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00:10It's 1973, and doors are opening in America to new people in new leadership roles.
00:21The NBA is not responding, but the ABA, the new league, is listening.
00:30The league is welcoming those who have not had a chance to shine, including the 22-year-old,
00:37who before the ABA would have had to wait to turn professional.
00:41But thanks to the ABA, the young man has proven himself one of the most valuable commodities
00:47in all of professional sports.
00:50Unbelievable!
00:51Julian Garvin, the LDR catch!
00:57The American Basketball Association played with a bright-colored ball that made you want
01:02to salute.
01:04Look at that move behind the back!
01:08Wow!
01:08That's the way the game should be played.
01:13I feel that I wasn't being paid when I should have.
01:16He appealed his case to the United States Supreme Court.
01:20If they don't merge, a lot of these players are going to be out of a job.
01:25There's no tomorrow.
01:51So it's in the early 70s when Dr. J starts to do...
01:56incredible things and a lot of it had the quality of legend
02:01man i braced up for the doc you know i'm gonna take the choice when he came in i braced
02:08i looked to the right all i could see was his size 17 white converse and that was like this
02:23man look this dude here unbelievable i don't never think there'll be another dr j i think
02:31there'll be another michael jordan doctor thinks that this is just incredible you know it defies
02:39human nature once you get up in the air and you explode then comes the time when you relax
02:48you know and i guess this is where the gracefulness is shown
02:55i like the baseline i like to be creative yeah if you give me a baseline you're in trouble
03:07i remember him going down on baseline on the right side and you had you had seven foot artist
03:14gilmore and artist goes up to block his shot and it's literally like doc was up in the air
03:21and he rose even higher i don't know how he did that but you thought he was at his full
03:28height
03:28and he wasn't he rose higher artist goes up julius goes up artist goes up higher julius goes up higher
03:38artist starts to come down julius is still going up he swam that ball through on a dunk folks came
03:46running all out of the stand that's the style of play that they wanted to see and they had a
03:53lot of
03:54that in the aba when he went to the nba julius was great
04:02everybody recognized him as being one of the great players ever
04:06they didn't really see the true group julius when he was in the aba
04:13they were probably the best three years that i had as a professional basketball player
04:19these three years 1974 75 and 76 that saw dr j showcased as the aba's biggest superstar
04:30almost never happened
04:37so most people don't know i played for the atlanta hawks
04:43and every year it comes up in a newspaper article as a what if
04:50that lasted about 10 days maybe two weeks and then the virginia squires and the aba obviously
04:58sued the atlanta hawks and said hey we have him under contract what are you doing and it went to
05:04a
05:04judge and the judge ruled quickly because he had to because they're playing already that julius
05:09uh had to go back to the squires the difference this time with dr j was
05:15the little brother league of the aba had grown up
05:24took a couple punches when they lost connie hawkins and when they lost spencer haywood
05:29and luau cinder but this time they have been around long enough to understand the game
05:35and they knew that the court that they needed to play in was the legal court and that's how they
05:43were able to keep dr j in the league this marks the first time that the nba tries to steal
05:50an
05:50aba superstar and the aba stops julius ervin returns to the aba
06:03he went back to virginia for a second season he started a little bit late in his second season
06:08finished up with the squires won the scoring title for the league and then after that season
06:12then he went on to the net we made a side agreement with virginia to rescind their contract and we
06:20have now entered into an eight-year contract with julius new york has always been my home and i'm very
06:27pleased and happy that uh you know i've signed with the nets and and uh you know i'll be able
06:34to play
06:34out of my career here
06:40new york city
06:43the aba set a team in the nation's largest media market with the expectation they would be perennial
06:50championship contenders
06:54six seasons in and the new york nets have failed to hang a banner
06:59they tried to sign kareem but failed rick berry attempted to win the title there but couldn't get
07:07it done now their native son had returned home well um i didn't go up too far from here
07:18in 1974 thought by many to be the best basketball player on the planet but dr j in new york
07:26only one result was to fight
07:28the championship
07:3373-74 season in the aba was really the changing of the guard
07:38it was the end of the utah indiana dominance
07:54in 1974 the nets were really the first modern team in pro basketball
08:01they were extremely young they were high flying they ran the fast break as often as they could
08:08and now they have dr j
