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By InsideHoops.com

Mousey is one of the most successful street basketball coaches at the EBC in Rucker Park of all time. You'll see some of the teams and players he's coached below. InsideHoops.com and Mousey met up for an interview. Note that this was recorded in late July, 2003, a month before the league's playoffs (Terror Squad wound up winning the 2003 EBC Rucker Park championship due to forfeit over S.Carter.). Other media, if you use this info (or any info on our site, ever), credit us. Thank you.

InsideHoops.com: Introduce yourself.

Mousey: Hi, how you doing, this is Mousey, coach of the Terror Squad, formerly coach of the Bad Boy team. Last year's defending champs.

InsideHoops.com: Where'd you grow up, what'd you do as a kid and in the past?

Mousey: I used to play ball for John F. Kennedy high school, and I went to Rice high school, I played there as a freshman, then I transferred to Kennedy. I live in Harlem...

InsideHoops.com: Which Kennedy was that?

Mousey: John F. Kennedy in the Bronx. I played there three years. Then after that I got into coaching. Me and Future decided to start a team. So I named it Mousey's Dream Team, and we started out with nothing but high school kids. We had Stephon Marbury, Shammgod Wells, Kareem Reid, Curry Thompson, it was nothing but a high school team, playing out here in the Rucker. That was like about 11 years ago. Then we added Terry Dehere, Rhodrick Rhodes, all of them names were like NBA players. Then, after that we switched over to Bad Boy, we added Elton Brand, Ron Artest, Erick Barkley, Omar Cook, Art Long, Zach Randolph, to name a few NBA players before they made the NBA played with me at the Rucker, when they was young.

InsideHoops.com: And how did you get so many great players to run with you?

Mousey: I used to go to a lot of high school games... and if it wasn't for me, I don't think there would even be a Main Event or a Half-Man, Half-Amazing (the streetball players) if it wasn't for me. Honestly, that's what I think. You can ask them that yourself.

InsideHoops.com: Tell me about that, how'd you find them and bring them out?

Mousey: I met Half-Man through Charles Jones, he told me to come watch him in Brooklyn. That was about ten years ago I went out to Brooklyn, he did some amazing dunks, after that, that was all she wrote.

InsideHoops.com: Was he a high school player back then?

Mousey: No, he was a college player, I think it was New York Tech, maybe a sophomore or freshman. And Charles Jones was in high school back then. And then after that, the following year, we met Main Event, I met him playing... he was playing with the Gauchos. I met him and then after that me and him became friends...

InsideHoops.com: And again this was how far back?

Mousey: This was maybe another ten years ago, so, this is how far back me and Half-Man and Main Event go back.

InsideHoops.com: You've been here a long time. Bring us back.

Mousey: Oh man, I've been here when it was $750 to get a tournament, when I used to pay for it out of my pocket. Now, I can't even afford it, it's so... big that it's $10,000 to get in, so imagine if I try to get my own team at $10,000. Which I wish I could, so I could keep representing Mousey's Dream Team. Now, I'm doing my own tournament, I'm starting it out, Mousey's Dream Team, at 145th street and Lenox, it's from 10 years old to 16 years old, and I have a website, can I say it?

InsideHoops.com: Absolutely.

Mousey: It's mouseysdreamteam.com.

InsideHoops.com: You got it. So as for Rucker Park, talk about how things have changed.

Mousey: Oh, man...

InsideHoops.com: Does it feel like the same park it did ten years ago?

Mousey: Naw, man. No, it don't feel like the same park. Puff Daddy changed this around. If ya'll want to be technical. Puff Daddy changed it around, now Jay-Z is trying to do what Puff did. So, you know, Puff started all this, if we really want to get technical, Puff started bringing... Puff brought out the first NBA number one draft pick out here, to play against Mousey's Dream Team.

InsideHoops.com: Wow, how far back was that?

Mousey: Ah, that was so far back, that's when Joe Smith was the number one draft pick. So I don't know the year, you look that up (1995). Puff Daddy started the NBA players out here. He brought out Stephon Marbury and Kevin Garnett at the same time. You can give all this credit to Puff Daddy

InsideHoops.com: So he brought it and...

Mousey: Give all this credit to Puff Daddy. That's my man.

InsideHoops.com: And then other people followed...

Mousey: And then Fat Joe kept it going, and I guess now Jay-Z got the torch, but he got to win the championship. S.Carter trying to bring it, but they got to win a championship, they got to beat the defending champs, which is Terror Squad (Fat Joe's team). I give him his props, for the last couple of weeks he's been doing his thing, but it counts in August.