- 2 days ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:04i see an america on the move again the 1975
00:13a diverse and vital and tolerant nation what you have here is the acid drive everyone here
00:22is going to a whole new plateau i have watched mohammed ali they got too big for the big money
00:30in new york that he went into places like the philippines i say i don't want to knock him out
00:35but i'm gonna let him go insanity must be brought back to basketball i think the climate has changed
00:44whatever there's criticism uh there's need for change and no one can drag a player onto the
00:48and make him perform this isn't a slavery 250 000 a year if that's slavery i'd like when they were
00:54to sign up the american basketball association played with a bright colored ball that made you
01:04want to salute look at that move behind the bag wow that's the way the game should be playing
01:15i feel that i wasn't being paid when i should have he appealed his case to the united states supreme
01:21court if they don't merge a lot of these players are going to be out of a job there's no
01:28tomorrow
01:46in the summer of 1975 the aba reached its pinnacle the 75 aba championship was the most well attended
01:56in league history the talent in the league showed 16 active players and coaches who were going to be
02:02pro basketball hall of famous and the aba was consistently beating the nba in head-to-head
02:09exhibition games while thriving on the court the aba's ongoing financial distress had the league on life
02:19support anytime that you win a championship the worst thing you can do is stand pat so you don't worry
02:25about that when we get to camp on september 24th but we do kind of feel that it will be
02:30quite competitive
02:31when we won the championship in 75 that next fall all of a sudden things are crumbling and falling apart
02:40the league was under such pressure now because there was only so much money national television nba
02:48aba local television we needed the money because certain teams are falling now you talk about tense
02:59this is a tense time now last month the new york nets and the denver nuggets of the american
03:05basketball association applied for admission to the nba without notifying the rest of their league
03:10the other clubs sat down to discuss that disloyalty the reason they gave is a good one a lot of
03:15them
03:15are going broke carl sheer and my dad knew that the league was in trouble you know they always looked
03:21out for the other owners but you know did some of the other owners have the capacity to do it
03:25they
03:25weren't quite sure so did they make inquiries on their own probably the denver nuggets and the new
03:30york nets two of the most successful franchises in the aba petitioned the nba to be able to be brought
03:36into the nba at that time and basically would have abandoned their aba brethren and my understanding
03:42is that a lot of the players were not aware of this at all that this was done at the
03:46behest of the
03:46ownership i thought they should have notified us i was kind of disappointed you know uh two players that
03:57the nba really wanted was david thompson and jews irving even though there was still some great
04:04players in the league i don't think that was fair to a lot of players you know it comes across
04:11like
04:11mutiny on the bounty two franchises are going to go for themselves that's not being team-like
04:19new york and denver are member franchises of the american basketball association
04:23no franchise may withdraw from our league without first assigning all basketball related property to
04:30the league and without obtaining the consent of the other trustees this has not been done
04:35what happens if the nba does decide to act favorably upon these applications i don't feel that they'll be
04:43approved this overture was ultimately not successful but nonetheless that sort of morale that they all had
04:50like hey we're the underdog we're facing incredible odds but we're doing it together this must have
04:55been a body blow to them to sort of see two of their teams try to jump ship it was
04:59total chaos trying
05:01to keep the ship going we lost some cohesiveness and some friendliness among the franchises it was it
05:09sort of became like a shark infested water every man for himself the whole league was like that going
05:16into 76 it was clear that it was going to be a major struggle to have another season in the
05:22aba
05:27the process of the aba was it was deteriorating
05:35we would go to various cities
05:38and the hotel would not allow us to stay there because the previous payments were not paid my paychecks
05:48were bouncing my daughter's school tuition and the private school was bouncing car payments bouncing
05:54house note bouncing uh it just became very embarrassing there were franchises that had just been hanging on
06:01and owners that were ready to bail and they bailed because they're just losing too much money you could
06:08go to a city and it could be your last time going to that city you know franchises start dropping
06:15like
06:15flies i think we started with 10 teams and then utah folded the ill-fated baltimore claws lasted a couple
06:24of
06:24months they said baltimore claws and folded up i said what folding up san diego sales folded
06:33so ultimately you were left with only seven viable aba teams at the time
06:38down to seven teams and you got to get in then 84 games what do you do you play you
06:43keep playing the
06:43same teams and believe me you get to know them there were more fights going on with uh with them
06:51because
06:51you're seeing players you know every week and and and things that you would let go you weren't letting
06:58go you know it kind of just took you took your spirit you know kind of just took your confidence
07:05man
07:06you're like do i still want to put up with this at that point most people knew that the days
07:14of the aba
07:14were numbered so we had an uphill battle to fight but uh we weren't going to stop we knew we
07:22had as much
07:22talent in the aba as they had in the nba i remember the nets were in town to play and
07:29julius irving
07:31walked from the hilton hotel over to angelo drossa's office and sat down unannounced and said angelo
07:38what can i do to save this league that was the spirit the rebellious nature of the aba when faced
07:48with his own termination didn't shrink it grew the aba having in 1969 broken the nba's long-established