08:141974's league mvp is julius irving dr j's magical moves performed major surgery on the opposition all
08:21year long and the playoffs are serving as yet another personal showcase for basketball's most
08:26exciting superstar first game doc went crazy i think he had 47 uh really set the tone for the series
08:33and utah i think knew they were up against it the good doctor caught in 47 points as the nets
08:39won the
08:39series opener against utah
08:43then tailed off with a mere 32 in a second game run
08:48brian taylor was the third game hero in utah with a three-point bomb and the nets are now just
08:54one victory away from the aba crown
08:58new york continues to look for irving but willie wise anticipates the pass and makes the steal
09:04willie wise defended me i say willie wise did the best job defending me in
09:09all my aba years eventually they did put willie wise on julius willie wise was known as the best
09:18defensive forward in the league me and doc had some good battles in fact i remember doc starts
09:25jumping about eight or ten feet from the basket i thought oh this guy he's jumping too soon what's he
09:32gonna do so i nudged him behind the glass he reaches back in torques his body and somehow dunks
09:40it i couldn't believe it i had him behind the glass and he did something like this
09:47we were able to do two things surprise them and also surprise ourselves
09:56mvp irving as the finishing touches and the new york nets have their first american basketball
10:02association championship all wrapped up we won the first time we went to the finals and most teams
10:08don't win the first time to go to the finals
10:14it's one of my greatest thrills in my whole career
10:20for julius to be in new york and to go all the way the first year dominate the finals
10:27and win it all very similar to what lebron james did going back to cleveland a lot of pressure
10:33everybody's looking at you you're the guy
10:37can you do this are you that guy time to celebrate a title
10:44when i heard something being done for the first time that i i could think back
10:49and say well i did that
10:52i did that in the aba so it's not the first time it's being done but it's the first time
10:57being done
10:58in the nba
11:01he was black cool for the 1970s in every way that we could imagine i mean you know a gordon
11:07park shaft comes out in 1971 starring richard groundtree this is the look for the era and so
11:15even thinking about like what it meant to have this incredible athlete uh embodied uh what
11:22people were coming to see as a fictional character but in real life when i saw shaft on 42nd street
11:29walking the same streets that i walked as my friends we went to the movies that was impactful
11:34because that was black superhero and dr j is a black superhero dr j is part of soul power right
11:45when you talk about soul power and you talk about that era the the dr j particularly and the aba
11:52style
11:54seem to be analogous to that on sundown even though it wasn't black empowerment it was soul power right
12:00the fact that he was so good and he had such a style about him and he was also gracious
12:07and eloquent
12:08and just a great ambassador that was very easy for the aba to get a ba he really kept the
12:15league
12:15alive for quite a few years when doc rolled in he'd bring that 15 000 out there i mean the
12:22star quality
12:23he had was unbelievable i mean it was just it was just amazing to just watch him just the grace
12:30that
12:30he had on the court even just like in the layup line was unbelievable and in some cases even arriving
12:35to the game he had a style he had he just he was like the whole the whole deal you
12:41know on and off the
12:42court others had gained mainstream acceptance before him but julius ervin was the first black athlete to do
12:50it while maintaining a distinctly black style when he hit it shifted from suits and ties to this other
12:58aesthetic if you look at the trailblazer like dr j who does appeal to everyone but it is quintessentially
13:07unapologetically himself the thing i knew about the aba is dr j my uncle oh dr j they dress like
13:13that
13:14they talk you know so you you see you know they idolized him there's something about respecting who you
13:20are and not being afraid of that standing on that and not feeling like you need to be something that
13:26you're not it's a courageous position to to take when you're when you're in the public eye
13:34what's the first thing that hits you when you say aba fashion specific oh yes
13:40the decade was glorious for fashion 70s were fantastic like i know we watch these kids today we
13:47watch westbro we watch harden we watch kuzma and we're thinking man they're doing their own thing
13:51that no they are not the first to do that they just happen to be the ones to do it
13:55right now
13:57look at freddie oh my god they're the best ever that fashion is still the best ever it was a
14:05magic time
14:07bib overhauls that's what larry would have on he wore bib overhauls to one game i remember
14:17you know it's funny for women all of this fashion from the 70s has come back in cycles
14:24and i noticed though for the guys it does not come back around i would love to see it
14:31oh wow dr jay did the bow tie listen it's all about owning it
