a player and looking at certain situations, where I’d be able to handle it more efficiently or at least a little better than it was handled when I was a player.”
One of those situations led Green to end his playing days with the New York City franchise.
“It was midseason when COVID hit,” he said. “When COVID hit, it slowed everything down. And I was waiting on my coach to give me a plan because I wanted to see my family, wanted to stee my grandmother and didn’t want to get her sick.
“I said, ‘Show me the plan, and I’m there.’ But he never showed me the plan. He just told me to show up at the gym. That’s when I parted ways.”
Green then started working a number of jobs in the Berkshires, but he never lost his connection to the game.
“I’ve been playing basketball since I was 3,” he said. “This is my life. It’s like breathing the air.”
And when he saw an opportunity to get back involved with the league at the ownership level, he jumped at the chance.
“I played around here, and we need something,” he said. “We have little tournaments here and there, but the Berkshires needs a team.”
Fortunately for Green, Pittsfield was a market that fits in well with the ABA’s East Region Blue Division.
According to the ABA website, that 10-team division includes teams in Bennington, Vt.; New Haven and Bridgeport, Conn.; Lewiston, Maine; Manchester, N.H.; Providence, R.I.; and New Bedford, Quincy and Springfield.
The nearby White Division has teams in Albany and New York’s Hudson Valley region.
If that sounds like a lot of teams in the Northeast, that is because the ABA has a lot of teams everywhere.
There are well more than 100 active franchises listed on the league’s website with divisions from the Northeast Blue to the West Region’s Black Division with squads in Chula Vista and San Diego, Calif.
Teams have come and gone over the years, but the 2023-24 season will have a bumper crop of expansion programs, including the Mountaineers.
The contemporary ABA traces its roots to the legendary league that rivaled the National Basketball Association for attention in the 1960s and ‘70s. The original ABA merged with the NBA in 1976, but the ABA was reborn in 2000.
Like the previous incarnation of the ABA, which popularized the 3-point line, the contemporary ABA is an innovator. Its current rules include a 4-point shot for baskets made from beyond the half point line and the ability to keep a player on the floor after a sixth foul with the provision that subsequent fouls on that player will be assessed as technical fouls with the opponent getting free throws and possession.
Among Green’s many obligations as the Mountaineers’ owner and, so far, sole employee, was finding a home for the team. He said he has entered an agreement with Berkshire Community College to host home games at its Paterson Field House.
He is looking to schedule at least 10 home games in the first season and a 20-game schedule for the team. ABA teams need to play at least 16 regular season games in order to qualify for the post-season, he said.
Not that trophies are all that matters for Green.
“This is the opportunity to show the youth there’s a better way to do things and motivates them to be a better person on and off the court,” he said in a March ABA news release announcing the Mountaineers’ first season.
He is currently trying to fill the coach and general manager positions with the team, and, to date, he has not signed any players to a contract to play with the Mountaineers. Those contracts typically pay players anywhere from $50 to $300 per game depending on the agreement between the athlete and team, Green said.
“Hopefully, I’ll be able to pay them $300 a game,” he said. “All this funding has to come from the big honcho, myself.”
It is just one of many responsibilities Green is carrying in what has become a full-time job to get the Mountaineers up and running.
“I’ve got to have enough money to meet players’ needs, which is why I need some help with funding,” he said. “It’s a work in progress.
“I do have sponsorship packages. If you get to Level 3, there’s special incentives in there like a special night for your company. You could choose a person from the company to dress up as our 13th man. I think that’s a sports fan’s dream to be able to suit up with the pros.”
To sign up for this weekend's tryouts or to ask about sponsorship opportunities with the team, email Ellis Green at berkshiremoutaineersaba@gmail.com.