07:57rule by drafting college underclassmen now decided to take it a step further
08:1119 year old moses malone signed a five-year 1.5 million dollar contract to forego college but
08:17he's a fast learner when moses finds he can't do things against the pros he got away with in high
08:22school he's quick to adjust moses malone was lebron before lebron in fact moses and lebron are the only
08:3218 year olds to come into the league and start from day one he was a force to be reckoned
08:39with
08:40oh moses malone he could boy it man you're talking about a dude who could go up when you go
08:46down the
08:46other guys just come he's back up again my theory of rebounding do you want the damn ball or don't
08:52you you've got to want the ball it's got to be an obsession to want the ball moses he wanted
08:58that ball
09:00that's all i can hear him say man i'm going to the rack man i'm going to the rack he
09:05did
09:06he went to the rack as hard and aggressively as anyone has ever done it
09:13the aba's aggressive pursuit of survival led them to seek out new basketball fans in cities
09:20the nba had not yet considered when the dallas chaparral struggled the aba moved them to san
09:27antonio and renamed them the spurs
09:38people in san antonio didn't know a lot about pro basketball but they did understand a fiesta
09:44atmosphere a party atmosphere 10-cent beer a night
09:53you could smoke in the arena what we wanted to do is make it as san antonio and as texas
09:58as we could
09:59and that's what the city liked they had a rabid fan base and they had their star in george gervin
10:06the ice man an all-time hall of fame legend
10:15george gervin is real slim guy real thin you think how's he gonna play pro basketball
10:20but he wafted in the air and this and he had this touch and he had these shots
10:26six eight hundred seventy something pounds but he wasn't missing he was he was dropping dimes man
10:34i think the fans here um get up more for us than a lot of arenas in the in the
10:39league
10:40um you know with that kind of support um we can't do nothing but win down here they was in
10:45love with
10:46they san antonio spurs so we brought that excitement man and you had talent we were gunning we were getting
10:53115 120 running up and down i mean you know we built up the fan base you know baseline bomb
11:01was
11:01our six man on the court you know um you know people came in here and they thought about the
11:07baseline bomb not just the san antonio spurs i remember one time larry brown said he didn't like
11:12nothing about san antonio but it's guacamole soup so larry brown went in the locker room and the
11:18baseline bombs was right on top of their locker room and they pulled guacamole soup all on his sweater
11:24it was wild man san antonio is one of the great basketball cities of all time
11:31and a lot of that started with the aba spurs
11:38the spurs were a very good team and even while other teams may have been struggling toward the end of
11:44the aba's existence the spurs and the nuggets they were an anomaly in the aba they sold out every night
11:54the denver nuggets this is a team that is absolutely loaded and they had a crowd they had a new
12:00arena
12:01they packed it they were crazy for it because it was the new game in town so they loved their
12:06nuggets
12:06and larry brown was their coach and his assistant was his long-time pal going back to college
12:14doug moe we were a deep team a talented team we had bobby jones
12:23how many nights have we seen him do that we had dan issel dan issel lays it in that was
12:29this great
12:29move he's got 17 points leads all scorers in the game we had ralph simpson young man with me right
12:36now is ralph simpson his coach has said he has the potential to become one of the greatest uh
12:40basketball players at dart and we had you know one of the greatest young players ever in david thompson
12:50david thompson the skywalker when he was in college at north carolina state they were in
12:56the final four against ucla and this is the ucla team that never lost for like 12 years and they
13:02played one of the greatest games of all time triple overtime and david was the guy so for him to
13:09go into
13:09the aba it's a big deal for the aba to get him as great as mj is as much respect
13:16as people have for
13:17mj david thompson was michael before michael the talent was unbelievable we always talked about what
13:26we're going to see tonight his explosiveness was unbelievable
13:35i heard this whistle come past me i turned around james was doing like a 360 dunk
13:45that's it that's what they call him skywalker
13:51the thing that made him hard to stop was that you try to cut him off in the lane and
13:55he would just
13:55float it up over you he had a great touch he was a skilled player he had the complete package
14:02i mean he
14:02was an excellent jump shooter but if he got close to the rim he was going to throw one down
14:07there was
14:08nothing that he couldn't do when he first came to denver i mean nothing he was just a super superstar
14:21midway through the 1976 season while the aba found themselves mired in their greatest period of
14:28financial struggle they never stopped pursuing new ways to entertain at the 76 all-star game when faced
14:36with having not enough funds to pay for a halftime musical performance the aba decided to create some
14:43entertainment of their own
14:53about to bear witness to one of the most spectacular events in professional basketball
15:09the idea of thrilling people with thrilling dunks and high wire acts that wasn't happening over in the nba
15:19nba come on man i brought white paint dry you know so you know for me it was like we
15:26get ready to show
15:27y'all man what y'all was missing i was the very first individual to go in that contest and
15:34i was like
15:34what what am i supposed to do now you know the first one they had artists they had larry keenan
15:45gervin david julius that was such a special night you know because we knew the ability of some of these
15:53guys and the freaky things they did in the game but to see that you know for the first time
16:00a first dunk
16:01contest blew us all away oh my goodness those guys are so good man god ice oh man he could
16:13fly
16:13you know david comes out and does 360 you know which at that time was not being done
16:37god what is that i've never seen anything like that david thompson
