Five On Five With: Antonio Carela AKA "Mousey"
Antonio Carela aka “Mousey” is a legend when it comes to the sidelines of New York City streetball. Whether he is coaching for P. Diddy’s Bad Boy teams or Fat Joe’s Terror Squad, you will usually find him with his team in that tournament’s championship game. And a lot of the time winning it. He is the self proclaimed Phil Jackson of streetball. Any big name player that has laced up their sneakers in NYC streetball tournaments, has most likely at one point or another been coached by “Mousey”, including many players in the NBA today. We sat down with Mousey for an exclusive. Check it out!
StreetballNY.com: Let’s get right to it. Who is the best streetball player you have ever seen?
Mousey: Oh man there were so many. I would have to say Joe Hammond. One time I coached against Joe’s team where the loser had to give the winner their sneakers. We ended up having to give them our sneakers. It was a bunch of streetball legends at the time, against a bunch of young guys trying to be streetball legends. So we played them for our sneakers and they beat us and just took all of our sneakers.
SBNY: What was the best streetball game that you ever saw?
Mousey: Up at the E.B.C. one year it was Mousey’s Dream Team against Bad Boy. We had a bunch of high school players like Kareem Reid and Stephon Marbury. Puff Daddy had Joe Smith, right after he was the number 1 NBA draft pick, and Exree Hipp plus all the other big name guys. I thought we were gonna get killed. Joe Smith went off for 50, but Kareem had 51 and won the game at the buzzer.
SBNY: When you were younger and just starting out, was there a particular coach that you patterned yourself after or that you admired?
Mousey: John Carey from All Hallows High School. He always found a way to win even though he never had the big name players like St. Ray’s, Rice, or Tolentine. His team was never the favorite to win but he was always able to get the best out of the players that he had.
SNBY: You call yourself the Phil Jackson of streetball, so who is your favorite coach in the NBA or NCAA right now?
Mousey: Well, I’m a Carolina fan so Roy Williams. The way he motivates his players, he makes them play hard. His thing is defense and thats how I coach too. Without Defense you can’t win any games. I don’t care if you haver 10 All Star players, if they don’t play a lick of D, your not gonna win the game.
SBNY: What is the toughest thing for you about being a streetball coach?
Mousey: Every game I coach everybody is really coming after me. When they beat me one game it’s like they won the champonship. So I gotta get up for every game. Every game is big because if we lose, they go out there and say “we beat Mousey, beat Terror Squad, beat Bad Boy!” So its like at the end of the day I gotta keep my image up. Every new up and coming coach is coming after me!
commenting closed for this article
Special Efx Puts On A Dunkfest at E.B.C. Andre Barrett Broils Enterprise At H.I.T.S. With Record-Breaking 57 Points
