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Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association - Season 1 - Episode 04: Partys Over
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00:04I see an America, on the move again, the 1975, a diverse and vital and tolerant nation, what
00:19you have here is the acid drive, everyone here is going to a whole new plateau, I have
00:28Muhammad Ali, he got too big for the big money in New York, he went into places like the
00:33Philippines, I say I don't want to knock him out, but I'm going to let him go, insanity
00:41must be brought back to basketball, I think the climate has changed, there's criticism
00:45there's need for change, and no one can drag a player onto the court and make him perform,
00:50this isn't a slavery, $250,000 a year, if that's slavery, I'd like to know where to sign
00:54on, the American Basketball Association played with a bright colored ball that made you want
01:05to salute, look at that move behind the back, wow, that's the way the game should be played,
01:15I feel that I wasn't being paid when I should have, he appealed his case to the United States
01:20Supreme Court, if they don't merge, a lot of these players are going to be out of a job,
01:28there's no tomorrow,
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
02:02going to be pro basketball, Hall of Famers, and the ABA was consistently beating the NBA
02:08in head-to-head exhibition games, while thriving on the court, the ABA's ongoing financial distress
02:17had the league on life support, anytime that you win a championship, the worst thing you can do is
02:23stand pat, so you don't worry about that when we get to camp on September 24th, but we do kind
02:29of feel
02:29that it will be quite competitive, when we won the championship in 75, that next fall, all of a sudden
02:37things are crumbling and falling apart. The league was under such pressure now, because there was only so much money.
02:46National television, NBA, ABA, local television, we needed the money, because certain teams are falling.
02:56Now you talk about tense. There's a tense time now. Last month, the New York Nets and the Denver Nuggets
03:04of the
03:04American Basketball 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 are going broke.
03:17Carl Shear and my dad knew that the league was in trouble. You know, they always looked out for the
03:22other owners, but you know,
03:23did some of the other owners have the capacity to do it? They weren't quite sure. So did they make
03:27inquiries on their own? Probably.
03:29The Denver Nuggets and the New York Nets, two of the most successful franchises in the ABA, petitioned the NBA
03:35to be able to be
03:36brought into the NBA at that time, and basically would have abandoned their ABA brethren. And my understanding is that
03:43a lot of the players
03:44were not aware of this at all, that this was done at the behest of the ownership.
03:49I thought they should have notified us. I was kind of disappointed. You know, two players that the NBA really
03:58wanted was David Thompson and Jews Irving.
04:03Even though there were still some great players in the league, I don't think that was fair to a lot
04:07of players.
04:10You know, it comes across like mutiny on the bounty. Two franchises are going to go for themselves. That's not
04:16being team-like.
04:19New York and Denver are member franchises of the American Basketball Association. No franchise may withdraw from our league
04:27without first assigning all basketball-related property to the league and without obtaining the consent of the other trustees. This
04:34has not been done.
04:35What happens if the NBA does decide to act favorably upon these applications?
04:41I don't feel that they'll be approved.
04:44This overture was ultimately not successful.
04:47But nonetheless, that sort of morale that they all had, like, hey, we're the underdog.
04:51We're facing incredible odds, but we're doing it together.
04:54This must have been a body blow to them to sort of see two of their teams try to jump
04:58ship.
04:58It was total chaos, trying to keep the ship going.
05:03We lost some cohesiveness and some friendliness among the franchises.
05:08It sort of became like a shark-infested water, every man for himself.
05:13The whole league was like that, going into 76.
05:17It was clear that it was going to be a major struggle to have another season in the ABA.
05:26The process of the ABA was deteriorating.
05:35We would go to various cities, and the hotel would not allow us to stay there because the previous payments
05:45were not paid.
05:47My paychecks were bouncing, my daughter's school tuition at a private school was bouncing, car payments bouncing, house note bouncing.
05:56It just became very embarrassing.
05:58There were franchises that had just been hanging on, and owners that were ready to bail.
06:04And they bailed because they're just losing too much money.
06:07You could go to a city, and it could be your last time going to that city.
06:13You know, franchises start dropping like flies.
06:15I think we started with 10 teams, and then Utah folded.
06:20The ill-fated Baltimore Claws lasted a couple of months.
06:24They said, Baltimore Claws, and fold it up.
06:28I said, what? Folding up?
