Local ABA Basketball Landscape Is A Convoluted Mess
By Thomas Leturgey Change was in the air when the defending American Basketball Association (ABA) Steel City Yellow Jackets lost to the Burning River Buckets in the regional playoffs in Pittsburgh on April 1. The Yellow Jackets weren’t going to repeat as ABA Champions, and much like when Sid Bream slid under Mike LaValliere’s tag in the National League Championship Series in 1992, there was a grim feeling that the team was going to break up. In frustration, team co-captain Tone Reddic Sr. immediately announced his retirement from the league. A founding member of the team, Reddic’s season had been truncated by injury and other disgruntlement. Players like center Brandon Burnett, who has an open invitation to return to Spain, said he wouldn’t return to the Steel City’s franchise, while others presumably would come home in October. In the months that followed, there was a long time of team silence. Then, right before the team traditionally announced tryouts and other preseason preparat