Columnist Ron Kantowski: New ABA has one guy worthy of its name

Monday, Jan. 10, 2005 | 9:24 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

After doing the detective work to discover that the Las Vegas Rattlers of the latest incarnation of the ABA were playing a basketball game Sunday afternoon -- I mean, how much can it cost to print a pocket schedule? -- my first thought upon arriving at the defunct All-American Sport Park is I hope that Dr. J, Artis Gilmore, Connie Hawkins and even Warren Jabali won't sue for defamation of character.

The original ABA produced some truly great players during its nine-year existence as an "outlaw" league from 1967-76, and paved the way for the Pacers, Nuggets, Spurs and Nets to crash the NBA as part of a peace treaty with the establishment.

But the original ABA was loosely organized to say the least, and when it folded, its debt was taller than the height of its' players iconoclastic Afros.

Having said that, the old ABA was run like a Fortune 500 company in comparison to this new one. Last year, as near as I can tell from the hodgepodge of dated facts and figures on its Web site, the new ABA grew from roughly seven teams, which made it to the end of last season, to about 33 or so this year, depending on how many junior college gymnasium rent checks bounce this week.

If not for Kirstie Alley's waistline,that would be a record for expansion. Naturally, there have been growing pains. Most of the franchises, from what I gather, are organized about as well as the closet in my guest bedroom, and the Rattlers are no exception.

Sunday's announced crowd -- by yours truly, who counted every person in the house -- was 76. At first, like the old wisecrack, I thought it might have been possible that the entire crowd arrived in the same taxi, provided it was one of those that looks like a minivan.

It was so cold in the building formerly known as Sport Park that the only ones who weren't wearing jackets were the players. There weren't any programs and I wasn't sure who the Rattlers were playing, because their Web site claimed the Ontario Warriors would provide the opposition while the league Web site said it would be the Fresno Heat Wave (I guess the league is always right).

I also should have known that Las Vegas would be the ones wearing the Evel Knievel uniforms, but what really gave it away was three familiar faces I spotted during the pregame introductions. Lou Kelly, Chris Richardson and Dalron Johnson were in the starting lineup, on the bench and on the bench in street clothes due to an injury, respectively.

So this is where the professional careers of former Rebels go to die, I thought.

At least Kelly's is dying hard. He is, as the public address announcer boomed in a voice that would make Ashlee Simpson's Orange Bowl tribute to nails screeching on a chalkboard sound like a whisper, the leading scorer in the ABA's Western Conference. Which is sort of like being the best bluesman in Boise. Or the smartest undergrad at Fresno State.

In the ragtag ABA III or IV, at least Kelly has the chance to launch the kind of crazy shots that Charlie Spoonhour would never let him take during his UNLV career. And darned if Kelly isn't hitting most of them.

Against Fresno, he made 17-of-31 shots en route to a game-high 42 points. About the only place he didn't score from was the bench, only because nobody would throw the ball to him there during the few times he took a breather.

After leaving UNLV in 2002, Kelly, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard or forward or center from San Bernardino, spent a year playing pro ball in Turkey. Which again, is like being the best seafood restaurant in Omaha.

Still, it was a living, until the Kurds started launching howitzers from three-point range and beyond. The real kind.

"Saddam. The bombs," Kelly said when asked about Turkey and the basketball trimmings.

Kelly, 24, caught the Midnight Express back to the States, latching on with the Washington Wizards' practice squad and its entry in the NBA summer league. He's playing with the Rattlers only to stay in shape should an NBA team be willing to bring him in on a 10-day contract.

While 10 days doesn't seem like a lot on which to base one's future, Kelly said it's enough to keep him going. Lord knows his salary with the Rattlers isn't, although when I asked if he was getting paid, he said he was.

"But it's not enough," Kelly said, adding that most of the Rattlers are making from $200 to $1,200 per month and that he was paid as well as anybody.

In other words, he only needs two jobs outside of basketball to help offset the rent.

It had been a while since Kelly and I talked, and when I approached him after the game and reintroduced myself, the disappointment on his face was evident. I think he was hoping that I was somebody else -- like an NBA scout, for instance, or at least a big shot at the health club where he works, telling him he was due for a raise.

Kelly, like most of the players on the court and probably in this league in general, plays hard when he has the ball. But I thought the best move he made all day was sprinting the length of the court to reject a fast-break layup with a gravity defying leap.

It was the defensive play of the game by default, in that it might have been the only defensive play of a game won by the Rattlers, 132-122.

I don't know what ever became of Willie Wise, the former Utah Star and Virginia Squire who was considered the best two-way player in the old ABA. The real ABA. The only ABA. But I think he would have approved of Kelly's effort.