Former 76er arrested on gun violations

For years, Aaron F. McKie was a charismatic success at every level of Philadelphia basketball, winning awards as a player for Simon Gratz High School, Temple University and the 2001 NBA Finals 76ers.

But yesterday morning, McKie ducked into a State Police barracks in Belmont and turned himself in for a felony arrest. Authorities charge that he lied when trying to buy two pistols in an Abington gun shop by concealing a restraining order that forbade the purchase.

Just days after attending the Sixers' predraft workouts for a possible return as a coach, McKie, 35, now faces imprisonment for denying the existence of the Delaware County court order he compliantly signed last September.

"There's no argument of lack of knowledge," said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, "because it's right there in black and white."

The reason for the restraining order is confidential under Pennsylvania law, and Ferman would not say who sought it against McKie.

In the criminal charge, he is accused of lying by answering "no" to the gun-purchase application's question about a restraining order to protect his "child or an intimate partner or child of such partner."

Signed Sept. 27, the order bars McKie from buying or possessing a gun for a year. Yet April 8, he allegedly walked into Abington Gun Sports in Upper Moreland Township to buy two pistols, a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson and a 9 mm Ruger. Ferman said McKie had not volunteered why he wanted the handguns.

After an arraignment in an Oreland courtroom, McKie was allowed to go free on a $50,000 bond and ordered to hand over his passport.

It remains unclear how the charges will affect his relationship with the 76ers, the hometown team McKie played for from 1997-2005.

McKie spent part of last season with Sixers as a volunteer assistant coach, but left the team midseason when the Los Angeles Lakers - which retained contract rights to McKie as a player - signed him for a bit part to help a trade meet byzantine NBA salary regulations.

The arrangement sent star Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Lakers in exchange for McKie and other players, and McKie was paid $750,000 under a player's contract, though he did not play.

McKie's last NBA playing time was in 2007 with the Lakers. He had been attending recent 76ers predraft workouts, which provoked speculation he would rejoin the team as a coach this summer.

Sixers officials yesterday had no comment about the situation.

McKie, who lives in Narberth, is due back in court for a scheduled preliminary hearing July 3 on one felony count and one misdemeanor, both for how he filled out the gun-purchase application. Ferman said she did not yet know if her office would seek jail time if McKie is convicted.