14:38we had the flare collars we had the bell bottoms we had the platform shoes and we had the hats
14:43to
14:43match we had the froze they couldn't grow froze in the nba you didn't see big afros in the nba
14:51but
14:52you saw it in the aba the best afro how about darnell hillman darnell had the best right darnell
14:58hillman boy that used to be something oh my gosh darnell's hair there was a contest between he and julius
15:07and to see who he the biggest afro darnell hillman taught me how to shape it because it was wild
15:14and
15:14willy for a while julius came into town one season and i brought him over to the house and everyone
15:21at that time were using the acro forks and picks we didn't use any of that you ladies will know
15:29what
15:29this is an angel food cake cutter you can use like a cake knife take it away from you take
15:36it away
15:36take it away front middle back and that's where you pull that hair out and once he got it out
15:44and saw
15:44just how big his afro was i said go to the barber and just have him trim all the ends
15:50and clip off the
15:51ends and your hair will get the kind of shape you want and after you after you got it cut
15:58the way you
15:59want it just starts growing out get in front of that mirror man you gotta put the time in it
16:04i remember even white kids including my brother teased their hair up into afros and i just remember
16:10it was all about style and that was that was new that was completely new dr j is somebody who's
16:20projecting a particular brand of unapologetic blackness but the average white viewer because
16:28he didn't really say much to actually rock the boat could embrace that performance on the court
16:37julius urban was was an ad agency dream because he checks off all the boxes that makes
16:44a suburban white family comfortable he's attractive he's regal he has a great great presence he's well
16:52spoken he doesn't say anything controversial and he's a great basketball player
16:58i think my converse deal spalding deal those were door openers you know where there were white
17:06parents saying to their kid i want you to grow up and be like julius irving
17:12julius irving walked so michael jordan could fly
17:18doc kind of held our league together man with his notoriety man
17:22doc was nationwide you know people knew about dr j doc was the aba back then
17:32in the aba let me tell you when an individual got publicity the league got publicity and all the
17:40fellow players it was like all right we're all in this together one fall and all for one
17:46we all applauded you know we all celebrated
17:52the aba opened the door not only for one of basketball's all-time great performers
17:59but also for one of the sports all-time great voices
18:04the jumper bang and we're even up at 14
18:06in 1974 the aba and the st louis spirits made a young man
18:14only weeks out of college the youngest pro sports broadcaster in the country
18:27i was 22 years old right out of syracuse university
18:37so the first game at home at the arena in st louis against memphis and the spirits lead by five
18:45for
18:45like a minute to go and somehow they blow the game and lose it in regulation two nights later on
18:52a
18:52sunday night and they're up by like seven with two minutes to go bob mckinnon's the coach he calls time
19:00out and i'm cruising along on the broadcast things seem to be going really well after the first broadcast
19:06there's lots of good feedback people are patting the kid on the back and i'm doing the games with a
19:11guy named bill wilkerson and i turned to him at this time out and i said bill spirits appear to
19:17have
19:17this game well in hand but coach bob mckinnon taking no chances the last thing he wants to see
19:23is a repeat of friday night's blowjob and wilkerson looked at me and he was like his eyes were wide
19:32as
19:32saucers but he didn't say anything to help me out and the engineer looks around him and goes like this
19:38the universal signal in broadcasting would just keep going now my heart is in my throat i think
19:44jeez this is a dream job and it's done after two games i'm gonna get fired and i finish and
19:51nobody said
19:53a damn thing nobody so i got away with it perhaps costas's work environment was so lenient because the
20:03boss was only 30 years old the aba's spirit of st louis opened the door not only for the youngest
20:12broadcaster in pro sports but also the youngest owner dan silna convinced his brother ozzy in 1974
20:22to buy a basketball team less as an investment and more as an extension of their love for the game
20:30spirits of st louis that would be you that is me i guess you'd call me a basketball junkie i
20:40love
20:40the game of basketball i always have i started to talk about buying a professional basketball team
20:45while i was in college we went into the fabric business my father was in the embroidered business
20:50and we were successful general mills bought us out in 71 that gave us the financial wherewithal
20:58i started to push the point that we should buy a team buy a team buy a team and after
21:03a while my
21:04brother said okay let's see if we can make it happen the silna brothers first attempt to buy a