06:31San Diego's 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.
06:42What do you do? You keep playing the same teams.
06:45And, believe me, you get to know them.
06:48There were more fights going on with them because you were seeing players, you know, every week.
06:55And things that you would let go, you weren't letting go.
06:59You know, it kind of just took your spirit, you know.
07:03It kind of just took your confidence, man.
07:06You're like, do I still want to put up with this?
07:10At that point, most people knew that the days of the ABA were numbered.
07:16So, we had an uphill battle to fight, but we weren't going to stop.
07:21We knew we had as much talent in the ABA as they had in the NBA.
07:26I remember the Nets were in town to play, and Julius Irving walked from the Hilton Hotel
07:32over to Angelo Drosa's office and sat down unannounced and said,
07:38Angelo, what can I do to save this league?
07:42That was the spirit.
07:44The rebellious nature of the ABA, when faced with his own termination, didn't shrink.
07:50It grew.
07:51The ABA, having in 1969 broken the NBA's long-established rule by drafting college underclassmen,
08:01now decided to take it a step further.
08:11Nineteen-year-old Moses Malone signed a five-year, $1.5 million contract to forego college,
08:17but he's a fast learner.
08:18When Moses finds he can't do things against the pros he got away with in high school,
08:23he's quick to adjust.
08:25Moses Malone was LeBron before LeBron.
08:29In fact, Moses and LeBron are the only 18-year-olds to come into the league and start from day
08:36one.
08:37He was a force to be reckoned with.
08:40Oh, Moses Malone? Shit, he could boil it, man.
08:43You talking about a dude who could go up?
08:45When you go down, the other guy's just coming.
08:47He's back up again.
08:49My theory of rebounding, do you want the damn ball or don't you?
08:53You've got to want the ball.
08:54It's got to be an obsession to want the ball.
08:57Moses, he wanted that ball.
09:01That's all I can hear him say, man, I'm going to the rack, man.
09:03I'm going to the rack.
09:04He did.
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 the NBA had not
09:21yet considered.
09:22When the Dallas Chaparral struggled, the ABA moved them to San Antonio and renamed them the Spurs.
09:38People in San Antonio didn't know a lot about pro basketball, but they did understand a fiesta atmosphere, a party
09:45atmosphere, 10-cent beer a night.
09:48You could smoke in the arena.
09:55What we wanted to do is make it as San Antonio and as Texas as we could, and that's what
10:00the city liked.
10:01They had a rabid fan base, and they had their star in George Girvin, the Iceman, an all-time Hall
10:08of Fame legend.
10:15George Girvin, this real slim guy, real thin.
10:19You think, how's he going to play pro basketball?
10:20But he wafted in the air, and he had this touch, and he had these shots.
10:266'8", 170-something pounds.
10:29But he wasn't missing.
10:31He was dropping dimes, man.
10:34I think the fans here give up more for us than a lot of arenas in the league.
10:40With that kind of support, we can't do no but win down here.
10:44They was in love with they San Antonio Spurs, so we brought that excitement, man.
10:50And you had talent.
10:52We were gunning.
10:53We were getting 115, 120, running up and down.
10:57I mean, you know, we built up the fan base.
11:00You know, Baseline Bombs was our sixth man on the court.
11:03You know, people came in here and they thought about the Baseline Bombs, not just the San Antonio Spurs.
11:09I remember one time Larry Brown said he didn't like nothing about San Antonio but his guacamole soup.
11:15So Larry Brown went in the locker room and the Baseline Bombs was right on top of their locker room,
11:20and they pulled guacamole soup all on his sweater.
11:24It was wild, man.
11:27San 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.
11:41And even while other teams may have been struggling toward the end of the ABA's existence, the Spurs and the
11:47Nuggets, they were an anomaly in the ABA.
11:49They sold out every night.
11:54The Denver Nuggets, this is a team that is absolutely loaded.
11:59And they had a crowd.
12:00They had a new arena.
12:01They packed it.
12:02They were crazy for it because it was the new game in town.
12:05So they loved their Nuggets.
12:07And Larry Brown was their coach.
12:09And his assistant was his longtime pal going back to college, Doug Moe.
12:16We were a deep team, a talented team.
12:19We had Bobby Jones.
12:22Bobby Jones!
12:23How many nights have we seen him do that?
