Central Pennsylvania Kings
To Josiah Peay, the sports landscape around central PA had a huge, round hole.
There were professional and semi-pro baseball, hockey and football teams, but no basketball team. And that was weird.
“If you go around Harrisburg, you’re going to see guys playing basketball,” said Peay, the founder, owner and general manager of the 3-year-old Central Pennsylvania Kings. “Everybody plays it. Everybody watches it. Everybody has a favorite team. Everybody has a favorite player.”
The Kings are based in Middletown and play their home games at the Main Street Gym. With a roster comprised mostly of former local high school and college stars, the team plays a 23- to 24-game season that begins in October and runs into the early part of the new year.
“I played basketball my whole life,” said Peay, a 33-year-old Harrisburg transplant raised in Brooklyn and Queens, N.Y. “I put myself into it, and I think a lot of athletes can relate. When I’m not doing it, my life isn’t going right. Some of these guys need to be around basketball.”
The Kings are associated with and compete in the American Basketball Association, not to be confused with the old ABA, which merged with the National Basketball Association in 1976. With nearly 150 franchises, the current ABA, founded in 2000, is one of the largest professional basketball leagues in the country.
“The league is a fast-paced league,” Peay said. “It’s a high-scoring, high-level brand of basketball. We want to press full court and create a fast pace. Defensively, we just want to be dogs. On offense, we want to move the ball, have fun and trust each other.”
During the 2021-22 campaign, guard Mookie Bates averaged more than 30 points per game to lead Central Pennsylvania in scoring. Now in his early 30s, Bates starred at Central Dauphin East in the late 2000s before going on to play basketball on the small-college level.
“The game is my identity, as far as my life to this point,” Bates said. “I’ve been around it for as long as I can remember. I have a lot of love for the game, maybe too much. For me, it can be therapeutic. When I’m on the court, it seems like everything else goes away.”
Players are reimbursed for their time, and Peay expects them to conduct themselves in a certain manner—to consistently attend practices, games and community events.
The approach is very much related to what Peay is trying to pull off with the Kings, and very much related to the team’s future. The term “professional” goes beyond simply meaning “money,” extending to how players go about their business.
“Last year, our players signed contracts, and they were paid at the end of the season,” Peay said. “This season, there are going to be more opportunities to earn compensation. When people hear about us, the first question out of their mouths is, ‘Do you pay?’ And my first question to them is, ‘Are you willing to do what it takes to earn it?’”
Peay founded the Central Pennsylvania Kings in December 2019, just before the pandemic hit, partly as a way to keep himself involved with the game and partly to quench the area’s thirst for basketball. To this point, the Kings have experienced their share of ups and downs, cancellations, setbacks, growing pains and coaching changes.
The team’s future success will hinge on a mutual support system fostered between themselves and the greater Harrisburg community. Step one is just making sure local residents know who they are and what they’re about.
“I really think basketball means a lot to the city of Harrisburg,” Bates said. “We have some real good talent here. What I like about basketball is how it brings people together. I think our unique style of play can attract people, and, if we can keep winning, I think the Kings can turn even more heads.”
Peay’s venture into the world of professional sports may seem like a risky undertaking, but, according to the owner, it’s one that had to get done.
“Anything worth having in this life isn’t easy,” Peay said. “You have to get through the ‘b.s.’ before you get to the gold. I want to make sure the community has this. I just want people to treat the organization like it’s their baby.”
The Central Pennsylvania Kings play at the Main Street Gym, 32 W. Main St., Middletown. For more information, visit www.cpkingsaba.com.
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