21:13basketball franchise began in the nba their bid to own the detroit pistons ended in defeat when their
21:22increasing offering price never met the increasing asking price of the team owner mr zollner wanted 5.1
21:30million dollars for the pistons and we offered him 4 million 850 thousand dollars as i recall it
21:38and mr zollner turned it down and that was the end of that the aba league commissioner said listen
21:46we could use you and the aba why don't you consider it and after a period of negotiation we bought
21:53the
21:53team i remember standing up on a desk in my office in munaki new jersey yelling that we did it
22:00we put the
22:01deal together and and it was it was great it was a a childhood dream that had come true
22:08uh there'd be 30 years old again 30 years old and owning a team yeah and i felt more part
22:15of it
22:15because of my age i thought i knew at least as much as everybody else seemed to and maybe my
22:23ego was
22:23that i thought maybe i knew a little bit more but i will tell you one of the things i
22:27learned
22:28after my two years we had a lot of talented ballplayers and talent is overrated
22:35the spirits of st louis were a sub 500 team who struggled against the aba elite
22:42in 11 match-ups against defending champion dr j and the nets the spirits lost 11 straight
22:50their poor performance on the court did not inspire the fans of st louis
22:56i was proud of our talent i was disappointed in the town's response to the team we have what is
23:03known as a sparse crowd we had marvin barnes we had freddie lewis who's right there and look at the
23:09stands nobody
23:15we were like 20 games under 500 we were like 30 and 50 for the season with all that talent
23:20and barely made
23:21the playoffs and we had lost every game against the nets like 11 in a row we were 0 and
23:2711 against
23:28the nets the defending champions with dr j very strong team when the spirits of st louis made the
23:35playoffs they were less than hopeful to find waiting for them in the first round dr j in the next
23:44as usual the nets julius erving was giving the spirits after losing the opener at the york the
23:50spirits beat the mess for the first time ever in game two to tying the series and it's an offer
23:55that dr j out of one of his shot blocks right back in the kid doctor space
24:01the charged up spirit fans saw a classic in game story this game is the series turning point
24:07the spirits taking control as the breaks began to go their way the spirits refused to fold and
24:14nets coach kevin lockery was more than a little bit concerned
24:21as they returned to new york for game five st louis held an astonishing 3-1 advantage
24:28as usual was astonishing himself battling for their lives in the frantic last minute
24:34there's don adams dan's don adams doing his thing the nets seem to wrap it up as the doctors
24:39scored following an exchange of steel but the spirits got back to within one and with 18 seconds left
24:47it was netball out of bounds perving mishandled it that's where he falls down that's right
24:53that loses the ball loses the ball and the spirits had one last chance time ticked away as freddie
24:59looked for an opening but freddie never gives the ball up there's 16 seconds to go
25:04spinning away from brian taylor freddie popped the do-or-die jumper
25:11they didn't have any timeouts no it's bill melchione melchione even a ball and he didn't even reach the best
25:21there's nothing better than winning that day we put the nail in the coffin of the then league champions
25:28the spirits victory completed one of the greatest upsets in sports history the first year club has
25:34shocked the basketball world i'm in the stands behind the spirits bench i remember vividly celebrating
25:42the owners were young ozzy and dan and harry weltman the present thing are young
25:48and they wound up in the shower with the players you know they were celebrating like kids
25:53i remember the euphoria couldn't believe we had pulled it out we won four in a row and eliminated
25:59the nets the spirits won four straight games against dr j and the nets and everybody thought that this
26:08was the start of something big that was the high point that was it you know that was worth it
26:13whatever
26:14it cost us was it worth it for that day yes now i'm talking about what happened subsequently day it
26:20was worth it yeah that day it was worth it exactly the victory over dr j and the nets was
26:27as good as
26:28it would ever get for the spirits of st louis they would not win another playoff series in their
26:33franchise history the two young men for whom the franchise had opened the door could not have known
26:41at the time the greater triumphs that lay in front of them one stood on the doorstep of a legendary
26:47broadcast career
26:49the other 12 months away from making the greatest deal in sports business history
26:57the aba wasn't only breaking new ground in st louis with the youthful leadership of the silva brothers
27:04in kentucky the aba was smashed stereotypes as an unconventional source of leadership
27:10would prove she could not only run a franchise but could help them realize previously unmet levels of
27:18success one of the faces of the aba ownership was john y brown in kentucky the magnet of kentucky fried