12:26We had Dan Issel.
12:27Dan Issel lays it in.
12:28That was Issel's great move.
12:30He's got 17 points, leads all scorers in the game.
12:33We had Ralph Simpson.
12:34Young man with me right now is Ralph Simpson.
12:37His coach has said he has the potential to become one of the greatest basketball players at guard.
12:41And we had, you know, one of the greatest young players ever in David Thompson.
12:50David Thompson, the Skywalker.
12:53When he was in college at North Carolina State, they were in the final four against UCLA.
12:58And this is the UCLA team that never lost for like 12 years.
13:01And they played one of the greatest games of all time, triple overtime.
13:05And David was the guy.
13:08So, for him to go into the ABA, it was a big deal for the ABA to get him.
13:12As great as MJ is, as much respect as people have for MJ, David Thompson was Michael before Michael.
13:21The talent was unbelievable.
13:22We always talked about what we're going to see tonight.
13:28His explosiveness was unbelievable.
13:35I heard this whistle come past me.
13:38I turned around.
13:40The teams were doing like a 360 dunk.
13:45That's it.
13:46That's what I 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 float it up over you.
13:57He had a great touch.
13:58He was a skilled player.
14:00He had the complete package.
14:02I mean, he was an excellent jump shooter.
14:04But if he got close to the rim, he was going to throw one down.
14:07There was nothing that he couldn't do when he first came to Denver.
14:13I mean, nothing.
14:14He was just a super superstar.
14:21Midway through the 1976 season, while the ABA found themselves mired in their greatest period of financial struggle, they never
14:30stopped pursuing new ways to entertain.
14:33At the 76 All-Star Game, when faced with having not enough funds to pay for a halftime musical performance,
14:41the ABA decided to create some entertainment of their own.
14:53About to bear witness to one of the most spectacular events in professional basketball.
15:10The idea of thrilling people with thrilling dunks and high wire acts, that wasn't happening over in the NBA.
15:19NBA, come on, man.
15:21I brought white paint dry.
15:24You know, so, you know, for me, it was like, we've been ready to show y'all, man, what y
15:28'all was missing.
15:30I was the very first individual to go in that contest.
15:33And I was like, what am I supposed to do now, you know?
15:38The first one, they had artists, they had Larry Keenan, Gervin, David, Julius.
15:48That was such a special night.
15:50You know, because we knew the ability of some of these guys and the freaky things they did in the
15:56game.
15:57But to see that, you know, for the first time, a first dunk contest blew us all away.
16:05William Garbink of the New York Tats.
16:07Oh, my goodness.
16:08Those guys are so good, man.
16:10Goddamn.
16:11Ice.
16:12Oh, man, he could fly.
16:22Oh, man.
16:24He comes back strongly with that one.
16:27You know, David comes out and does 360, you know, which at that time was not being done.
16:37God, what is that?
16:39I've never seen anything like that.
16:41David Thompson.
16:45David Thompson, he was actually the favorite.
16:55I was sitting on the sideline, waiting for David.
16:59But we knew the doc would show off.
17:03David Thompson finishing it.
17:05And now the doctor goes to work.
17:07You know, David Thompson was the high flyer, throwing it down.
17:13And I would applaud it because I was like, here we are.
17:17We've taken it back to the playground.
17:28He has a few ducks, but then his last dunk, everybody started to wonder, 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.
17:42Turn around, David.
17:44I said, Doc going to take off from the free throw line, watch.
17:47He said, Ralph, stop being nervous.
17:50And the fans are all stirring and cheering, or what in the world is going on?
17:54When Julius started stepping off the paces to the other end of the floor, I think we all had a
18:00pretty good idea of what he was going to do.
18:09Those of us that had played against Julius had no doubt that he could pull that off.
18:15Sure enough, that big airflow flying back, far way up in the air.
18:33I said, oh my goodness, I was like, God dang, I've never seen anything like this.
18:40You know, whoa, that was a wow moment, whoa.
18:43We look at each other, you know, did he really do that?
18:51This is the very first time people had seen anything like that.
18:56It was pretty obvious Julius was going to win this slam dunk contest.
19:01The doctor thinks that this is just incredible.
19:05It was just natural for him.
19:06And I think God gave him something that 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, both on the court and off, being the face of the league, taking it as seriously as he
19:25did, and then having to face a superior team on paper in the finals, knowing this was the end, and
19:33rise to the occasion.
