Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey isn’t too happy with some new signs welcoming drivers from her state into Connecticut.
The signs were unveiled Wednesday by Gov. Ned Lamont. The signs on the state line along I-91, I-84, and I-395 read “Welcome to Connecticut, Home of the Basketball Capital of the World.”
After the UConn men’s basketball head coach Dan Hurley has referred to Storrs as the Basketball Capital of the World in the past and reiterated that in April after his Huskies won their second national title in a row.
The win gave UConn a total of 17 NCAA basketball national championships combined between the men’s and women’s teams.
In a release announcing the new signs on Wednesay, Gov. Lamont used that number as a reason for choosing that phrase for three of the new signs.
Gov. Healy may have some other thoughts.
She re-posted a post by Gov. Lamont on X (formerly known as Twitter) with some alterations to a photo of the sign, scratching out the word Connecticut and writing Massachusetts above the phrase “Home of the Basketball Capital of the World.” She also crossed out Governor Ned Lamont at the bottom of the sign and wrote in “Gov Healey” instead.
The caption of her post read “Fixed it.”
Healey may have had the 18 NBA Championships won by the Boston Celtics, including one this year, on her mind when she made the changes to the sign, or possibly the fact that the Basketball Hall of Fame is in Springfield.
She does have basketball cred. Healey captained the women’s basketball team at Harvard and played two years of professional basketball in Austria.
The “Basketball Capital of the World” signs are part of a series of new welcome signs greeting drivers coming into Connecticut and it wasn’t the only one drawing criticism from a governor of a nearby state.
The new signs greeting drivers entering Connecticut on I-95 and I-84 from New York read “Welcome to Connecticut, Home of the Pizza Capital of the United States.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy re-posted Lamont’s post on X and said “You’re not even the pizza capital of the tri-state area.”
It’s left to be seen if Gov. Lamont plans to answer either of his fellow governors’ playful rebukes.
