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6/28/2025, 5:59:10 AM
>Wendell Ladner, known for his hustle and physical play. One of the great "enforcers" of the ABA--protected Dan Issel in Kentucky and Julius Erving in New York.
>Immensely popular wherever he played, his good looks prompted the Kentucky front office to market a Ladner "beefcake" poster to the Colonels' female fans. Held the unofficial pro sports record for being traded the most times in mid-season.
>Semi-Pro, a basketball comedy set in the 1970s starring Will Ferrell, spoofs Ladner's Reynolds persona in its trailer
>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.)
>Teammates reported that Brisker carried a pistol and would sometimes take it out and wave it around during practice, especially when he was upset.
>“Being a fighter is part of my game,” Brisker says, sipping coffee as the ambulance roars away to deliver someone’s misery. “But it ruins any evaluation of me as a player. I come on the floor; everyone expects a fight. That’s not right. I just protect what I am. I don’t back off.”
>In four years, he had wounded approximately a dozen players—including an ex-teammate who later threatened to retaliate with a gun—and had been dubbed “the ABA heavyweight champion.”
>Their 1970-71 media guide featured Brisker in a Mexican sombrero with a pair of six-shooters holstered to his hips. The Condors’ PR man, Fred Cranwell, got the idea based on Brisker’s routine of bringing a loaded gun with him to practice and games.
>Immensely popular wherever he played, his good looks prompted the Kentucky front office to market a Ladner "beefcake" poster to the Colonels' female fans. Held the unofficial pro sports record for being traded the most times in mid-season.
>Semi-Pro, a basketball comedy set in the 1970s starring Will Ferrell, spoofs Ladner's Reynolds persona in its trailer
>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.)
>Teammates reported that Brisker carried a pistol and would sometimes take it out and wave it around during practice, especially when he was upset.
>“Being a fighter is part of my game,” Brisker says, sipping coffee as the ambulance roars away to deliver someone’s misery. “But it ruins any evaluation of me as a player. I come on the floor; everyone expects a fight. That’s not right. I just protect what I am. I don’t back off.”
>In four years, he had wounded approximately a dozen players—including an ex-teammate who later threatened to retaliate with a gun—and had been dubbed “the ABA heavyweight champion.”
>Their 1970-71 media guide featured Brisker in a Mexican sombrero with a pair of six-shooters holstered to his hips. The Condors’ PR man, Fred Cranwell, got the idea based on Brisker’s routine of bringing a loaded gun with him to practice and games.
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