19:36Amid speculation that a merger was near, the two most appealing teams to the NBA owners advanced to the finals
19:42in the ABA playoffs.
19:44Would this be the last hurrah for the red, white, and blue basketball?
19:48If so, it would be farewell and a blaze of glory as the New York Nets and the Denver Nuggets
19:53stage a fantastic finale.
19:56That first game in Denver, I was ready.
20:00It was like, man, I had so much energy.
20:03And here's a steal by the doctor.
20:05Julius with one man back. Look out!
20:09Julius was 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 a guy like Julius was just a different level,
20:20so it was quite a school for me.
20:23I knew how good Bobby Jones was. I love Bobby Jones, but on the court, it could be your mother.
20:30It don't matter.
20:33You gotta go at him.
20:37I thought we had the better team, but he showed us his greatness.
20:43Oh, it's blocked by Dr. J.
20:46Any time you played against Julius, you knew you had to bring your A game, because single-handedly, he can
20:53figure out a way to beat you.
20:55The doctor.
20:57The doctor.
20:58He had 18 points in the fourth quarter.
21:02Julius just took over that game at the end.
21:05There's Julius again.
21:07The doctor.
21:07Flinging the ball.
21:08Almost went in.
21:09That is on rebound and scored.
21:11Boy, is that something.
21:12I just kept coming, kept coming.
21:16The doctor.
21:17The doctor.
21:18Oh, what a shot.
21:20Ten seconds on the shot clock.
21:23Repelled there by Simpson.
21:24Recapped it by Julius.
21:25Julius scores!
21:28And I remember at the end of the game, hitting a jump shot on the baseline to win the game.
21:34He gets it over to the doctor.
21:36Time all game.
21:37Here's the shot.
21:38Julius.
21:38He scores!
21:40He scores!
21:41At the buzzer.
21:42And the Nets win.
21:43120 to 118.
21:45Julius serving.
21:46Finishes up with 45 points.
21:48And this arena is simply stunt.
21:51Bobby Jones right in his face as you saw that time.
21:54And I was all over him.
21:56And he swished it.
21:57And I remember thinking to myself, hey, I did all I could.
22:01Bobby Jones, when he went to block the shot, told me he busted a blister.
22:06And it kept him from getting out there.
22:08I don't know if it would have mattered, but...
22:10He did have a blister.
22:12I believed him.
22:14But 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 the sports world
22:29has ever produced.
22:30On the first place.
22:31On the second place.
22:47Following a Game 5 Denver victory.
22:50The New York Nets, held a 3-2 series lead.
22:55The teams headed to New York for Game 6.
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
23:15in the quest for the championship of the american basketball association needless to say the nets
23:20do not want to go back to denver and play a seventh game we shall see along with everybody
23:24else what develops thompson lets it go oh is he quick webster oh my goodness leaping david thompson
23:34with 13 points forget about doc there wasn't anybody in the aba that could guard david when his game was
23:40was really on oh they are really on fire this team oh we got off to a big lead i
23:49was sitting on the
23:50bench and i was convinced we were beating simpson fires it up we had a lead 24 point lead i
23:59believe
24:00and again they got the ball in jewish's hands every time down the court
24:10and 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
24:30he 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 just alive
24:40dr j
24:42bobby jones doing just about everything a human can do
24:48they just started beating us up
24:55john williamson
25:02john williamson he just wasn't going back to denver
25:0626 for williamson 22 in the second half
25:10williamson
25:11the nets lead
25:16just came back and beat us nothing you can do about it
25:31you know in julius being in new york you know the popularity
25:34it was probably meant to be
25:38it was probably meant to be
26:08i think you know basketball has always been
26:12an escape
26:16from the real world
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
26:28you know and knowing this is the swan song of the ava
26:35you know it was like
26:37it was like just
26:40looming over you
26:42you know with all the joy and the excitement of
26:45playing basketball and winning trophies and all that there's this flip side
26:53the sadness associated with
26:57the ava
26:59being done
27:11do you see a need for the leagues to merger
27:14i 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 commissioner
27:26he was an absolute big time political player in the 60s into the early 70s
27:32actually his office was burgled as part of watergate
27:37which i think is a fascinating little factoid
27:39so
27:39that was a big friggin deal
27:42to get larry o'brien
27:43to head this league that really was
27:46rinky dink
27:48i mean it was it was the third option
27:50for the american sports viewing public
27:53larry o'brien
27:54was 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
28:05discussions that were going on in terms of the merger of leagues
28:09being involved with the players association
28:12i don't think decisions had already been made but i think uh you know the aba was uh certainly not
28:20going to be the beneficiary because a lot of guys are 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 three million dollars to join the nba and the aba the rival league