16:45david thompson he was actually the favorite
16:54i was sitting on the sideline waiting for david but we knew the doc would show up
17:03david thompson finishing it and now the doctor goes to work you know david thompson was
17:10the high flyer throwing it down and i and i would applaud it because i was like here we are
17:17we've
17:17taken it back to the playground
17:28he has a few ducks but then his last uh everybody was started to wondering well what is he doing
17:34because he went from the free throw line and he went all the way back to the other free throw
17:39line
17:46watch and he said ralph stop being nervous and the fans are all stirring and cheering or what in the
17:53world's going on when julia started stepping off the paces to the other end of the floor i think we
18:00all
18:00had a pretty good idea of what he was going to do
18:09those of us that had played against julius had had no doubt that he could pull that off
18:14and that's it sure enough that big airflow flying back far way up in the air
18:27and that's that's everyone really do your service
18:33i said oh my goodness god damn you've never seen anything like this
18:39you know whoa and that was a wow moment whoa we look at each other you know did he really
18:46do that
18:51this is the very first time people have seen anything like that it was pretty obvious julius
18:57was going to win the slam dunk contest
19:01doc did things that was just incredible it was just next for him i think god gave him something
19:08that he didn't give the rest of us
19:14i think the story of the last year has to be dr j just because of the amount of pressure
19:20on him
19:21both on the court and off being the face of the league taking it as seriously as he did
19:25and then having to face a superior team on paper in the finals knowing this was the end
19:32and rise to the occasion amid speculation that a merger was near the two most appealing teams to
19:40the nba owners advanced to the finals in the aba playoffs would this be the last hurrah for the
19:46red white and blue basketball if so it would be farewell in a blaze of glory as the new york
19:52nets and the denver nuggets stage a fantastic finale that first game in denver i was ready it was like
20:01i had so much energy here's a steal by the doctor julius with one man back look out
20:09julius is being guarded by one of the best defensive guys ever to play the game and that was bobby
20:14jones
20:15i learned how to play defense in college but playing against god like julius was just a
20:19different level so it was those are quite a school for me i knew how good bobby jones was
20:25i love bobby jones but on the court it could be your mother it don't matter
20:33you gotta go at him
20:37i thought we had the better team but he showed us his greatness oh it's blocked by dr j
20:46anytime you played against julius you knew you had to bring your a game because single-handedly
20:52he can figure out a way to beat you
20:55the doctor he had 18 points in the fourth quarter
21:01julius just took over that game at the end
21:05there's julius again the doctor flinging the ball almost went in that is on rebound and scored
21:10i just kept coming kept coming
21:16the doctor the doctor oh what a shot
21:2110 seconds on the shot clock repelled there by six and recapped it by julius
21:25julius scores
21:28and i remember at the end of the game hitting a jump shot on the baseline
21:33to win the game he gets it out of the doctor time all game here's the shot julius he scores
21:40he scores at the buzzer and the nets win 120 to 118 julius serving finishes up with 45 points and
21:48this
21:48this arena is simply stunt bob bob bob jones right in his face as you saw that time
21:55and i was i was all over him and he switched it and i remember thinking to myself
21:59hey i did all i could bobby jones when he went to block the shot told me he busted
22:05a blister and it kept him from getting out there i don't know if it would have mattered but
22:10he did have a blister i believed him but that was his blister not my blister
22:18the 1976 aba finals was a fitting finale for one of the most colorful and innovative entities
22:27the sports world has ever produced
22:47following a game five denver victory the new york nets held a 3-2 series lead
22:55the team's headed to new york for game six
23:00game six was in new york and uh what i remember about that game is this was the last chance
23:10great atmosphere at the nassau coliseum here this evening the nets lead three games to two in the
23:15quest for the championship of the american basketball association needless to say the nets do now want
23:21to go back to denver and play a seventh game we shall see along with everybody else what develops
23:27thompson lets it go oh is he quick webster oh my goodness leaping david thompson with 13 points
23:35forget about doc there wasn't anybody in the aba that could guard david when his game was was really on
23:42oh they are really on fire this team oh
23:46we got off to a big lead i was sitting on the bench and i was convinced we were beating
23:55simpson fires it up we had a lead 24 point lead up lead and again they got the ball in
24:03drew's hands
24:05every time down the court a feed into the doctor reverse
24:11and that that momentum changed in that fourth period
24:16this is game six in new york and i said okay we cannot go back to denver we cannot go
24:23back
24:25so
24:30he has that talent and he imposes his will like he did i mean you do all you can but
24:36I'm just, I'm alive
24:40Dr. J
24:42Bobby Jones
24:43Doing just about everything a human can do
24:48They just started beating us up
24:55John Williamson
24:57Puts it up
25:0098, 96, Denver by 2
25:03John Williamson
25:04He just wasn't going back to Denver
25:0626 for Williamson
25:0822 in the second half
25:11Williamson
25:12The Nets lead
25:16They just came back and beat us
25:18Nothing you can do about it
25:20It's all over
25:21It's all over
25:22Now the crowd turns out of the court
25:24One second
25:25The Cops is out
25:26Now the ball game's over
25:31You know, in Julius being in New York
25:33You know the popularity
25:35It was probably meant to be
25:39We're gonna need to have to
25:43You know what
25:46No
25:47Theief
26:08BASKETBALL
26:19So I think sitting in the shower, sitting in the shower and the floor, and it was like the preparation
26:24for going back to reality.
