The unlikely, long shot, serendipitous story of how a driveway pickup player from Chevy Chase, Maryland became the President & GM of a professional basketball team and Co-Founder of the National Basketball League of Canada. Part One of a three-part series.
Ian McCarthy was born in 1970 in Washington, DC and was adopted at birth. He grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, spending summers on Nantucket. He attended Gonzaga College High School, graduating in 1988, then earned a Business Degree from Champlain College in Vermont in 1992.
He joined an accounting firm on Nantucket Island in 1994, leading to the purchase of a landscaping company in 1996. Ian married that same year and eventually moved to Cape Cod, where he and his wife Tiffany raised two sons, Payton and Connor.
In 2010, Ian and his family moved to Saint John, New Brunswick and launched the Saint John Mill Rats professional basketball team. In 2011, he and partner Andre Levingston co-founded the National Basketball League of Canada — a seven-team professional league that would grow to become Canada's longest-running professional basketball league.
Mill Rats: The Book Series is a three-part series telling the unlikely, serendipitous story of that entire journey — from driveway pickup games to press conferences, from landscaping routes to courtside seats.
Part One is available now on Amazon. Part Two and Part Three — coming soon.
From court-side action and player portraits to community celebrations — the Saint John Mill Rats and NBL Canada in pictures.
Watch Mill Rats game highlights, behind-the-scenes episodes, player interviews, and NBL Canada action.
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Be the first to know when Part Two and Part Three of the Mill Rats series drop. Get behind-the-scenes updates, event announcements, and exclusive content from author Ian McCarthy.
Whether you lived through the Mill Rats era in Saint John, followed the NBL Canada from afar, or just love a great underdog story — we'd love to hear from you.