- 6 hours ago
Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association - Season 1 - Episode 03: Icarus
Category
📺
TVTranscript
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.
01:43The American Basketball Association
01:48So 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 man i braced up for the doc
02:04you know i'm gonna take the choice when he came in i braced i looked to the right all i
02:10could see
02:10was 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
02:35doctor thinks that this is just incredible you know it defies human nature
02:43once 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
02:59yeah if you give me the 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
03:45folks came running all out of the stand
03:49that's the style of play that they wanted to see and they had a lot of that in the aba
03:57when 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 alkins and when they lost spencer haywood
05:29and luwell cinder but this time they would 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 aba
05:51superstar 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 finished
06:09up with the squires won the scoring title for the league and then after that season then he went on
06:14to the net
06:15we made a side agreement with virginia to rescind their contract and we have now entered into an eight-year
06:22contract with julius new york has always been my home and i'm very pleased and happy that uh you know
06:30i've signed with the nets and and uh you know i'll be able to play out 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 championship contenders
06:54six seasons in and the new york nets have failed to hang a banner
06:58they tried to sign kareem but failed
07:03rick berry attempted to win the title there but couldn't get it done
07:08now their native son had returned home
07:12well uh i didn't go up too far from here
07:18in 1974 thought by many to be the best basketball player on the planet
07:23but dr j in new york only 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
08:16is julius irving dr j's magical moves performed major surgery on the opposition all year long
08:22and the playoffs are serving as yet another personal showcase for basketball's most exciting superstar
08:27first game doc went crazy i think he had 47 really set the tone for the series and utah i
08:34think knew they were up against it
08:35the good doctor fought in 47 points as the nets won the series 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 all my aba years
09:11eventually they did put willie wise on julius willie wise was known as the best defensive forward
09:19in the league me and doc had some good battles
09:23in fact i remember doc starts jumping about eight or ten feet from the basket i thought oh this guy
09:29he's jumping too soon what's he gonna do so i nudged him behind the glass
09:35he reaches back in torques his body and somehow dunks it i couldn't believe it i had him behind the
09:44glass
09:44and 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
10:28and 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
10:48cleveland and say well i did that i did that in the aba so it's not the first time it's
10:55being done
10:56but it's the first time being done in 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
11:08shaft comes out in 1971 starring richard groundtree this is the look for the era and so even thinking
11:15about like what it meant to have this incredible athlete uh embodied uh what people were coming
11:24to see as a fictional character but in real life when i saw shaft on 42nd street walking the same
11:31streets that i walk as my friends we went to the movies that was impactful because that was black
11:35superhero 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 that the dr j particularly and the aba
11:52style
11:54seem to be analogous to that on sun low 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
12:36the game he had a style he had he just he was like the whole the whole deal you know
12:41on and off the
12:42court others had gained mainstream acceptance before him but julius ervin was the first black athlete to
12:50do it while maintaining a distinctly black staff when he hit it shifted from suits and ties to this
12:58other aesthetic if you look at the trailblazer like dr j who does appeal to everyone but it is
13:07quintessentially unapologetically himself the thing i knew about the aba is dr j my uncle oh dr j they
13:13dress like that they talk you know so you you see you know they idolized him there's something about
13:19respecting who you are and not being afraid of that standing on that and not feeling like you need
13:25to be something that you're not is a courageous position to to take when you're when you're in
13:31the public eye what's the first thing that hits you when you say aba fashion specific oh yes
13:40the decade was glorious for fashion the 70s were fantastic like i know we watch these kids today
13:46we watch westbro we watch hardin 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
14:05time bib 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
14:22in cycles and i noticed though for the guys it does not come back around i would love to see
14:29it
14:31oh wow dr jay did the bow tie listen it's all about owning it we had the flare collars we
14:39had the
14:40bell bottoms we had the platform shoes and we had the hats to match we had the froze they couldn't
14:45grow froze in the nba you didn't see big afros in the nba but you saw it in the aba
14:53the best afro
14:55how about darnell hillman darnell had the best right darnell hillman boy that used to be something
15:01oh my gosh darnell's hair there was a contest between he and julius erin to see who he's the biggest
15:09afro
15:10darnell hillman taught me how to shape it because it was wild and woolly for a while
15:16julius came into town one season and i brought him over to the house and everyone at that time
15:22were using the acro forks and picks we didn't use any of that you ladies will know what this is
15:30an angel
