The Greater Hartford Pro-Am struggled to find a suitable home for years.
For its 25th anniversary season in 2023, thanks to a good word from Hall of Famer and former UConn coach Jim Calhoun and sponsorship support from Hartford Healthcare, the league settled at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford. It rebranded to the Basketball Capital Pro-Am last summer and this year, for the first time, introduced a $20,000 prize for the winning team.
“God bless the legend, Jim Calhoun, he wanted us here,” said Windsor native Pete Higgins, who founded the league in 1997, after drawing inspiration from a pro-am he stumbled across in Hampton, Virginia, two years earlier, which featured then-Georgetown star Allen Iverson.
In the pro-am setting, five-on-five, competitive rec-style basketball, the players are the ones who attract crowds. In its early days, that was no problem for the GHPA. Hartford native Marcus Camby played in 1997 after his rookie season with the Toronto Raptors, Old Saybrook native Vin Baker was involved and even Ray Allen, the UConn legend and Hall of Famer, played one summer while he was with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Eventually, NCAA waivers allowed college players to participate during their summers, and Calhoun, who also coached at St. Joseph’s, would encourage his players to take part. Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Andre Drummond, Donny Marshall, Kevin Ollie, Jerome Dyson, Shabazz Napier – the list goes on. But then it slowed down, particularly around the pandemic, as colleges were allowed to welcome student-athletes back on their campuses to work out during the summer.
In order to attract top players, there had to be a prize. Leagues in New York were doing it, leagues in Boston were doing it.
Higgins used former Quinnipiac star Chaise Daniels, who grew up in Meriden, as an example.
“Chaise Daniels is in there. If it’s a money tournament, he’s playing in that before he’s gonna play in his pro-am game. He might show up for the playoffs, but if it’s a money tournament, he’s got to do what he’s got to do,” Higgins said, as Daniels sat in the gym about two hours before his game tipped off Tuesday night.
“Now he’s early. Chaise Daniels is early. He’s like scouting (the game before his). So it means more. I don’t want to say I hate that we had to do it, but sometimes you’ve just got to move and shift and pivot so it works for everyone.”
The prize money was generated by team sponsors; each had to pitch in to the pot.
“Our big sacrifice was a lot of Division I kids that would come, like Tyler Betsey (a Windsor native who finished his freshman season at Cincinnati and recently transferred to Syracuse), a few others that had reached out and we were like, ‘We don’t have the certifications now,’” Higgins said.
Division III players and prospects are able to participate, but they cannot accept prize money.
The league is more attractive now to players from the area who are playing professionally overseas, like Hartford native Kahlil Dukes, who is playing pro in Hungary, Middletown’s Elijah Pemberton, playing in Germany, and Windsor’s Corey McKeithan, playing in Puerto Rico.
“Guys are a little more focused, they got a little more purpose now,” Higgins said.
This summer’s pro-am began on Sunday and the regular season will run through the end of July, with eight of the 10 teams competing in the playoffs starting Aug. 1. Games, free to attend, are played in doubleheaders on Sundays (5 p.m., 7 p.m.), Wednesdays and Fridays (6 p.m., 8 p.m.), along with one Monday doubleheader on July 21.
“Over the 20 years that I’ve been involved with it, it’s grown tremendously. Even in the mid-2000s I saw a lot of the UConn players come in. I remember we were at Fox Middle and it would be jam-packed in there to watch great basketball… It was great for people because people never really see them up close,” said Dwayne Mack, deputy commissioner. “I’ve seen the league go from here to there and I see what Pete does to make it work… It’s a great community event and I love it. I love being a part of it.”