28:51whose competition for players made pro basketball players on the average the highest paid athletes in sports will cease to
28:57exist
28:59it was the off season i was president of the aba players association i got a call from the players
29:10association attorney he says i'm up in massachusetts here at the owners meeting and they're talking about merging
29:21and i said okay i'll be on a plane tomorrow and he said no don't it'll be done by the
29:32time you get there
29:34the last and final meeting of the aba in hannesport i was there
29:40i represented a lot of athletes at that time aba and nba
29:46everybody put all their cards on the table and all the aba owners had financial difficulty
29:54so it was not good and the nba they weren't going to take any more than four teams in in
30:03the league
30:03and 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
30:18teams that were getting in either you get in or we're cutting all the aba out
30:24so 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 uh chicago
30:45i was out in oakland visiting my sister
30:47i was in mexico city playing on aba all-star team
30:51we were back at the hotel and and the merger came through
30:54i thought the players should have had a vote
30:59the last thing we heard was there was a merger now
31:03you know and we had to go where they wanted us to go
31:06i didn't want to see the merger come down like that you know but because uh
31:11that's the end of it for me i 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 we just liked the
31:20one another
31:23i just want to stay with my guys i was not pleased with the fact that maybe 70 80 90
31:30players
31:31were not did not have jobs were not included and didn't have an opportunity
31:36not 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
31:50that the aba 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 that this was not a merger they viewed that they were going to bring
32:14on quote-unquote expansion teams seven teams ultimately finished the season but immediately
32:20afterwards the virginia squires folded only four of the aba teams actually came into the league
32:26denver san antonio indiana new york two of the aba teams st louis and kentucky were forced to go away
32:34kentucky colonel's attendance was outdoing anybody in the nba and then kentucky was one of the teams
32:41that was excluded from the nba to me that's bs the chicago bulls probably had more to do with us
32:49not
32:50getting in anybody chicago bulls didn't want to see him because they had the first draft choice
32:54of aba players and that happened to be artist gilmore artist was the key person because the other key
33:03players were already with teams dr j is already with the nets that's why they wanted the nets
33:08they had george gervin at san antonio they had isle and david thompson in denver
33:15and uh the pacers of course were always strong in the league so in my opinion chicago because they
33:23had their number one choice they're the ones who really forced the nba to leave us out so they could
33:29get ours and uh it's it's very very sad we didn't want to get rid of anybody it's just like
33:36you know
33:37what's what's happening here and uh it was very disappointing we loved the players and i was sad
33:48we just didn't go any further the aba teams that were brought into the league as expansion teams
33:57came in under very very difficult conditions they had to pay john y brown approximately three million
34:03dollars to buy him out for his kentucky franchise well you have to remember now john y brown and ellie
34:10brown they've had incredible success by turning kentucky fried chicken into a worldwide company
34:17supposedly john by brown didn't want to pay the amount of money that was being asked for these four
34:25slots to come into the league versus getting three million dollars for stepping out
34:33i don't even know if that's true that's something just reading the paper but nobody has the real
34:39reasons john i'm sure would do things differently today but in the time john made the right decision
34:46he decided to take the money he bought the buffalo braves and then traded if you can believe this the
34:53buffalo braves for the boston celtics i'm guessing mr arback was probably a little upset
35:01red arback was indeed the ultimate symbol of old line establishmentarianism in the nba and the idea
35:09that the magnet of kentucky fried chicken would become his boss totally infuriated red while one of the
35:16franchises not allowed into the nba via the merger was able to maneuver their way in through a side door
35:24the 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 aba was
35:54a
35:54partnership you 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
36:07that the teams that got admitted should give one-seventh of their tv revenue that they would get by being
36:15in the nba as compensation for not being admitted to the league so we stuck to our guns if we
36:23were going
36:23to be excluded we wanted that compensation for us the sooners 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 at the time
36:40with the nba's small tv contract the amount seemed inconsequential but the term of the deal was in
36:47perpetuity meaning as the league grew nba owners would have to pay the sealers forever oh my god