15:30food cake cutter you can use like a cake knife take it away from you take it away take it
15:36away front middle
15:38back and that's where you pull that hair out and once he got it out and saw just how big
15:45his afro was
15:46i said go to the barber and just have him trim all the ends and clip off the ends and
15:53your hair will
15:54get the kind of shape you want and after you after you got it cut the way you want it
15:59just starts
16:00growing out get in front of that mirror man you got to put the time in it i remember even
16:05white kids
16:06including my brother teased their hair up into afros and i just remember it was all about style
16:11and that was that was new that was completely new dr j is somebody who's projecting a particular
16:23brand of unapologetic blackness but the average white viewer because he didn't really say much to
16:30actually rock the boat could embrace that performance on the court
16:37deuce urban was was an ad agency's dream because he checks off all the boxes that makes a suburban white
16:46family comfortable he's attractive he's regal he has a great great presence he's well-spoken he doesn't
16:53say anything controversial and he's a great basketball player i think my converse deal spaulding
17:01deal those were door openers you know where there were white parents saying to their kid i want you
17:09to grow up and be like julius irving julius 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 in 1974 the aba and the st louis spirits made a
18:12young man
18:13only weeks out of college the youngest pro sports broadcaster in the country
18:26i was 22 years old right out of syracuse university
18:38so 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
18:52sunday night and they're up by like seven with two minutes to go bob mckinnon's the coach he calls
18:59timeout and i'm cruising along on the broadcast things seem to be going really well after the first
19:05broadcast there's lots of good feedback people are patting the kid on the back and i'm doing the games
19:10with a guy named bill wilkerson and i turn to him at this timeout and i say bill spirits appear
19:17to
19:17have this 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 geez
19:44this is a dream job and it's done after two games i'm gonna get fired and i finish and nobody
19:52said a
19:53damn thing nobody so i got away with it perhaps costas's work environment was so lenient because
20:03the boss was only 30 years old the aba's spirit of st louis opened the door not only for the
20:12youngest
20:12broadcast in pro sports but also the youngest owner dan silna convinced his brother ozzie 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
20:37i guess you'd call me a basketball junkie i love the game of basketball i always have i started to
20:43talk about buying a professional basketball team while i was in college we went into the fabric
20:48business my father was in the embroidered business and we were successful general mills bought us out in
20:5471 that gave us the financial wherewithal i started to push the point that we should buy a team buy
21:01a team
21:02and after a while my brother said okay let's see if we can make it happen
21:10the silna brothers first attempt to buy a basketball franchise began in the nba
21:17their bid to own the detroit pistons ended in defeat when their increasing offering price never met
21:24the increasing asking price of the team owner mr zollner wanted 5.1 million dollars for the pistons and
21:32we offered him 4 million 850 thousand dollars as i recall it and mr zollner turned it down and that
21:41was the end of that the aba league commissioner said listen we could use you and the aba why don't
21:49you
21:49consider it and after a period of negotiation we bought the team i remember standing up on a desk
21:56in my office in munaki new jersey yelling that we did it we put the deal together and and it
22:02was it was
22:03great it was a a childhood dream that had come true ah there'd be 30 years old again 30 years
22:12old and
22:12owning a team yeah and i felt more part of it because of my age i thought i knew at
22:19least as much
22:20as everybody else seemed to and maybe my ego was that i thought maybe i knew a little bit more
22:25but i
22:26will tell you one of the things i learned after my two years we had a lot of talented ball
22:31players
22:32and talent is overrated the spirits of st louis were a sub 500 team who struggled against the aba elite
22:42in 11 matchups 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
23:03as a sparse crowd we had marvin barnes we had freddie lewis who's right there and look at the stands
23:11nobody
23:15we were like 20 games under 500 we were like 30 and 50 for the season with all that talent
23:20and barely
23:21made the playoffs and we had lost every game against the nets like 11 in a row yeah we were
23:27all and 11 against the nets the defending champions with dr j very strong team when the spirits of st
23:34louis
23:34made the playoffs they were less than hopeful to find waiting for them in the first round dr j in
23:41the
23:41nets as usual the nets julius erving was giving the spirits fit after losing the opener at the york
23:50the spirits beat the best for the first time ever in game two to tying the series
23:54it isn't often that dr j out of one of his shot blocks right back in the kid doctor's space
24:01the charged up spirit fans saw a classic in game story this game is the series turning point the
24:08spirits taking control as the breaks began to go their way the spirits refused to fold and nets coach
24:15kevin 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
24:35dan ston adams doing his thing the nets seem to wrap it up as the doctors scored following an exchange
24:41of
24:41steel but the spirits got back to within one and with 18 seconds left it was netball out of bounds
24:49perving mishandled it that's where he falls down that's right that loses the ball that loses the ball
24:55and the spirits had one last chance time ticked away as freddy looked for an opening freddy never
25:01gives the ball up there's 16 seconds to go spinning away from brian taylor freddy popped the do or die
