YouTube Gold: Wendell Ladner

One off the wildest characters in ABA history

In yesterday’s YouTube Gold, we talked about John Brisker, who was one of the ABA’s roughest enforcers. We mentioned his fight rival Wendell Ladner, who once went into Brisker’s locker room and asked him if he wanted to wait for the game to start or just fight now. What we didn't know that those guys would occasionally go out for drinks after the game/fight. Good times!

Ladner was from Mississippi and played college ball at Southern Miss. His teammates said that he really only cared about two things - basketball and women. There’s a somewhat NSFW story on this video by the way about a visit to the doctor, apparently for, uh, penicillin. It’s not wildly outrageous but consider yourself warned.

Incidentally, Ladner was an inspiration for Jackie Moon, the character Will Ferrell played in Semi Pro.

Just 6-4, Ladner was one of the ABA’s greatest enforcers and when he was with the Nets, he took real pride in sticking up for Julius Erving, who naturally made defenders want to beat him up. What else could they do?

Ladner was one of the most colorful and interesting players in ABA history. Sadly, he died in a plane crash at the age of 26. He was identified by his ABA championship ring.