36:58it was easily one of the best deals in the history of deals to go from where they were with
37:05the spirit
37:06of saint louis to negotiate that tv deal those meetings were not fun everybody's like what the
37:15you know we can't get out of this there's not nope couldn't get out of it just one of the
37:20best deals
37:20ever unfortunately it cost me a lot of money and my my peers a lot of money but
37:29in 1974 the sealers had purchased their aba franchise for an estimated three million dollars
37:37by the time the nba finally bought them out of their deal in 2014 they had made 800 million dollars
37:47we made a very good deal but it still did not satisfy the reason we got into basketball in the
37:55first place we got into basketball for the love of the game and the ultimate success in that game
38:01is to win a championship and we did not get that opportunity
38:09the irony was that the aba was starved for television money uh and they were looking forward
38:14to coming in these teams to the league and enjoying the television money uh but under the terms of the
38:19expansion agreements they were not to receive any television money for the first four years that
38:24they were in the nba denver san antonio indiana and the new york nets they each had to pay approximately
38:303.2 million dollars to the nba the new york nets came in for a particular difficult time and they
38:37had
38:37to pay approximately 4.8 million dollars toward the new york knicks for having intruded on their turf so
38:43it was sort of an indemnity payment to the new york knicks yeah it's exciting the nets are going to
38:49be in
38:50the nba but it's an expensive ticket to get in roy bow you know he got raked over the coals
38:56once he
38:57went into new york market he's a guy who meant well and he just kind of ran out of money
39:07julius wanted to renegotiate you know with that's those staggering fees to join the nba my father you
39:16know he had a choice to make and my father said no i'm not going to renegotiate the deal was
39:26done
39:27in a six million dollar business transaction the new york nets have sold their star basketball
39:33performer julius irving dr j to the philadelphia 76ers
39:41well i've mixed emotions about leaving um you know i feel very very sorry for the position that
39:48my teammates my ex-teammates are in and i don't think that uh you know they'll be there when the
39:56team
39:56finishes rebuilding
40:09the 1976-77 season remarked the first after the merger
40:15while some in the nba held a grudge against their former adversaries the aba players entered the nba
40:23with something to prove the reality was you know i think there was there was a strong prejudice against
40:30the aba i remember you know there was jealousy there was animosity i was probably you know best
40:37player on the team head and shoulders and you know you're being asked to tone it down
40:44what is tone it down me and as well as the gervin and i laugh about right now i mean
40:48we want to go
40:49out there and entertain the fans you know this is what our priority was they weren't ready for us man
40:55some of them nba guys be saying who down there in san antonio that can play and then say ah
41:00nobody
41:00and then they come down there and gervin got 30 at half you know i mean if you boy i
41:05tell you man
41:07they were stagnated 76 and when we merged everything went up look at 77 10 guys was in all-star
41:18team from the aba
41:22gervin julius ervin george mcginnis dan hissel david thompson bobby jones they get hall of famers
41:30because the aba merges with the nba basketball players that for the nine years in the aba was
41:38criticized as a a bullshit league that's not true and that we proved that taken away by david thompson
41:47hit three on one and top it flies to the back george gervin to san antonio control here's dr jay
41:56of philadelphia oh oh things are going good on the nba stand here so watch it in denver after we
42:03went to the nba the first two years we won the midwest division so that's how good the teams and
42:10the players were larry brown of the denver nuggets goes into that huddle to talk to his team
42:15we were all trying to make everybody understand we're just not this funny league that plays with
42:23a crazy looking ball and a three-point shot we're quality players and quality coaches we can compete
42:30at the highest level most valuable player of this all-star game julius ervin come on over here
42:37come on here by winning this award thank you at this 27th all-star game the merger has brought the
42:45stability that this league has been elusively seeking for over 30 years the nba it would appear
42:51has decided not to be the peter pan of professional sports
43:00it is philadelphia against portland portland portland leads this series three games to two
43:07first year after the merger dr jay and the sixers go to the final
43:14the doctor magnificent as usual has scored 40 points in this game
43:24now philadelphia they got beaten in the in the finals but as time went on in the nba you know
43:30the great revelation if anyone needed a revelation was the 77 season that would tell you all you need
43:37to know about the level of high talent that the aba came into the league with it was only after
43:42the
43:43best aba players began to really make an impact that a lot of people woke up and said hey this
43:50was a