25:08jumping bingo they didn't have any timeouts no it's bill melchione melchione even a ball and he
25:18didn't even reach the best there's nothing better than winning that day we put the nail in the coffin
25:26of the then league champions the spirits victory completed one of the greatest upsets in sports
25:32history the first year club that shocked the basketball world i'm in the stands behind the
25:37spirits bench i remember vividly celebrating the owners were young ozzy and dan and harry weltman the
25:46present thing are young and they wound up in the shower with the players you know they were celebrating
25:52like kids i remember the euphoria couldn't believe we had pulled it out we won four in a row and
25:58eliminated the nets the spirits won four straight games against dr j and the nets and everybody
26:06thought that this was the start of something big that was the high point that was it you know
26:13that was worth it whatever it cost us was it worth it for that day yes now i'm talking about
26:18what
26:18happened subsequently day it was worth it yeah that day it was exactly the victory over dr j and the
26:27nets
26:27was as good as it would ever get for the spirits of st louis they would not win another playoff
26:32series
26:33in their franchise history the two young men for whom the franchise had opened the door
26:40could not have known at the time the greater triumphs that lay in front of them one stood on the
26:46doorstep
26:46of a legendary broadcast career the 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 would smash stereotypes as an unconventional source of leadership would prove
27:12she could not only run a franchise but could help them realize previously unmet levels of success
27:20one of the faces of the aba ownership was john y brown in kentucky the magnet of kentucky fried chicken
27:28john y brown and ellie brown are the people that took over kentucky fried chicken and franchised that to the
27:37world
27:38i call all the players i'd run in i'd have 15 meals kentucky fried chicken loaded up in the
27:45early 70s the colonels like many other aba franchises had been losing money under the financial strain
27:53the brown family prepared to sell the team they were going to sell the team to a couple of guys
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
28:13well remember it my dad came to the door and i rushed out and just said you know it's not
28:20true that
28:20you sell the kernels you know tell me that's not true and i was kind of teared up and he
28:30said later
28:30that was the moment he realized how devastating 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 begged with him to please don't you can't sell the kernels and i think
28:51he
28:51realized it was it was a mistake the kernels were staying put but in 1972 john y brown who was
29:01now the
29:01team's majority owner committed to helping run the democratic party's national convention without the
29:08bandwidth to run the team he turned to an unconventional successor one owner that was
29:15indicative of this ability to pivot and think outside the box was john y brown when faced with
29:21running a 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
29:47oh
29:51a lot of wonderful memories press was very skeptical in the beginning we had regular almost daily interviews
30:04with sports writers from all over the country when john bought the kentucky kernels with four other
30:11businessmen he asked them how they felt about my being uh chairman of the board and maybe getting out
30:17into the community and being uh uh an active owner and the man at that time didn't like the idea
30:25the first day that i went to my office i found out that the general manager
30:31uh resigned he's a great gentleman very accomplished man he's an ex-marine and he built you know a lot
30:43of
30:44what's was the organization he said i just don't want to work for a woman and so when he left
30:52the coach
30:52said i'm leaving too but that's just kind of the way it was 1973. now you got to think this
31:05was the
31:05early 70s women had not assumed this type of leadership role and this was an indication of
31:13the aba doing whatever it had to do to maintain and to survive women went to work in this country
31:20shortly before the turn of the century today most women are still at the same tedious jobs and the
31:26executive ranks are still virtually close to them a woman can be a success in the business world but it
31:34takes an exceptional woman women are definitely the biggest wasted talent and energy in this country
31:41as you can imagine in the testosterone driven world of sports a woman running the team was not
31:50looked at very kindly and she was killed in the press the first day very first day i stand up
31:56in front
31:57and they start in with their questions what do you know about basketball i said i know as much about
32:04basketball as my husband knew about frying chicken when he bought kentucky fried chicken
32:10when they say pretty ellie brown it's discouraging you know because they're not taking you seriously
32:18but i had the confidence that i could do what i had planned step one of ellie brown's plan
32:27appoint the first all-female board of directors in pro sports history each one of the members of the
32:35board of directors was a woman and they were all community leaders each one of these girls eight
32:41of them all have college educations every one of them has work their children are now in school
32:46and they're back at that point you know before they started their families where they had the time to get
32:50involved in something we were looking for women who knew their way around the community well they called
32:57me because i was president of the younger women's club i thought it would be fun so i said sure
33:03ellie
33:04she was in the office all the time working she loved that team and she made us love it too
33:12step two of ellie brown's plan solve the problem the franchise had been having with low fan attendance
33:20we already had a winning team i didn't have to worry about that all we needed was to promote the
