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MILL BASIN: The Blackout burns out

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Note: More media content is available for this story at BrooklynDaily.com.

By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

It is lights out for the Blackout.

The Brooklyn Blackout, a professional basketball team that existed briefly within the American Basketball Association and was planning to play its home games at Aviator Sports in Floyd Bennett Field, has folded after playing just one exhibition game.

The Brooklyn basketball team that isn’t the Nets lost its only game to then number-one-ranked New Jersey Express on Sept. 29, and everything went downhill from there for the fledgling franchise.

Two days after the game, Aviator was closed thanks to the much-maligned government shutdown, leaving the Blackout homeless.

Then, team owner Onez Onassis took leave from the team to deal with “personal issues.”

Onassis claimed the guys he left in charge weren’t up to the task.

“I tried to put people in a position to run the team, but without me, they didn’t know how to function,” said Onassis.

Onassis also took some shots at the American Basketball League, which he said does very little to help its franchise teams succeed, despite happily taking their entry fees.

“The ABA doesn’t assist its franchises,” said Onassis.

The American Basketball Association, on the other hand, emphatically denied Onassis’s allegations.

“Nothing he said is true,” said ABA co-founder and CEO Joe Newman. “We are overabundant in our communications with our teams, and leave nothing to chance.”

Newman, who briefly lived in Brooklyn as a child, said he looks forward to replacing the Blackout with another Kings County franchise.

Onassis, on the other hand, said his dream to bring a professional team to Brooklyn is not dead, and claimed he intends to create his own, better league, which he plans on calling the “Better Basketball League.”

Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.

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