43:50hidden treasure there are so many names in the aba that people have forgotten or never knew to begin
43:57with some unbelievable players it would be nice if more people knew who matt calvin was or ron boone
44:04or james jones there'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 george dominated the aba
44:16come on man louie dapia man larry tina james solid
44:24rob simpson and you can just keep naming them man how good we was ain't me talking you do your
44:34own research
44:37oh yeah look at the pictures here we got the pictures there's a mark really
44:42wow slicks picture is that netto that me yeah that's netto there's roger number 35
44:55the aba greats of the past serve as some of the last living legends in american sports
45:04the roots of what they accomplish still reach out to connect us today
45:10i know because my dad played in the aba this picture right here of my father in denver rockets
45:17he had that one in his house man i was proud of it it's funny because i look and i'm
45:23like man i
45:23guess i do look somewhat like my dad my 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 see it were we ever that young
45:42that's now hearing stories and what went on back in those days it's something that brings me a lot
45:48of joy and happiness who's 24 that's rick barry i'm sorry yeah yeah that's rick barry god he ate him
45:55up oh god he ate him up i never got to see an aba game per se like while i
46:03was being played
46:06oh okay yo i ain't no cast is doing that like because you know sometimes when you see a lot
46:12of
46:12old footage you don't see the athleticism that i'm seeing right now like how they hooping
46:24goose you've had a lot of time back in louisville now you've been out for a couple of weeks with
46:28the
46:28torn achilles and you're sitting around thinking about a lot of things what are some of those things
46:33that are going through your mind well for one thing i'm hoping that my injury would it would
46:38be you know feel like it'll be all right when i come back next season and another thing i'm thinking
46:43about the future what's going to happen to me if if it don't heal back right you know and uh
46:48like i
46:49say since i didn't go to college i really have anything nothing to fall back on that's all things that
46:55that should have been taken care of at the merger we were told that we were going to get credit
47:01for our
47:02aba years for our nba pensions and i understand it wasn't the nba's responsibility to now to make
47:11good on those things that's why i i so love the dropping dimes foundation uh that the people in
47:18in indianapolis have put together to help some of these former aba players i grew up in indianapolis
47:26and uh all these amazing pacers who were my heroes when i was a kid so next thing you know
47:32i'm sitting
47:32there uh talking to george mcginnis and darnell helm and mel daniels and mel's getting pissed by the way
47:40he's as he's as he's talking to me i can see that fire as he's talking about the lack of
47:45respect the
47:46nba had for the aba and then he got most um passionate about aba players uh were not part of
47:53the pension plan for the nba they weren't part of any kind of healthcare benefits and he was really
48:00really serious about it you know as an attorney i did some did some research and then i saw that
48:06this language was put into the settlement agreement that said that the aba defendants
48:13would provide pension benefits to the players but the aba as a league dissolved about a year after
48:22the so-called merger and what little bit of money was in the actual real aba um pension fund ended
48:29up
48:29it was mismanaged sort of disappeared the aba went out of existence and so that's when we took the
48:36formal step of forming the dropping dimes foundation to help these guys batted out back
48:42and tracked down by kentucky avert with a penetration dump off and two ball three runners
48:48burnt avert 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 he basically you know was a limo driver with throat
49:10cancer and and had no family no friends nothing still no pension from the nba and so when he died
49:19they
49:19were going to give him a pauper's funeral where basically you're buried with no recognition because
49:26they couldn't find any next of kin and 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 you know they're
49:38just out there they didn't have any money and sam smith was one of them he was my father's supervisor
49:46at the ford motor plant after he finished playing in the aba and again like so many of these guys
49:51are he
49:52was so humble that my father didn't even know after working with him for 20 years that he played
49:57professional basketball you know he had some health issues and he had spent some time in a medicaid
50:02nursing home and i was visiting sam i said you know sam if uh i'm so angry if i could
50:09take a picture of
50:10you right now and send it to new york and get somebody's attention i would do it and he said
50:19uh you
50:19think that would really help and i said yeah i think it would and he said we'll take the picture
50:24because he was a friend and i said you don't look that great right now i said you know this
50:28is not
50:28going to be a super flattering picture so i was just kind of saying that facetiously because i'm kind