26:29You know, and knowing this is the swan song of the ABA, you know, it was like, it was like
26:38just looming over you.
26:42You know, with all the joy and the excitement of playing basketball and winning trophies and all that, there's this
26:51flip side.
26:51The sadness associated with the ABA being done.
27:12Do you see a need for the leagues to merger?
27:15I see a need for basketball and all sports in this country to progress.
27:19And I see a need to ensure that progression.
27:24Before he became a ABA commissioner, he was an absolute big-time political player in the 60s into the early
27:3270s.
27:33Actually, his office was burgled as part of Watergate, which I think is a fascinating little factoid.
27:39So that was a big friggin' deal to get Larry O'Brien to head this league that really was rinky
27:47-dink.
27:48I mean, it was the third option for the American sports viewing public.
27:53Larry O'Brien was used to hardball.
27:55He was essentially being brought in to sort of wrap up its costly battle with the ABA.
28:01Knock some heads a little bit and push for a merger.
28:04Discussions that were going on in terms of the merger of leagues, being involved with the Players Association.
28:12I don't think decisions had already been made, but I think, you know, the ABA was certainly not going to
28:21be the beneficiary
28:22because a lot of guys were going to lose their jobs.
28:38The National Basketball Association announced today that it is taking in four teams from the American Basketball Association.
28:45Each ABA team will pay more than $3 million to join the NBA.
28:49And the ABA, the rival league whose competition for players made pro-basketball players on the average the highest-paid
28:55athletes in sports, will cease to exist.
29:00It was the off-season.
29:02I was president of the ABA Players Association.
29:07I got a call from the Players Association attorney.
29:12He says, I'm up in Massachusetts here at the owners' meeting, and they're talking about merging.
29:21And I said, OK, I'll be on a plane tomorrow.
29:27And he said, no, don't.
29:30It'll be done by the time you get there.
29:35The last and final meeting of the ABA in Hanna Sport, I was there.
29:41I represented a lot of athletes at that time, ABA and NBA.
29:47Everybody put all their cards on the table, and all the ABA owners had financial difficulty.
29:55So it was not good.
29:57And the NBA, they weren't going to take any more than four teams in the league.
30:04And it aggravated a lot of people because it was a merger that should have taken place properly.
30:10And it wasn't being orchestrated properly, primarily because the NBA told these four teams that were getting in,
30:20either you get in or we're cutting all the ABA out.
30:25So, I mean, the owners, they almost had no choice.
30:38Where were you when you found out the merger was happening?
30:41I think I was in Chicago.
30:45I was out in Oakland visiting my sister.
30:48I was in Mexico City playing on ABA All-Star team.
30:51We were back at the hotel, and the merger came through.
30:55I thought the players should have had a vote.
30:59The last thing we heard was there was a merger now, you know, and we had to go where they
31:05wanted us to go.
31:07I didn't want to see the merger come down like that, you know, but because that's the end of it
31:12for me.
31:13I didn't, you know, really try to do anything else.
31:15I was really sad that we would lose the camaraderie that we had in the ABA.
31:19We just liked one another.
31:23I just want to stay with my guys.
31:24I was not pleased with the fact that maybe 70, 80, 90 players were not, did not have jobs, were
31:34not included, and didn't have an opportunity, not even to try out with NBA teams after the merger.
31:41In the summer of 1976, when the NBA-ABA merger took place, the merger agreement stated in writing that the
31:51ABA players would receive a pension from the ABA after retirement.
31:57But as time went on, those pension payments never materialized.
32:09The NBA was very clear that this was not a merger.
32:12They viewed that they were going to bring on, quote-unquote, expansion teams.
32:16Seven teams ultimately finished the season, but immediately afterwards, the Virginia Squires folded.
32:22Only four of the ABA teams actually came into the league.
32:26Denver, San Antonio, Indiana, New York.
32:29Two of the ABA teams, St. Louis and Kentucky, were forced to go away.
