If you haven't already done so, you must sign up for the Vermont Frost Heaves Bump in the Road club. In case you've missed my earlier posts on this subject, Sports Illustrated's Alexander Wolff has purchased an ABA team called the Vermont Frost Heaves. He's the owner and GM, and sends out a newsletter every few weeks or so on the latest team news. (You can also read his posts here.) His latest update, Pro Basketball’s Other All-Star Weekend, features this gem right at the top:
There's nothing quite like listening to former NBA center Acie Earl, then fresh off a season as coach of the Tijuana Dragons, hold forth with Oliver Miller room service stories.
You can say that again. Although I might quibble over his description of Acie Earl as a former NBA center. Former NBA stiff is more like it. But Tijuana Dragons? That's kismet.
Here's Wolff's take on being an ABA "plutocrat":
For someone who came of age in the Seventies, it’s one thing to be the owner of a pro basketball team, and quite another to be the owner of a team in the ABA. To me, ABA owners had sideburns like carpet remnants. They made fast-food franchising fortunes greater than “fast-food franchising fortunes” is alliterative. They married Miss Americas.
Of course, like the arriviste boor at the blueblood country club, John Y. Brown went on to nearly ruin a tony NBA team (the Boston Celtics) by trading for a player (Bob McAdoo) simply because his Miss America wife (Phyllis George) took a fancy to him.
Not to worry: That’s not the kind of ABA owner the founder of the Vermont Frost Heaves intends to be. Or, goodness knows, can afford to be. My wife Vanessa is getting a night out, not a power forward, for Valentine’s Day.
Ah, the good old days. So what is the closest ABA team to Boston, anyway?
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