Yellow Jackets Will Need “Sting Line” To Deliver In Ever-Changing ABA Playoffs

Some of the key players, including the "Sting Line" for the 14-2 Steel City Yellow Jackets in 2023.

By Thomas Leturgey

The defending American Basketball Association (ABA) champion Steel City Yellow Jackets enter this weekend with two away games in the Midwest, before returning next weekend for the season finale in Pittsburgh. At 14-2, the team is looking forward to a playoff season that’s still being ironed out.

The Elite 8 in the ABA has never been more tight and Ace Pippens’ fifth-ranked team needs to be victorious in all three regular-season games to launch a successful defense of the league’s top prize.

The “Sting Line” is ready. 

As captain Gilmore Cummings dubbed it, the “Five” comprises himself, fellow captains Tone Reddic, Sr. and Claude Scott, Jr., along with twins James and Timothy Jackson. It is a lineup that hasn’t been on the court together much this season, but it will need to be running at all cylinders to continue the charge to winning again.

This season’s ABA campaign has been unique. CEO and President Joe Newman, along with a team of industry experts, have launched ABAGALE, a streaming service with goals catering to the ABA, as well as dozens of other broadcasting categories, like real estate, and top-shelf living. The ABA finals, which were moved from St. Louis to Baltimore last year, were just moved from Atlanta this year, back to St. Louis. It’s been a busy season in corporate ABA.

And that Yellow Jackets have faced just about as much of a changing landscape as the league itself. Three-fifths of the “Sting Line” started the season on the injury list, while the Jacksons have progressed into fine, young leaders on the court. The season started with defending ABA tournament champion Kenny Holmes full-time with the club. Seven-foot-tall center Artis Cleveland and respected guard Ryan Montoya joined the club. Holmes was once again an MVP candidate, Cleveland was starting to find his footing in the ABA paint and Montoya had just begun to make an impression, but modern-day basketball is always evolving and those players are looking to expand their personal brand in other lineups.

With the changes, some other Yellow Jackets have contributed well. Guard Amaru Caldwell has proven that he is ready for prime time, and forward/center Dominick McClung has been the club’s most consistent big man all season. In recent weeks, point guard Brandon Johnson has gotten more time on the court and has made the most of it, coming in among some of the high scorers of some contests. He will come to play with Montoya elsewhere. In addition, last season, Justin Hamilton provided productivity under the net, and he has returned late in the season. 

But it will be Cummings, Reddic, Scott and the Jacksons who will be poised to lead the team to St. Louis. In the team’s last go-around last weekend in Pittsburgh, they played the Tri-State Blazers, who put up a better fight than the 152-118 score would have one believe. There were a few fleeting moments late in the contest when the “Sting Line” patrolled the hardwood. Reddic has played hard all year since coming back from nagging injuries. In fact, if the team or league would ever create a Hall of Fame, Reddic would be a serious contender for the award(s). Scott has put up 30-points a game from time to time, but he sets more offense up with one of the largest wingspans in the league.

The twins, who only improved this season, are a formidable duo, and late in the game; and Cummings, who has been banged up and recently returned from a concussion, started to drain three-pointers like he did last season. Like Reddic, he would be a first-ballot SCYJ Hall of Famer.

Those five players, when all are on the same competitive and physical page, are as awe-inspiring as any other quintuple in the league. 

The Steel City Yellow Jackets take on the Naptown Pros and Indiana Lyons this weekend, and finish off the 2022-2023 season against the Chicago Rebels at A Giving Heart Community Center in the Allentown neighborhood within the city of Pittsburgh.