27:27chicken john y brown and ellie brown are the people that took over kentucky fried chicken and franchised
27:36that to the world i call all the players i'd run in i'd have 15 meals kentucky fried chicken loaded
27:44up
27:45in the early 70s the colonels like many other aba franchises had been losing money under the financial
27:53strain the brown family prepared to sell the team they were going to sell the team to a couple of
27:59guys
28:00uh in cincinnati and supposedly john wise little boy john came down to the breakfast table one morning
28:07and said dad it isn't true that the colonels are leaving town is it well remember it my dad came
28:17to
28:17the door and i rushed out and just said you know it's not true that you sold the colonels you
28:22know tell me
28:22it's not true and i was kind of teared up and he said later that was the moment he realized
28:32how
28:33devastating a loss it would be to the whole community
28:39it was more than just a business transaction it was a huge loss emotional loss to the city and the
28:46state and i just you know i begged with him to please don't you can't sell the kernels and i
28:51think
28:51he realized it was it was a mistake the colonels were staying put but in 1972 john y brown who
29:01was
29:01now the team's majority owner committed to helping run the democratic party's national convention without
29:08the bandwidth to run the team he turned to an unconventional successor one owner that was indicative
29:15of this ability to pivot and think outside the box was john y brown when faced with running
29:21a presidential campaign and running the kentucky kernels he had to pick the campaign of course
29:28what did he do to sort of uh maintain the day-to-day operations he said i'll put my wife
29:34in charge
29:50a lot of wonderful memories press was very skeptical in the beginning we had
30:01regular almost daily interviews with sports writers from all over the country when john
30:09uh bought the kentucky kernels with four other businessmen he asked them how they felt about
30:13my being uh chairman of the board and maybe getting out into the community and being uh uh an active
30:19owner and the man at that time didn't like the idea the first day that i went to my office
30:28i found out
30:29that the general manager uh resigned he's a great gentleman very accomplished man he's an ex-marine
30:41and he built you know a lot of what was the organization he said i just don't want to work
30:49for a woman and so when he left the coach said i'm leaving too
30:55but that's just kind of the way it was 1973 now you got to think this was the early 70s
31:07women had not
31:08assumed this type of leadership role and this was an indication of the aba doing whatever it had to do
31:16to maintain and to survive women went to work in this country shortly before the turn of the century
31:22today most women are still at the same tedious jobs and the executive ranks are still virtually
31:28close to them a woman can be a success in the business world but it takes an exceptional woman women
31:36are definitely the biggest wasted talent and energy in this country as you can imagine in the testosterone
31:44driven world of sports a woman running the team was not looked at very kindly and she was killed in
31:52the
31:52press the first day very first day i stand up in front and they start in with their questions what
32:01do
32:01you know about basketball i said i know as much about basketball as my husband knew about frying chicken
32:08when he bought kentucky fried chicken when they say pretty ellie brown it's discouraging you know
32:16because they're not taking you seriously but i had the confidence that i could do what i had planned
32:24step one of ellie brown's plan appoint the first all-female board of directors in pro sports history
32:33each one of the members of the board of directors was a woman and they were all community leaders each
32:40one of these girls eight of them all have college educations every one of them has work their children
32:45are now in school and they're back at that point you know before they started their families where they
32:49had the time to get involved in something we were looking for women who knew their way around the
32:55community well they called me because i was president of the younger women's club i thought it would be fun
33:01so i said sure ellie she was in the office all the time working she loved that team and she
33:10made us love
33:11it too step two of ellie brown's plan solve the problem the franchise had been having with low fan
33:19attendance we already had a winning team we didn't have to worry about that all we needed was to
33:26promote the team help sell tickets and help gain uh an audience to build an outstanding team you have
33:34to pay a lot of money and to offset that you have to sell a lot of season tickets how
33:39we started was we
33:40sat down as a group the board of directors and we decided we had to go to the locally owned
33:46businesses
33:47first he said you've got to buy these tickets because we need this team you know we need the
33:54team to perform and we need you all to be there there have been ladies nights as a gimmick of
34:00things
