The old ABA - 2 of it's players

Alfonz24

Wendell Ladner and John Brisker.

Until I watched an ABA youtube video, I had never heard of these two guys. Both died tragically at a young age in the 1970s.

Wendell Ladner - Ladner was one of the more notorious enforcers of the ABA, protecting Dan Issel of the Kentucky Colonels and Julius Erving of the New York Nets. Ladner regularly faced perhaps the fiercest player in the ABA, the Pittsburgh Condors' John Brisker, once entering the Condors' locker room and yelling, "Hey, John, you wanna fight right now or wait for the game?" (It was not unusual for Brisker and Ladner to beat each other bloody on the court, only to hang out together at a local bar afterwards.)

Erving called Ladner his most unusual teammate because Ladner wanted to be Burt Reynolds with a basketball. (Indeed, Ladner posed for a poster in only his gym shorts and a red-white-and-blue ball.) Semi-Pro, a basketball comedy set in the 1970s starring Will Ferrell, spoofs Ladner's Reynolds persona in its trailer.

Ladner was killed at the age of 26 in the June 24, 1975 crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 66. He was identified by medical examiners because he was wearing his ABA championship ring. He was only player in the nine-year history of the ABA to lose his life while an active player for one of the league's best teams.

John Brisker - Brisker developed a reputation as one of the most volatile players in basketball. According to his Condors teammate Charlie Williams, "He was an excellent player, but say something wrong to the guy and you had this feeling he would reach into his bag, take out a gun and shoot you." He was ejected so often for fighting that he was nicknamed "the heavyweight champion of the ABA." The Condors made much of Brisker's reputation as an enforcer; their media guide portrayed him wearing a pair of six-shooters.

In a 1971 game against the Denver Rockets, Brisker was ejected two minutes into the game for an elbow on the Rockets' Art Becker. Brisker charged back onto the court three times in order to go after Becker. A group of police officers threatened to arrest Brisker and finally persuaded him to return to the locker room.

In March 1978, Brisker travelled to Uganda to launch an "import-export business". The last confirmed communication from Brisker was on April 11, 1978, when he called his girlfriend in Seattle.

It is unknown what happened to Brisker. His former SuperSonics teammates have speculated that he was killed while fighting as a mercenary or shot in an argument with Ugandan royalty

SanctionII

The ABA had some colorful characters. Its games were very entertaining.