There's a good chance former Utah Stars great Zelmo Beaty saw red, white, and blue balls in his sleep Saturday night.
That's if he slept at all.It was a weekend for reminiscing at the American Basketball Association's 30-year reunion here.
And, oh my, those darn red, white, and blue balls. Beaty must have signed hundreds of them at the autograph session Saturday afternoon at the RCA Dome.
What a sight. There was enough ABA memorabilia to fill the floor of the RCA Dome.
"It was fun," said Beaty with a smile. "It was almost overwhelming. It really meant a lot to me. . . . The ABA might have died. But not its memories. They're something that I've always cherished."
He praised the efforts of the reunion committee and the memories of fans.
"I can't believe how many people remember my matchup with (Indiana Pacers center) Mel Daniels," Beaty said. "We really went at each other. We were both competitors on the court. But so many fans here asked me if we were friends. Yes, we were. I really always respected his efforts on the court."
For Beaty and a lot of the other ABA veterans, this was the first chance they'd had to see each other in years - and a chance to reminisce about the good old days.
"I still think the ABA is one of the best times I had in basketball," he said. "It was fun. It was exciting. The league was so unpredictable. And those fans in Salt Lake City were just great to me and my family."
Big Z, of course, was the leader of the Stars team that won the 1971 ABA championship. He was the most valuable player of the 1971 ABA playoffs.
The 6-foot-9 star was among 30 players to make the ABA-Time Team. His former teammates Ron Boone, Willie Wise, Jimmy Jones, and Donnie Freeman were also selected to the all-time team.
Other former Stars making the team were Moses Malone and Mack Calvin. Billy Paultz, who played for the Jazz as well as the Stars, was also honored.
Most Utahns, of course, remembers the 1971 ABA championship team. But Beaty said the franchise actually peaked three years later. He and Wise are "convinced that the 1971 championship team was a great team, but it wasn't our best team. Our best team was the 1974 team."
That team lost to the then-New York Nets in the ABA Finals, but only after Beaty himself struggled with illness, which took him out of the last two games of the Western Conference Finals and the first two games of the ABA title series.
"It seemed . . . like every time we'd get it going for the playoffs someone would get injured," Beaty said. "That was our fate.
"Indiana won three ABA championships. But I still think we were the most dominant team. We won one ABA championship, three division championships and were (league) runner-ups in 1974."
And Beaty was not alone in his evaluation of Utah's ABA franchise. The Stars were voted one of the most dominant teams in ABA history.
Pacers coach Bobby "Slick" Leonard, the coach of the ABA's most dominate team, was selected the ABA's all-time coach.
And, of course, former Virginia Squires and Nets star Julius "Dr. J" Erving was named the ABA's all-time most valuable player.
Former ABA officals indulged in a bit of revenge at the reunion. They announced an all-time ABA "crying team" at the banquet - and the top player on this less-than-prestigious list was none other than Rick Barry.
"Oh, that guy cried about everything even if it didn't involve him," said former ABA ref Joe Bavetta. "If he didn't feel like playing that night, he would start crying from the tip-off so he could get kicked out of the game. He was terrible."
Beaty admits the landscape of professional basketball has changed since his playing days. And, he adds, in most respects the changes have been improvements.
"Just their mode of transportation has changed and, believe me, for the better," Beaty said with a laugh. "Can you remember those airlines, like Piedmont? Sometimes I was worried that they wouldn't even get off the ground.
"But we fought for those changes," added Beaty, who was president of the ABA Players Association.
And he said that if it weren't for the Utah Stars, there might not be any Utah Jazz today.
"What makes me really happy is that the Jazz has had so much success there. In a way, I still feel a part of that, because the fans supported the Stars so well," Beaty said. "I've always thought the fans in Utah deserved to have a pro basketball team."
He recalled the years when the Jazz struggled in Utah and nearly left the state. And he expressed admiration for Jazz owner Larry H. Miller for saving the team.
"Now, they're one of the best (NBA) franchises," Beaty said. "But you have to have class in the adminstration to have a class franchise. That's what Salt Lake City deserves."
HINDSIGHT: Former Denver Rockets star Spencer Haywood (another ABA all-timer) recalled forcing the Jazz to make a trade with the Lakers for Adrian Dant-ley in 1979 - because he didn't want to move with the team to Utah.
"At that time, Salt Lake had a bad rap for black athletes," he said. "From what I've heard, that was wrong. That was a big mistake to request the trade. I could've been the man there.
"And, of course, the Jazz are one of the better franchises in the NBA now. But what do they say about hindsight?"