32:34Kentucky Colonels' attendance was outdoing anybody in the NBA, and then Kentucky was one of the teams that was excluded
32:42from the NBA.
32:45To me, that's BS.
32:47The Chicago Bulls probably had more to do with us not getting in than anybody.
32:51Chicago Bulls didn't want us in because they had the first draft choice of ABA players, and that happened to
32:56be Artis Gilmore.
32:59Artis was the key person because the other key players were already with teams.
33:05Dr. J is already with the Nets.
33:07That's why they wanted the Nets.
33:08They had George Girvin at San Antonio.
33:11They had Issel and David Thompson in Denver.
33:15And the Pacers, of course, were always strong in the league.
33:21So, in my opinion, Chicago, because they had their number one choice, they're the ones who really forced the NBA
33:27to leave us out so they could get Artis.
33:31And it's very, very sad.
33:33We didn't want to get rid of anybody.
33:35It's just like, you know, what's happening here?
33:39And it was very disappointing.
33:42And we loved the players.
33:47And I was sad we just didn't go any further.
33:53The ABA teams that were brought into the league as expansion teams came in under very, very difficult conditions.
34:00They had to pay John Y. Brown approximately $3 million to buy him out for his Kentucky franchise.
34:05Well, you have to remember now, John Y. Brown and Ellie Brown, they've had incredible success by turning Kentucky Fried
34:14Chicken into a worldwide company.
34:17Supposedly, John Y. Brown didn't want to pay the amount of money that was being asked for these four slots
34:25to come into the league.
34:27Versus getting $3 million for stepping out.
34:32I don't even know if that's true.
34:34That's something you just read in the paper.
34:37But nobody has the real reasons.
34:40John, I'm sure, would do things differently today.
34:44But in the time, John made the right decision.
34:46He decided to take the money.
34:48He bought the Buffalo Braves and then traded, if you can believe this, the Buffalo Braves for the Boston Celtics.
34:56I'm guessing Mr. Auerbach was probably a little upset.
35:01Red Auerbach was indeed the ultimate symbol of old-line establishmentarianism in the NBA and the idea that the magnet
35:10of Kentucky Fried Chicken would become his boss.
35:13Totally infuriated Red.
35:15While one of the franchises, not allowed into the NBA via the merger, was able to maneuver their way in
35:23through a side door, the other was locked out and left, initially only with the feeling of bitterness.
35:33A basketball league is a league of everybody doing the same thing, trying to get to the same goal.
35:39Everybody expected that the merger would take place or hoped that the merger would take place.
35:47But the way it occurred, I use the word betrayal, I was betrayed by my partners, because the NBA was
35:54a partnership.
35:55You could not have the league dissolved without the agreement of all the partners.
36:02And when only four teams got in, my brother came up with the thought that the teams that got admitted
36:09should give one-seventh of their TV revenue that they would get by being in the NBA as compensation for
36:18not being admitted to the league.
36:19So we stuck to our guns.
36:22If we were going to be excluded, we wanted that compensation for us.
36:29The Seilners would get what they were asking for.
36:32One-seventh of the television revenue of each of the four ABA teams merging with the NBA.
36:39At the time, with the NBA's small TV contract, the amount seemed inconsequential.
36:45But the term of the deal was in perpetuity, meaning as the league grew, NBA owners would have to pay
36:52the Seilners forever.
37:22Oh, my God.
37:24That's a lot of money, but...
37:29In 1974, the Seilners had purchased their ABA franchise for an estimated $3 million.
37:37By the time the NBA finally bought them out of their deal in 2014, they had made $800 million.
37:47We made a very good deal, but it still did not satisfy the reason we got into basketball in the
37:55first place.
37:56We got into basketball for the love of the game, and the ultimate success in that game is to win
38:02a championship.
38:03And we did not get that opportunity.
38:09The irony was that the ABA was starved for television money, and they were looking forward to coming in, these
38:15teams to the league, and enjoying the television money.
38:17But under the terms of the expansion agreements, they were not to receive any television money for the first four
38:23years that they were in the NBA.
38:25Denver, San Antonio, Indiana, and the New York Nets, they each had to pay approximately $3.2 million to the
38:33NBA.
38:34The New York Nets came in for a particular difficult time, and they had to pay approximately $4.8 million
38:39toward the New York Knicks for having intruded on their turf.
38:43So it was sort of an indemnity payment to the New York Knicks.
38:48Yeah, it's exciting. The Nets are going to be in the NBA, but it's an expensive ticket to get in.
38:53Roy Bowe, you know, he got raked over the coals once he went into the New York market.
38:59He's a guy who meant well, and he just kind of ran out of money.
39:07Julius wanted to renegotiate.
39:09You know, with those staggering fees to join the NBA, my father, you know, he had a choice to make.
39:19And my father said, no, I'm not going to renegotiate.
39:25The deal was done.