34:00have you planned as a group of women that first men's night where you can bring your husband for half
34:05price no but i think that's a great idea we might do that ellie has always been very charming
34:11they'd have rallies and they'd sell tickets and all those parties and all that television coverage
34:17ticket sales were good and it got the community involved in the team
34:24in that first year she doubled ticket sales and tripled season ticket sales under her leadership
34:32the kentucky colonels filled freedom hall for the first time her board and members which was all women
34:42was able to develop something really special and bringing about the fans
34:48we showed them that we could do it and we sold a lot of tickets
34:56i can tell you i was a little bit skeptic about this whole thing in the very beginning but i
35:01certainly
35:01am not now and i don't know six more harder working ladies and these seated right here in front of
35:08you
35:10there was skepticism in the beginning and then front page of the paper the lady is for real i like
35:17that
35:18you know they were ready i think to take on the challenge
35:24that the men had tried and come up a little short we were hopeful that we actually could do
35:32what we had set out to do build a house and win a championship the colonels have been championship
35:40contenders for years kentucky had just fallen short of the aba title in 1971 72 73 and 74. twice
35:52losing in the finals we knew we had great players but we had some tough breaks lost some close games
36:00and it was disappointing we were devastated and the organization was too because they they had
36:08they hope being high that you know some really extraordinary things are preparing to start happening
36:15now with this nucleus this group of players that we have but for whatever reason we were not able to
36:23get it done
36:27after one year in charge ellie brown in the summer of 1974 put in place the final piece in her
36:36plan
36:37she re-energized her team by hiring a new first-time head coach let's face it you must come to
36:45camp with
36:45people who are going to challenge the veterans so you do not get a complacency ellie hired hubie brown
36:52and that was the real difference good shot of hubie brown first year coach of the kentucky colonels i was
36:59getting my first opportunity to be a head coach in professional sports i'll never forget i came from
37:05my second interview and we're sitting in the uh dining room at the hotel where the offices were
37:11so we're sitting at the table john white brown's over here she's sitting here i'm sitting here
37:16all of a sudden she taps me on the knee and i look down and she has a paper with
37:23three years with the
37:24salary and for each year she's doing it while john white brown's over here talking up the storm and he
37:32doesn't even know this is happening okay he came in with his plan he sat there with a yellow pad
37:40and
37:40just wrote down every play we ran and how successful it was he showed it to us and showed it
37:48to us and
37:55he was one of the first who really worked on defense as much as offense basketball is a game of
38:03defense and i take a lot of pride in my defense and i enjoy playing defense artist was blocking
38:09jump shots from the base like guys are shooting baseline jumpers and he's blocking them i mean i've
38:14never seen anybody do that he was insane and the officials never saw it either because they kept
38:19calling goaltending on him but it wasn't goaltending because it was just such an insane thing for this
38:25guy he was amazing i mean he really was that two bigs combination really allows to be effective
38:35dan had to versatility go out on the perimeter and take those shots we got pretty comfortable with
38:44knowing how each other was going to play and it was more of a feel than really a communication i
38:50mean
38:50i didn't tell artists i'm going to cut or i'm going to do this i just did it and and
38:55artists already had
38:56a feeling for what i was going to do they complemented each other and it was a great feeling to
39:02be able to
39:03pass to two big guys like that louie dampier for the three-point bomb for kentucky louie dampier is
39:10the all-time leading three-point shooter in the history of the league he went back to the very
39:17beginning of the aba and he could get his shot off in a telephone booth i mean he didn't need
39:23any room
39:24at all louie dampier seven-time aba all-star ever an aba champion we've been a runner-up two years
39:30and uh it's frustrating it's something to think about but like i say i i know that one of these
39:36days i'm going to have that championship ring it is a great feeling we've got one more series to go
39:46with indiana and uh we've got the home court advantage i think we can take them and we're going to
39:53be aba
39:53champs i feel certain the rivalry here is intense it's just a natural rivalry the state of indiana is
40:04the home of basketball in america hopefully we can win this series and prove that kentucky really is
40:10the best of all capital of america just so excited to get to see this this is really
40:22special
40:39journals won the second game 95 93
40:42the third game 109 to 101 back at market square