33:26team
33:27help sell tickets and help gain uh an audience to build an outstanding team you have to pay a lot
33:34of
33:34money and to offset that you have to sell a lot of season tickets how we started was we sat
33:40down as
33:41group the board of directors and we decided we had to go to the locally owned businesses first
33:48he said you've got to buy these tickets because we need this team you know we need the team to
33:54perform
33:55and we need you all to be there there have been ladies nights as a gimmick of things have you
34:01planned
34:01as a group of women up as men's night where you can bring your husband for half price no but
34:06i think
34:06that's a great idea we might do that ellie has always been very charming they'd have rallies and
34:13they'd sell tickets and all those parties and all that television coverage ticket sales were good and
34:18it got the community involved in the team in that first year she doubled ticket sales and tripled season
34:30ticket sales under her leadership the kentucky colonels filled freedom hall for the first time
34:37her board and members which was all women was able to develop something really special and bringing
34:45about the fans we 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
35:02am not now and i don't know six more harder working ladies than 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 liked
35:17it
35:18you know they were ready i think to take on the challenge that the men had tried and come up
35:26a little short
35:28we were hopeful that we actually could do what we had set out to do build a house and win
35:36a championship
35:38the colonels have been championship contenders for years
35:41kentucky had just fallen short of the aba title in 1971 72 73 and 74 twice losing in the finals
35:54we knew
35:55we had great players but we had some tough breaks lost some close games and it was disappointing
36:02we were devastated and the organization was too because they they had they hope
36:09being high that you know some really extraordinary things are preparing to start happening now with
36:15this nucleus this group of players that we have but for whatever reason we were not able to get it
36:23done
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 my
37:05second interview and we're sitting in the uh dining room at the hotel where the offices were so we're
37:12sitting at the table john white brown's over here she's sitting here i'm sitting here all of a sudden
37:17she taps me on the knee and i look down and she has a paper with three years with the
37:24salary and for each
37:26year she's doing it while john white brown's over here talking up the storm and he doesn't even know this
37:33is happening okay he came in with his plan he sat there with a yellow pad and just wrote down
37:42every
37:42play we ran and how successful it was he showed it to us and showed it to us and showed
37:50it to us
37:55he was one of the first who really worked on defense as much as offense basketball is a game
38:03defense and i take a lot of pride in my defense and i enjoy playing defense
38:08artist was blocking jump shots from the base like guys are shooting baseline jumpers and he's blocking
38:13them i mean i've never seen anybody do that he was insane and the officials never saw it either because
38:19they kept calling goaltending on him but it wasn't goaltending because it was just such an insane
38:24thing for this guy he was amazing i mean he really was that two bigs combination really allows to be
38:34effective dan had the versatility go out on the perimeter and take those shots we got pretty
38:43comfortable with knowing how each other was going to play and it was more of a feel than really a
38:49communication i mean i didn't tell artists i'm going to cut or i'm going to do this i just did
38:54it and
38:55and artists already had a feeling for what i was going to do they complemented each other and it was
39:01a great feeling to be able to pass to two big guys like that louie dampier with a three-point
39:08bomb for
39:08kentucky louie dampier is the all-time leading three-point shooter in the history of the league
39:15he went back to the very beginning of the aba and he could get his shot off in a telephone
39:21booth
39:22i mean he didn't need any room at all louie dampier seven-time aba all-star ever an aba champion
39:28we've
39:29been a runner-up two years and uh it's frustrating it's something to think about but like i say i
39:35i know
39:36that one of these days i'm going to have that championship ring it is a great feeling we've got
39:45one more series to go with indiana and uh we've got the home court advantage i think we can take
39:51them
39:51and we're going to be aba champs i feel certain
39:59the rivalry here is intense it's just a natural rivalry the state of indiana is the home of
40:05basketball in america hopefully we can win this series and prove that kentucky really is the
40:10basketball capital of the world just so excited to get to see this this is really special
40:39the
40:39journals went the second game 95 93
40:42the third game 109 to 101 back at parkett square
40:47the pin on monday night indiana pull off that 94 to 86 quick resource three games to win right now
40:53in the interstate right with kentucky in this all-important fifth game of the aba championship
40:57series there's a two-on-one break this is isle down the lane and he's stopping
41:08it's going to be a big day 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 billy knight knight down in front missing rebound of kentucky into four seconds three two
41:37it's all over in kentucky and the colonels 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 all i can say is right
42:08now i'm stunned uh tell me about four o'clock tomorrow afternoon i'll be able to tell you how
42:13i feel finally get that championship finally less than a year ago owner ellie brown commissioned the champ
42:24ellie brown being introduced
42:25it was a wonderful experience in my life when i think back now
42:36i'm so happy that i had that experience and the other women on the board feel the same way
