Boston's own to operate new Boston ABA team
July 20, 2006 - American Basketball Association (ABA)
Boston Blizzard News Release
Boston, MA. ABA basketball is slated to return to the city of Boston in 2007-2008, but this time not just in name alone. A new ownership group has finalized a deal to acquire the rights to the city of Boston from the owners of the Cape Cod Frenzy, and they intend for the team to play their home games in Beantown. Andrew Mirken, a Boston native and local area coach, has reunited with his former players to form a new group, called Boston's Finest LLC.
A previous Boston ABA team, the Boston Frenzy, met with limited success in their first two year of existence and never played a home game in Boston itself. Instead, the team played its games at UMass-Dartmouth and high schools in southeastern Massachusetts. "That was one of the reasons we moved the Frenzy to Cape Cod," explained Cape Cod Frenzy GM Ian McCarthy. "We felt the team needed to be a part of a community to be successful."
In addition to Mirken, who is also the president & founder of SportsFuzion Inc., an official licensee of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Boston's Finest LLC is comprised of: Winford 'Eggie' Mcrae, a former UTEP star guard and former Boston Frenzy Head Coach Randell Jackson, a former NBA player with the Dallas Mavericks and Washington Wizards, and Scoonie Penn, a former star point guard at Boston College and Ohio State and a second round draft choice of the Atlanta Hawks in 2000.
The group has a rich history connected to Boston basketball. The four met each other through BABC (Boston Amateur Basketball Club), Boston's AAU organization known nationally for hosting the prestigious Boston Shootout.
In addition to BABC, Mirken also has coacihng experience at Cambridge Ridge and Latin and Westwood High Schools. Egie Mcrae, who played high school basketball at Boston's Mission High, split coaching duties last year between Bunker Hill Community College and the Boston Frenzy, for whom he also occasionally suited up. Randell Jackson, a seven footer, was a McDonald's All American at Winchendon Prep School in 1995 and currently plays professionally in China. Scoonie Penn, a collegiate All American, now plays professionally in Greece.
"We are extremely excited about giving back to the community that we love and have played in for over 15 years," exclaimed Andrew Mirken. "With this ownership group in place we now have relationships all over the city, country and world to involve the right players and people to have a championship team come back to Boston."
For more information, please contact Andrew Mirken at amirken@aol.com or visit www.bostonamateurbasketballclub.com or www.sportsfuzion.com or www.abalive.com.
Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.
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