40:47the pit on monday night indiana pulled off that 94 to 86 quick resource three games to win right
40:52now in the interstate right with kentucky in this all-important fifth game of the aba championship
40:57series
41:03there's a two-on-one break this is isle down the lane and he's stopping
41:08big dang getting down the floor
41:12now to take it back uh of course needed more than that here is mcginnis knocked him
41:15no no goaltending
41:18isle a little fake getting in a couple more steps
41:2115 seconds to play it's 110 to 105 the kernels have that lead
41:29going back into philly knight knight down in front missing rebound of kentucky into four seconds three
41:35two
41:37it's all over in kentucky and the kernels are going to hang their first aba championship banner
41:44from the raptors and wait them all they have won it 110 to 105 you see the players
41:51congratulating each other oh that's terrific you can see the pandemonium in the end of the floor
41:58they're talking about waiting a long time for them glad to find them here
42:03finally when we won that championship we got the monkey off of our back
42:06all i can say is right now i'm stunned uh tell me about four o'clock tomorrow afternoon i'll be
42:12able
42:12to tell you how i feel finally get that championship finally
42:31it was a wonderful experience in my life when i think back
42:36now so happy that i had that experience and the other women on the board feel the same way
42:44real excitement is for the people here in louisville now a lot of these people have been
42:48around a lot longer than i had and they've been waiting and waiting for this and when i looked
42:53up and saw every seat in the house four of the night was really real ellie brown ellie brown
42:59wonderful woman and i just happened to have that championship ring uh on you got it
43:07everybody contributed to the cause it was really fantastic it's just uh it was an experience to be
43:15champion what had taken place after so many years and the struggle to reach that point and winning
43:24that championship it was just uh it was just an incredible night
43:30the people ran down and they picked up ellie brown and ran her around
43:35all of a sudden it seems like yesterday i still feel it yeah
43:47a few times in life you can say you lived your magical time i'm glad i got two
43:55and that's the colonel's and my mom to thank for that oh that's just crazy
44:07it was a great moment when we won the championship for not just us we weren't thinking that i'm a
44:16trailblazer but if it has any influence on any young girls coming up trying to find their way in the
44:23world
44:24i'd just be thrilled
44:28the idea of ellie is the idea of having women in positions to make decisions is not a bad thing
44:36it's good for business at the end of the day if you're worried more about a woman being in charge
44:41than you are about having success then uh i i question your business practices so shout out to
44:48what ellie brown was able to do in the aba for having such an open mind and a progressive thought
44:57ellie brown and the ladies had their happiness that night and the amazing thing is after the game
45:03john y brown came around and said i'm challenging the nba champions i said john you just won the
45:09championship why aren't you celebrating he said i want to set up a championship with the nba
45:21championship when the kentucky girls won the 1975 championship and the golden state warriors
45:29also won the championship for the nba the same year we challenged them to a big amount of money
45:36winner take all and they wouldn't play us and i think we all knew for sure there's only one reason
45:43they turned that down they didn't think they could win the nba's golden state warriors may have had
45:51reason to be afraid in the past three years the aba and nba franchises have begun playing each other
45:59in exhibition games the results were not what many had expected
46:09i think the nba had a superiority complex but they started playing the interleague games i knew by
46:16playing those exhibition games the way we played was better than the way they played and that we proved
46:23that the aba had so much more talent and athleticism than the nba
46:47it was a huge dave cowens fan and dave was uh in his second year on his way to begin
47:01an mvp in 1973
47:04and i assumed he was going to kick billy pulse's ass i thought he was going to show the walker
47:10who's
47:10who didn't happen that really shocked me that billy pulse was able to hold his own against dave cowens
47:18and so that was the beginning of maybe bob maybe you're not thinking about this the right way
47:23the kentucky colonel is competing against the milwaukee bucks and uh i think it'll be a very
47:28competitive game that you have two centers with his capabilities and also my capabilities
47:34it'll be something very interesting luau cinder blocking my shot come by with a dunk shot right
47:41in my face and then to be able to block that hook shot with just that kind of a personal
47:49challenge for me
47:53that was definitely a block shot he almost ate them
47:59the aba started to win the majority of the games and did the last four years significantly
48:07well they knew that we had better players we they knew we had a better product it was the
