Built to last: How DRIVE Hoops became the longest-running basketball league in Western Mass.

GREENFIELD — Chris Brown directs traffic at the top of the key. He tells his teammate, Troy Snell, to set a down screen for Ethan Slavin. Slavin comes off of it, catches the ball and throws it right back to Brown, who rips through and attacks the paint. Brown comes to a jump stop and pump fakes.

His defender, Walter Perry, fell for the fake and left his feet in an attempt to block it, as so many players have done when trying to stop Brown — one of the best players in the Drive Hoops Men’s League. Brown drew a foul on Perry, turned to his bench and winked.

The three players involved in the play — Brown, Snell and Slavin — are all in their 40s, and they’ve been playing together since 2007 on their patented “No Name Hoops” summer league team. Robbie Jones and Ben Johnson are two others who have played on the squad for over a decade. In a league that sees plenty of roster turnover and players jumping around to different teams every summer, there is always one staple — No Name Hoops, the six-time champions and six-time runners-up.

Despite doubling up many of their opponents in age, they continue to be one of the league’s best teams year in and year out. Behind another dominant Brown performance on Wednesday, they advanced to Monday’s semifinals.

“The core of us, about four or five of us, have been playing with each other for a decade, some of us almost two decades,” Brown said. “Each year we kind of ask each other, ‘Are we coming back?’ And we all say yes.”

Games in the Drive Hoops league take place during the week, starting anywhere from 5:15 p.m. to as late as 8:30 p.m. Residing in Wilmington, Vt., about 45 minutes away from Greenfield High School where the games are held, Brown rarely misses a game. Snell lives in Easthampton and works night shifts. He usually makes it to games earlier in the evening without conflict, but for the late contests, he might have to call out of work.

To people who never played competitive sports, they may hear about a men’s league and picture old timers running around playing for fun. And for some involved, that’s exactly what it is.

But for No Name Hoops, it’s become so much more.

“What keeps me coming back specifically is the youth, the youngblood guys who want to try to rise to the occasion and win,” Brown said. “It’s our job to not let that happen in my mind. That’s why I keep coming back. And it’s fun. We’re playing a game that we all love. The challenge of meeting whatever is thrown at you keeps you young.”

Snell agreed.

“It’s competition,” he said. “You’re trying to test yourself mentally, physically and emotionally to find some way to get an advantage and help your team win.”

Jerry Donoghue founded the Drive Hoops Men’s League in 1968, and it’s been going ever since. Angelo Thomas, the current head coach of the Greenfield boys basketball team and director of the Drive Hoops Men’s League, took over for Donoghue 17 years ago. It’s the longest running league in western Massachusetts at 58 years strong. All Thomas heard about when he moved to Greenfield in the fall of 1989 was the competition in the summer, and he couldn’t wait to get a taste of it.

He played every year until 2019, when he decided to hang up the kicks for good. Yet still, every single summer in June and July, it’s Thomas who lumbers through the doorway — ducking his head so his 6-foot-9 frame can fit — of Nichols Gymnasium to set up the scoreboard and shot clock. He operates those, fills out the scorebook and ensures everything is run smoothly for all three or four games each night.

Thomas may not be playing anymore, but he cherishes being in the gym watching competitive basketball. And perhaps his favorite part of it all is seeing the players he coached years ago now succeed in his league. Thomas estimates that he has some connection with about 75 percent of all players (there are 10 teams, typically eight players per team) in the league — whether that be coaching them or coaching against them, or playing with or against them.

“I officially retired six years ago, and it was the younger 20-something year olds that made me retire,” Thomas said. “My mind would tell me I could do it, but my body said otherwise. I remember vividly some of these younger guys playing in 3-on-3 tournaments up at Indoor Action, and now they’re in their 20s playing in my league. I enjoy the connections. That’s what basketball is all about.”

And that’s exactly what makes men’s leagues across the region so special. Players come from different backgrounds, different parts of the state — sometimes even out of state — and are of different ages and abilities. But each one gathers at a gym, laces up their sneakers and shares one thing in common: the love of the game.

There are no shortage of instances in which players talk trash, argue with officials or get chippy and physical with one another. In between the lines, nobody wants to lose. Sometimes Thomas even has to step in and defuse a situation. But when the final buzzer sounds, everybody shakes hands and shares laughs.

It’s back to their normal lives.

“We compete against each other, and it gets heated,” Thomas said. “But we’re a league. And outside of this everyone is cool with each other. I thoroughly enjoy running this league.”

Ware’s Randy Gratton, who used to play in the Drive Hoops league back in the late 2000s and now laces them up in leagues in Belchertown and South Hadley, has competed in men’s leagues far and wide across the Commonwealth. He’s hooped in Greenfield, South Hadley, Belchertown, Watertown, North Brookfield, Springfield and different areas in Connecticut, his first taste of men’s league ball coming when he was just 16 years old.

Now 38, he still comes home to his wife and three kids with swollen body parts, bruises, scrapes and floor burns everywhere that he says still re-open and draw blood on occasion. He lays it on the line every game for his team, regardless of the consequences — such as a battered body.

For Gratton, men’s league basketball never used to be about playing his favorite sport. He dealt with addiction for a good portion of his early life, and it was these leagues that he could turn to for discipline and a sense of direction.

“I’ve been in recovery for seven years, and playing men’s league hoops has been a huge part of it for me,” Gratton said. “The sense of purpose being on a team and competing week in and week out, it really helps me keep the rest of my life in line too. Because now I’m getting to the gym every day during the week, preparing for something. I’m preparing for someone; my teammates. Growing up in a sports culture and having that camaraderie and purpose and competition every week helps me be at my best in all other aspects of my week — whether it be work, home life or whatever. And I love every bit of it.”

Men’s league basketball serves as a playground for aging players who refuse to call it quits. It serves as an opportunity for college players to sharpen their skills in the offseason. It serves as a saving grace for those in need of an escape.

And one thing is for sure — it’s a labor of love for everyone involved.