Ahnay Adams wears No. 5 to honor 5 Morgan Terrace.
The address for her grandmother’s house is two blocks from Monte’s Park. It’s a grassy square in the middle of the South End in New Bedford, Mass., with two basketball courts that Adams frequented growing up. Monte’s Park is also known as a spot that attracts gang activity and violence.
Adams donned No. 5 throughout her prep school career at Tilton, where she won three New Hampshire Gatorade Player of the Year awards and emerged as New England’s top 2024 prospect. She still wears No. 5 to start her freshman year at the University of Miami.
Few know the full significance of that number. Adams long hid the realities of her journey from New Bedford to elite college basketball: the strained family relationships, the gunshots she avoided, the times her career almost never happened.
“These past couple years, I never used to talk about it. I used to act like I was rich and (expletive). Now I just embrace it. I’m tough,” she said. “Kids on my team, they don’t come from that (expletive). … I think that’s what separates me and makes me different.”