48:14consensus of opinion by people in the nba that we had a much stronger direction even though we were
48:22an a-team league then and they did and frankly they would like some of our ownership because we have
48:27been uh forceful uh we've been strong uh we seem to have direction uh if we maintain it we're going
48:35to
48:35be hell we're going to we're going to be something else the mindset before was let's just be good enough
48:45for them to merge with us now the mindset was we got to be better than them if we want
48:52to survive
48:55they looked at every place that they could hurt the nba
49:00they took notice when the aba was taking all the best referees from the nba somehow some way they were
49:08coming up with the money to lure those uh those referees they looked at the officiating part as
49:15wait a minute this is a group that's kind of undervalued and you know and in some cases
49:21underappreciated we're going to show them something different here anytime they've got a top young
49:25official who's really getting their feet to the point where they're refereeing their high level games
49:29we're going to take them away so i went to the nba office and i walked in and we sat
49:35down and i told
49:36him i said i i can't refuse this i guess the thought of a wilt chamberlain coming to town is
49:44a pretty
49:44good one for you yeah we're pleased with it we think the aba is shaping up beautifully but there's going
49:49to be a tremendous competition within the league and lo and behold the owner of the team brought in
49:58wilt chamberlain to be the coach of the san diego conquistadors will chamberlain has been mr
50:04everything to basketball as a player that he himself ruled out the possibility of his ever
50:09taking a coaching job well the thought of the six hundred thousand dollar a year three-year deal
50:13with the aba san diego conquistadors made him eat those words he couldn't play because his contract
50:20the lakers had in band if you don't have a break don't make a break take it down yourself coaching
50:25an
50:25inexperienced expansion club wilt has led the cues into the western division cellar
50:32like about two weeks ago there was a so-called secret draft held in the aba is there any purpose
50:39in holding a secret draft uh a secret draft in my opinion uh first of all ought to be kept
50:45secret
50:46the practice was to try to sign college seniors or even college underclassmen to secret contracts
50:51while they still were playing for the ncaa they were secret because of course they didn't want to have
50:56the um the player or the school forfeit their eligibility but they also wanted to make sure
51:01that they got their contract in beforehand we felt like we were undervalued not fully respected we're
51:09also to a certain extent battling for our lives so that was a bond between us i think the owners
51:18of the
51:18nba you know they felt the nba you know they felt the threat the men of the aba were driven
51:25to challenge
51:26and in many ways by 1975 surpassed their nba counterparts it was shared faith that kept the league intact
51:36when one event would occur in the summer of 1975 that would sever the bond that held the aba together
51:48the new york nets and the denver nuggets of the american basketball association applied for
51:53admission to the nba without notifying the rest of their league the denver nuggets and the new york
51:59nets two of the most successful franchises in the aba petitioned the nba to be able to be brought into
52:05the nba at that time and basically would have abandoned their aba brethren no franchise may withdraw
52:10from our league without obtaining the consent of the other trustees this has not been done
52:17you know it comes across like mutiny on the bounty i i use the word betrayal i was betrayed by
52:25my partners
52:32bear witness to one of the most spectacular events in professional basketball the slam dunk contest
52:41that aba slam dunk contest is one of the most iconic basketball trips we've ever had
52:48amid speculation that a merger was near the two most appealing teams to master the finals in the aba
52:54playoffs would this be the last hurrah for the red white and blue basketball do you see a need for
52:59the
53:00leagues to merger i see a need for basketball and all sports in this country to progress i didn't want
53:06to
53:06see the merger come down like that it sort of became like a shark infested water every man for himself
53:12i don't think that was fair to a lot of players all of a sudden things are crumbling and falling
53:16apart
53:17it was total chaos
53:21i'm trying to get like i'm trying to get liar i'm trying to get live i'm trying to get like
53:34Go
53:35This choward came with a band
53:37Was in, came in with his tan
53:38Not dropping no music, these shits my fans
53:40Go, go, go
53:42Like how does he do it so clean
53:44With me on finish game
53:45Not sippin' no water, not sippin' no land
53:47I'm tryna get a lie, you
53:49I'm tryna get a lie, you
53:51I'm tryna get a lie, you
53:52I'm tryna get a lie, you
53:56I'm tryna get a lie, you
53:57I'm tryna get a lie, you
53:59I'm tryna get a lie, you
54:01I'm tryna get a lie, you
54:04I'm trying to get live
54:06I'm trying to get live