39:27In a $6 million business transaction, the New York Nets have sold their star basketball performer, Julius Irving, Dr. J,
39:36to the Philadelphia 76ers.
39:41Well, I have mixed emotions about leaving.
39:44You know, I feel very, very sorry for the position that my teammates, my ex-teammates are in.
39:51And I don't think that, you know, they'll be there when the team finishes rebuilding.
40:08The 1976-77 season were marked the first after the merger.
40:15While some in the NBA held a grudge against their former adversaries, the ABA players entered the NBA with something
40:24to prove.
40:25The reality was, you know, I think there was a strong prejudice against the ABA.
40:31I remember, you know, there was jealousy, there was animosity.
40:35I was probably, you know, the best player on the team, head and shoulders.
40:40And, you know, you're being asked to tone it down.
40:44What does tone it down mean?
40:46And it's one of the things Gerber and I laugh about right now.
40:48I mean, we wanted to go out there and entertain the fans.
40:50You know, this is what our priority was.
40:52They weren't ready for us, man.
40:56Some of them NBA guys be saying, who's down there in San Antonio that can play?
40:59And then say, ah, nobody.
41:01And then they come down there and Gerber got 30 at half.
41:04You know, I mean, if you, boy, I tell you, man, they were stagnated.
41:0976.
41:10And when we merged, everything went up.
41:14Look at 77.
41:16Ten guys was in the All-Star team in front of the ABA.
41:22Gervin, Julius Ervin, George McGinnis, Dan Hessel, David Thompson, Bobby Jones.
41:28They get Hall of Famers because the ABA merges with the NBA.
41:34Basketball players that for the nine years in the ABA was criticized as a bullshit league.
41:42That's not true.
41:44And that we proved that.
41:46Taken away by David Thompson.
41:48It's three on one.
41:48And Thompson flies to the back.
41:53George Gervin of San Antonio can fall.
41:55Here's Dr. Jay of Philadelphia.
41:57Oh!
41:58Oh, things are going good on the NBA.
42:00Danny Issa watching.
42:02In Denver, after we went to the NBA, the first two years, we won the Midwest Division.
42:07So that's how good the teams and the players were.
42:11Larry Brown of the Denver Nuggets goes into that huddle to talk to his team.
42:16We were all trying to make everybody understand we're just not this funny league that plays with a crazy-looking
42:23ball and a three-point shot.
42:25With quality players and quality coaches, we can compete at the highest level.
42:31Most valuable player of this All-Star game, Julius Erving, come on over here.
42:37Come on here by winning this award.
42:39Thank you.
42:40At this 27th All-Star game, the merger has brought the stability that this league has been elusively seeking for
42:48over 30 years.
42:49The NBA, it would appear, has decided not to be the Peter Pan of professional sports.
43:00It is Philadelphia against Portland.
43:03Portland leads this series three games to two.
43:07First year after the merger, Dr. Jay and the Sixers go to the final.
43:11Here comes the doctor.
43:13House call.
43:14Oh, my goodness.
43:17The doctor, magnificent as usual, has scored 40 points in this game.
43:24Now, Philadelphia, they got beaten in the finals.
43:27But as time went on in the NBA, you know, the great revelation, if anyone needed a revelation, was the
43:3377 season.
43:35That would tell you all you need to know about the level of high talent that the ABA came into
43:40the league with.
43:41It was only after the best ABA players began to really make an impact that a lot of people woke
43:48up and said, hey, this was a hidden treasure.
43:51There are so many names in the ABA that people have forgotten or never knew to begin with.
43:58Some unbelievable players.
44:00It would be nice if more people knew who Matt Calvin was or Ron Boone or James Jones.
44:07There's such a rich history and there's such a great legion of players.
44:10Now, you can talk about some of these guys, man, like McGinnis.
44:14George dominated the ABA.
44:16Come on, man.
44:17Louie.
44:18Zampia, man.
44:20Larry Tina.
44:22James Salern.
44:24Rob Simpson.
44:26And you can just keep naming them, man.
44:29That's how good we was.
44:31Now, ain't me talking.
44:33You do your own research.
44:38Oh, yeah, look at the pictures.
44:40Here we got the pictures.
44:41There's a mark, really.
44:42Wow.
44:43Slick's picture.
44:44Who's that, Neto?
44:45Is that me?
44:46Yeah, that's Neto.
44:47There's Roger.
44:49Number 35.
44:55The ABA greats of the past serve as some of the last living legends in American sports.
45:03Wow.
45:04The roots of what they accomplished still reach out to connect us today.
45:09I know, because my dad played in the ABA.
45:14This picture right here of my father in the Denver Rockets, he had that one in his house.
45:19Man, I was proud of it.
45:21It's funny, because I look, and I'm like, man, I guess I do look somewhat like my dad.
45:26My name is Hudson Mays, and I'm the grandson of Roger Brown.
45:29Roger Brown, the first pacer ever signed.
45:39Here's your grandpa.
45:41See it?
45:41Were we ever that young?
