From Italy to Venezuela to Brazil, Myron Brown has played professional basketball across the globe.

But the former Slippery Rock University standout, now 35, never has played a pro game at home.

That could change with the emergence of the Pittsburgh Xplosion of the newly formed 50-team American Basketball Association.

"I wasn't planning on playing anymore," Brown said. "If I never play another professional basketball game, I'm satisfied with what I've done."

Brown, who set a PSAC record by scoring 2,619 points for SRU from 1987 through 1991, recently accepted a merchandise manager's position with the PepsiCo.

He played for Brazil last year, joining the team late and helping it win the South American League title. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Brown averaged 12 points while playing 18 minutes per game.

"It was the first time in my life I was playing for a team outside the U.S. and wasn't the marquee American player," Brown said. "That was a little different for me."

Injury-free throughout his career, Brown ruptured his Achilles tendon during Brazil's championship run in April.

He said he is 85 to 90 percent healthy right now.

"I know I can still go out there on a given night and score 20 points," Brown said. "I'm physically capable of playing. But my job with Pepsi comes first. I'm not giving that up to play another season of basketball."

The Xplosion are owned by three men: former ABA and NBA star Freddie Lewis, former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Dwayne Woodruff and Rich Hersperger.

Brown knows Lewis and Woodruff and both talked him into looking to become part of the franchise.

"We're trying to build on a Pittsburgh connection," said Bill Neal, the team's director of promotions. "Armon Gilliam, a 13-year NBA veteran, is from Bethel Park and has joined the team. DeVaugn Hassel is from Brashear and helped Point Park win an NAIA championship."

Rico Abbondanza, a former All-PSAC West player with Lock Haven University, is a Seton-LaSalle graduate and is on the team. Brown is a Sto-Rox graduate.

The Xplosion will play a 36-game schedule that includes 18 home games - 14 at Mellon Arena and four at the Petersen Events Center.

"We've sold 500 season tickets so far," Neal said. "If we can average 3,500 to 4,000 per home game, that'd be great.

"We are marketing ourselves as a professional basketball team. That's what we are and that's what the league is."

And Brown has been a professional basketball player, though never at home.

"When I was at Slippery Rock, we played a game at Duquesne and a game at Robert Morris," he said. "That's the extent of my basketball-playing in Pittsburgh. Having the chance to play at home is very, very tempting.

"I'm always going to stay in basketball, somehow, some way, as a college coach, high school coach, consultant or whatever."

Brown said he'll be affiliated with the Xplosion as part of the coaching staff, as a consultant to help develop younger players or as a player himself.

Physically, he believes he can play until he's 40.

"People will brand you because of your age, they think you can't play anymore - that's not right," Brown said. "You have to look at the individual.

"I know I won't be able to play road games, but maybe I can just play home games. If there's evening practices, I can make them. It might work out."

Brown insists he won't play if there are younger guys on the roster better than him.

"I've always been fair-minded about that," he said. "But if I deserve to be out there on the court, I'll be out there."

When the NBA merged with the ABA in 1974, part of the agreement was the ABA name could not re-emerge for 25 years.

Now it's back.

"In a way, this is a re-creation of the old ABA," Neal said. "Some of that league's biggest names - Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Connie Hawkins, George Gervin and Marvin Barnes - are affiliated with the new ABA and will make appearances in support of the league."

Lewis, a McKeesport native, is the only basketball player in history to begin his career in the NBA, play in the ABA throughout its existence, and end his career in the NBA.

"He's come back to his roots and he wants Myron to be a part of this," Neal said.

The Xplosion begins the season Oct. 30, hosting Miami and former NBA star Tim Hardaway at Mellon Arena.

"I'll be there in some capacity," Brown said. "If it's not as a player … I've had an injury-free career. I'll have no complaints, no regrets."