Wendell Ladner was a 6-4, 220-pound forward for four teams in the American Basketball Association (ABA) over his five-season career, playing with Memphis, Kentucky, Carolina, and New York between 1970 and 1975.
Legendary for his uncanny likeability, Wendell was loved by fans and ladies for his charm and hustle. He played larger than his size, always running down loose balls, errant passes and often his own ill-advised three-point attempts.
In Game 6 of the 1973 playoffs, he lunged headfirst into a glass water cooler by the bench, shattered it, and took 48 stitches. Ladner wanted to re-enter the game, but settled for Game 7 the next day where he helped his Kentucky Colonels advance.
Like an over-grown kid, he always tried to have a good time. A handsome guy with a hairy chest, the Colonels made a Burt Reynolds-inspired hairy chest poster that has since taken on a life of its own. Women gravitated to him, his posters sold out, and he once went to the doctor's office where they actually explained to him he needed to have less sex.
Averaging 11.6 points and 8.1 rebounds over his career, Ladner made the ABA All-Star team in 1971 and 1972, while off the court he was one of the league's most popular and entertaining players.
Built like a linebacker, Ladner had no fear, would fight anyone at any time, an extension of his rough and tumble game on the court. He led the league in personal fouls his first two seasons in the pros.
In Terry Pluto's book on the history of the ABA, Bob Costas remembers a particularly characterizing story about Ladner,
"In the second playoff game in 1975 between St. Louis and New York, the Spirits had a 30-point lead over the Nets at Nassau Coliseum," said Costas, then an ABA broadcaster. "Ladner was running after someone and ran right out of his shoe. Freddie Lewis was dribbling the ball away from Wendell, who was hobbling around in one shoe."
"Wendell was so frustrated that he threw his shoe right at Lewis, hitting Freddie in the back. Freddie was a little guy, but he was a fighter and his initial instinct was to take a swing at whoever had hit him with the shoe, but when he turned and saw it was Wendell, he just smiled."
On June 24, 1975, Ladner died in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 in New York City. Medical examiners were able to identify him because he was wearing his 1973-74 New York Nets ABA championship ring. He was 26 years old. Over 600 people attended his funeral where Julius Erving delivered one of the eulogies. Ladner's number is one of six retired by the Nets.
Link to Wendell Ladner Profile on RememberTheABA.com
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