Professional basketball team coming to McIntosh County

DARIEN, Ga. (WTOC) - McIntosh County will soon be home to a new professional basketball team, and the team’s owner says Darien was the perfect spot for the new organization.

The new team, the Coastal Georgia Buccaneers, is part of The Basketball League a smaller division made up of 44 teams nationwide.

“We’re the third division in the United States. If we were baseball, we’d be double A, so it would be like MLB, triple A, double A. So it’s NBA, G League, TBL,” Team Market Owner Prescott Mack said.

Mack has owned the TBL’s Dallas team for three years. He says he wanted to start a team in Darien, since he has family ties to the area.

“My wife is a Darien native, born and raised. I took her from Darien to go to Dallas with me, and while we built our businesses in Dallas, we wanted to come here and build the same things here.”

The team will have 10-12 players, and tryouts start in mid-September. Then, practices start after the beginning of 2023. All players in the league are paid.

“It is a full experience for players, and it’s exciting because they embed themselves in the community. We encourage them to be role models and influencers in their community.”

Mack says the team’s games and practices will be at McIntosh Academy, while they’re building a practice facility of their own.

The Buccaneers are set to have their first game in March.

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