45:43That's Mel.
45:43Hearing stories and what went on back in those days, it's something that brings me a lot of joy and
45:49happiness.
45:50Who's 24?
45:51That's Rick Barry.
45:52I'm sorry, yeah.
45:53That's Rick Barry.
45:54Yeah, that's Rick Barry.
45:55God, he ate him up.
45:56Oh, God, he ate him up.
46:00I never got to see an ABA game, per se, like, while it was being played.
46:06Oh, okay.
46:07Yo, I ain't no casters doing that.
46:10Like, because, you know, sometimes when you see a lot of old footage, you don't see the athleticism that I'm
46:15seeing right now.
46:15I'm like, are they hooping?
46:24Goose, you've had a lot of time back in Louisville now.
46:27You've been out for a couple of weeks with the torn Achilles, and you're sitting around thinking about a lot
46:31of things.
46:32What are some of those things that are going through your mind?
46:34Well, for one thing, I'm hoping that my injury would be, you know, feel like it'll be all right when
46:40I come back next season.
46:42And another thing, I'm thinking about the future.
46:44What's going to happen to me if it don't heal back right, you know?
46:48And, like I say, since I didn't go to college, I didn't really have anything, nothing to fall back on.
46:54That's all things that should have been taken care of at the merger.
46:58We were told that we were going to get credit for our ABA years, for our NBA pensions.
47:05And I understand it wasn't the NBA's responsibility to now to make good on those things.
47:12That's why I so love the Dropping Dimes Foundation that the people in Indianapolis have put together to help some
47:21of these former ABA players.
47:25I grew up in Indianapolis, and all these amazing Pacers who were my heroes when I was a kid.
47:31So, the next thing you know, I'm sitting there talking to George McGinnis and Darnell Hillman and Mel Daniels.
47:38And Mel's getting pissed, by the way.
47:40As he's talking to me, I can see that fire.
47:43As he's talking about the lack of respect the NBA had for the ABA, and then he got most passionate
47:50about ABA players were not part of the pension plan for the NBA.
47:56They weren't part of any kind of health care benefits, and he was really, really serious about it.
48:03You know, as an attorney, I did some research, and then I saw that this language was put into the
48:08settlement agreement that said that the ABA defendants would provide pension benefits to the players.
48:16But the ABA as a league dissolved about a year after the so-called merger, and what little bit of
48:24money was in the actual real ABA pension fund ended up, it was mismanaged, sort of disappeared.
48:32The ABA went out of existence.
48:35And so that's when we took the formal step of forming the Dropping Dimes Foundation to help these guys.
48:48Burt Averitt was as quick with the basketball as anybody I've ever seen.
48:53And then I saw him, you know, in his later years, really having a tough time getting around.
48:58Couldn't afford to pay the electricity bill, and, you know, didn't have anything.
49:04One of the saddest ones was George Carter.
49:06He basically, you know, was a limo driver with throat cancer and had no family, no friends, nothing.
49:14Still no pension from the NBA.
49:17And so when he died, they were going to give him a pauper's funeral where basically you're buried with no
49:24recognition because they couldn't find any next of kin.
49:28And it was just amazing to me that that could be possible.
49:33Those players who did not make it over into the NBA should have been taken care of.
49:38You know, they're just out there.
49:39They didn't have any money, and Sam Smith was one of them.
49:44He was my father's supervisor at the Ford Motor Plant after he finished playing in the ABA.
49:49And again, like so many of these guys are, he was so humble that my father didn't even know, after
49:55working with him for 20 years, that he played professional basketball.
49:58You know, he had some health issues, and he had spent some time in a Medicaid nursing home.
50:04And I was visiting Sam.
50:06I said, you know, Sam, if I'm so angry, if I could take a picture of you right now and
50:12send it to New York and get somebody's attention, I would do it.
50:18And he said, you think that would really help?
50:21And I said, yeah, I think it would.
50:23And he said, well, take the picture.
50:24Because he was a friend, and I said, you don't look that great right now.
50:27I said, you know, this is not going to be a super flattering picture.
50:29So I was just kind of saying that facetiously because I'm kind of pissed off.
50:36And he grabbed my gown and pulled me closer to him and said, take the picture in a very serious
50:43tone of voice.
50:45And I just kept staring at him for a second, and he said, I would do anything to help these
50:50guys.
50:53And I took the picture.
51:05The photo of Sam Smith laying there with an ABA basketball, red and white basketball, about to die, that caught
51:13the attention, I think, of the world.
51:19There's like a million people reading that story all at once, and I'm like, what in the world?
51:24It was the photo.
51:28That is the image that sent the NBA over the edge, because shortly after that, the NBA said, we're going
51:35to figure out something to do for these guys.
51:42I think it's really important to note that here we are nearly 50 years post-merger, and a lot can
51:49be said about the battles between the NBA and the ABA.
51:52But in the end, the NBA and the NBA Players Association did step up and do something they had absolutely
51:58no legal obligation to do.