50:34of pissed off and uh he grabbed my gown and pulled me closer to him and uh and said take
50:40the picture
50:42in a very serious tone of voice and i just kept staring at him for a second and he said
50:47i would do
50:48anything to help these guys and i took the picture
51:04the photo of sam smith laying there with an aba basketball red and white basketball about to die
51:13that caught the 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 it was
51:24the photo that is the image that that sent the nba over the edge because shortly after that
51:33the nba said we're gonna 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
51:48merger and a lot can be 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
51:57absolutely no legal obligation to do last week nba and the national basketball players association
52:10announcing they would create a fund to support aba veterans these are guys that i rooted for when i
52:16was a kid so it's been a very humbling experience let's hear for scott tarter yeah scott tarter
52:24now i did what we did it's a good story i'm celebratory i just felt good that maybe this
52:32can give them a few more years of good life and and celebration of basketball i'm 81 years old
52:40a lot of the guys are gone but hey it's great and i appreciate that they think enough but they
52:48want
52:48to give us something i think it's good for all of us but it's especially phenomenal for the guys that
52:56are hurting that will allow some dignity it will allow when they pass on to say the nba did the
53:05right
53:06thing for a league that did so much to make the game better today i hope and i think it
53:13should be a
53:14beginning of respect for the aba the legacy that the aba players have left is that when you look at
53:27today's game it looks a whole lot like the way you we used to play in the aba
53:32the dunk contest the three-point shot we brought that in the three-point shot coming from the aba
53:40dramatically changed what's happened in the nba because you're not winning an nba championship
53:45nowadays if you can't shoot the three-point shot rick barry let's fly with a three-point bomb
53:51bang curry gets a look fires away bang as a shooter i've loved the aba
53:59i think it's had a huge impact on the game of basketball to me what the nba has turned into
54:06at
54:06this point in time is the great balance of the aba mixed with the nba now you have the modern
54:13nba which
54:14is the fastest growing sport in the world it's a global phenomenon
54:21i do think the evolution came directly from the aba aba was so freelance and you could do and play
54:33like you did in the parks dribbling passing shooting scoring the fun of the game that's what i see today
54:44the nba playing exactly the way the aba was playing back in the day the thing that's really
54:52i think is ironic about the aba is the first thing most people remember about the aba is the slam
54:59dunk
54:59contest that 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
55:19if you go back and look at the aba story we owe a great deal of gratitude
55:25to the aba because 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 and i'll always be thankful for that
55:41history will show that in a nine-year fight between the aba and the nba in this david versus
55:50goliath battle goliath won but in this story in order for goliath to defeat david he had to become him
56:02a small band of brothers known as the american basketball association would change the game
56:12forever we had a real camaraderie in the aba i don't know if it was because we knew we were
56:21the
56:21underdogs or because we played each other so more often than the nba teams played each other
56:28uh but i was surprised that never happened once we got to the nba i kind of room with so
56:36many guys
56:37especially the one i really love room with was louis dampier because uh to him the man him has been
56:43friendly since he's been with the organization the current organization and to me he's like a brother you
56:48know it was just a bond there that uh maybe because of you know where we are up against the
56:56giants so to
56:57speak uh we all felt like we were all in it together and it's just a lot of good friendships
57:02that
57:03developed over the years uh even though we were opponents for all that time now we got brotherhood
57:10i mean come on man you know what a brotherhood is man you know we was in a league man
57:15that wasn't
57:16really well respected by marketing or corporate america there really was a brotherhood it wasn't just
57:24talk it wasn't just hot air we really liked one another
57:32i get kind of emotional about that because
57:37these were my brothers
57:42i love those guys and they loved me
57:48the essence of it is really what it's all about because the essence is about how you feel about
57:53something during that time you know people really feel passionate about you know what that what that
58:01experience was about and there was a one for all and all for one mentality
58:11that has continued throughout my lifetime time has marched on but the memories are forever
58:23that was the soul of the aba
58:27that was the soul of the aba
58:53it was over before it even began
59:02since the day i saw her walking around
59:09i know you never meant to hurt me
59:17you're the only one who knows why i'm gone
59:29you
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