ABA’s Steel City Yellow Jackets return to the court this weekend

by Thomas Leturgey Averill “Ace” Pippens never wavered. The owner/coach of Pittsburgh’s entry into the American Basketball Association (ABA) always said the team would be back. And the black and yellow of the Steel City Yellow Jackets open their 2024-2025 season this Saturday in the Allentown neighborhood within the city of Pittsburgh. Pippens, who coached the team to years of playoff success before winning the ABA Championship in Baltimore in 2022, shut the club down after losing in the regional playoffs on their own court at the A Giving Heart Community Center gymnasium on Climax Street. The team compiled a 14-2 regular season record when they lost. There was some strife and hard feelings among some of the team that he doesn’t talk about. A startup squad, led by the nucleus of the squad that defeated Team Trouble 123-118 in Baltimore, only to lose to Cleveland’s Burning River Buckets 143-124 on April 1 of 2023, cropped up momentarily before being shut down by the league for playing in the Yellow Jackets territory. All the while, Pippens held steady. He wanted to reorganize and come back better than ever. He has a new logo, several new players, but appears to have...