52:06Last week, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced they would create a fund to support ABA veterans.
52:14These are guys that I rooted for when I was a kid, so it's been a very humbling experience.
52:20Let's hear it for Scott Tarter.
52:22Scott Tarter.
52:24Now I did what we did.
52:25It's a good story.
52:27I'm celebratory.
52:29I just felt good that maybe this can give them a few more years of good life and celebration of
52:37basketball.
52:38I'm 81 years old.
52:40A lot of the guys are gone.
52:43But, hey, it's great.
52:44And I appreciate that they think enough, but they want to give us something.
52:50I think it's good for all of us, but it's especially phenomenal for the guys that are hurting.
52:57That will allow some dignity.
53:01It will allow, when they pass on, to say the NBA did the right thing for a league that did
53:07so much to make the game better today.
53:11I hope and I think it should be a beginning of respect for the ABA.
53:20The legacy that the ABA players have left is that when you look at today's game, it looks a whole
53:29lot like the way we used to play in the ABA.
53:32The dunk contest, the three-point shot, we brought that in.
53:38The three-point shot coming from the ABA dramatically changed what's happened in the NBA.
53:43Because you're not winning an NBA championship nowadays if you can't shoot the three-point shot.
53:48Rick Barry, let's fly with a three-point bomb.
53:51Bang!
53:52Curry gets a look, fires away.
53:54Bang!
53:55As a shooter, I've loved the ABA.
53:59I think it's had a huge impact on the game of basketball.
54:03To me, what the NBA has turned into at this point in time is the great balance of the ABA
54:11mixed with the NBA.
54:12Now you have the modern NBA, which is the fastest-growing sport in the world.
54:17It's a global phenomenon.
54:19Look at Whitby, step back three.
54:21Oh, yeah!
54:22I do think the evolution came directly from the ABA.
54:28ABA was so freelance.
54:31And you could do and play like you did in the parks.
54:36Dribbling, passing, shooting, scoring.
54:40The fun of the game.
54:42That's what I see today.
54:44The NBA playing exactly the way the ABA was playing back in the day.
54:51The thing that's really, I think, that's ironic about the ABA is
54:55the first thing most people remember about the ABA is the slam dunk contest.
55:00That ABA slam dunk contest is one of the most iconic basketball treasures we've ever had.
55:10I honestly think that's why the NBA started their slam dunk contest.
55:17Oh, my God!
55:19If you go back and look at the ABA story, we owe a great deal of gratitude to the ABA.
55:27Because when those guys came to the NBA and they were all great players,
55:32it really was the turning point in the history of basketball.
55:36And I'll always be thankful for that.
55:41History will show that in a nine-year fight between the ABA and the NBA,
55:48in this David versus Goliath battle, Goliath won.
55:54But in this story, in order for Goliath to defeat David, he had to become him.
56:01A small band of brothers, known as the American Basketball Association,
56:10would change the game forever.
56:14We had a real camaraderie in the ABA.
56:17I don't know if it was because we knew we were the underdogs
56:21or because we played each other so more often than the NBA teams played each other.
56:28But I was surprised.
56:30That never happened once we got to the NBA.
56:35I kind of roomed with so many guys, especially the one I really loved rooming with was Louis Dampier.
56:41Because to him, the man of him has been friendly since he's been with the organization,
56:45the current organization.
56:46And to me, he's like a brother, you know.
56:49There was just a bond there that maybe because of, you know, where we are,
56:55up against the Giants, so to speak,
56:57we all felt like we were all in it together.
57:00And it's just a lot of good friendships that developed over the years,
57:05even though we were opponents for all that time.
57:08Man, we got brotherhood.
57:10I mean, come on, man.
57:11You know what a brotherhood is, man?
57:13You know, we was in a league, man, that wasn't really well respected
57:17by marketing or corporate America.
57:22There really was a brotherhood.
57:24It wasn't just talk.
57:25It wasn't just hot air.
57:27We really liked one another.
57:33I get kind of emotional about that because
57:37these were my brothers.
57:43I love those guys, and they love me.
57:48The essence of it is really what it's all about,
57:51because the essence is about how you feel about something.
57:55During that time, you know, people really feel passionate about,
57:59you know, what that experience was about.
58:02And it was a one-for-all-and-all-for-one mentality.
58:11That has continued throughout my lifetime.
58:16Time has marched on, but the memories are forever.
58:23That was the soul of the ABA.
58:53It was over.
58:55Before it even began, since the day I saw her walking around.
59:09I know you're never meant to hurt me.
59:14Oh, you're the only one who knows why I'm gone.
59:35You're the only one who knows why I'm gone.
59:38I know you're the one who knows why.
59:38So, the memory of all of you is about how I can.
59:38So, I don't think I can, you know,
59:39you're the only one who knows how to hurt me.
59:40I know you're the only one who knows how to hurt you.
59:40So, when you know how to hurt me,
Comments