42:45real excitement is for the people here in louisville now a lot of these people have been around a lot
42:49longer than i have and they've been waiting and waiting for this and when i looked up and saw
42:53every seat in the house for tonight
42:55all right all right ellie brown ellie brown wonderful woman and i just happen to have that
43:01championship ring uh on you got it everybody contributed to the cause it was really fantastic
43:12it's just uh an experience to be champion what had taken place after so many years and the struggle
43:21to reach that point and winning that 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
44:07it was a great moment when we won the championship for not just us
44:14we weren't thinking that i'm a trailblazer but if it has any influence on any young girls coming
44:22up trying to find their way in the world i'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
45:07i said john you just won the championship why aren't you celebrating he said i want to set up a
45:13championship with the nba
45:16the golden state warriors have just won the nba championship
45:22when the kentucky girls won the 1975 championship and the golden state warriors also won the championship
45:31for the nba the same year we challenged them to a big amount of money winner take all and they
45:38wouldn't play us and i think we all knew for sure there's only one reason they turned that down
45:45they didn't think they could win the nba's golden state warriors may have had reason to be afraid
45:52in the past three years the aba and nba franchises have begun playing each other in exhibition games
46:02the 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 playing
46:17those exhibition games the way we played was better than the way they played and that we proved that
46:25the aba had so much more talent and athleticism than the nba
46:38trying to swing down the lane does misses off to a small start
46:47it might come to jesus moment if you will was it was an exhibition game that the southx played against
46:52the nets i was a huge dave cowens fan and dave was uh in his second year on his way
47:00to begin an mvp in
47:021973 and i assumed he was going to kick billy pulse's ass i thought he was going to show the
47:09whopper who's who
47:10the nba didn't happen that really shocked me that billy pulse was able to hold his own against dave
47:17cowens and 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
47:33it'll be something very interesting luau sender blocking my shot come back with a dunk shot right
47:41in my face and then to be able to block that hook shot was 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
48:22in a team league then than they did and frankly they would like some of our ownership because we have
48:27been forceful we've been strong we seem to have direction if we maintain it we're going to be hell we're
48:36going to we're going to be something else the mindset before was let's just be good enough for them to
48:46merge with us now the mindset was we got to be better than them if we want to 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
49:08were coming up with the money to lure those uh those referees they looked at the officiating part
49:15is wait a minute this is a group that's kind of undervalued and you know and in some cases
49:20underappreciated 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
49:29games we're going to take them away so i went to the nba office and i walked in and we
49:34sat down
49:35and i told him i said i i can't refuse this
49:41i guess the thought of a will chamberlain coming to town is a pretty good one for you
49:45yeah we're pleased with it we think the aba is shaping up beautifully but there's going to be a
49:50tremendous competition within the league and lo and behold the owner of the team brought in
49:58wilk chamberlain to be the coach of the san diego conquistadors will chamberlain has been mr everything
50:04to basketball as a player but he himself ruled out the possibility of his ever taking a coaching job
50:10well the thought of the six hundred thousand dollar a year three-year deal with the aba san diego
50:15conquistadors made him eat those words he couldn't play because his contract the lakers had him
50:21banned if you don't have a break don't make a break take it down yourself coaching an inexperienced
50:26expansion 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
50:39holding the secret draft uh a secret draft in my opinion uh first of all ought to be kept secret
50:46the practice was to try to sign college seniors or even college underclassmen to secret contracts
50:51while they still were playing uh for the ncaa they were secret because of course they didn't want to
50:56have the um the player or the school forfeit their eligibility but they also wanted to make sure that
51:01they got their contract in beforehand we felt like we were undervalued not fully respected
51:09we were also to a certain extent battling for our lives so that was a bond between us
51:16i think the owners of the nba you know they felt the threat
51:22the men of the aba were driven to challenge and in many ways by 1975 surpassed their nba counterparts
51:33it was shared faith that kept the league intact but one event would occur in the summer of 1975
51:42that 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 admission
51:53to the nba without notifying the rest of their league the denver nuggets and the new york nets
51:59two 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
52:10withdraw from 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
52:22i i use the word betrayal i was betrayed by my 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 have
52:52passed to the finals in the aba playoffs would this be the last hurrah for the red white and blue
52:57basketball do you see a need for the leagues to merger i see a need for basketball and all sports
53:04this country to progress i didn't want to see the merge to come down like that it sort of became
53:09like a shark infested water every man for himself i don't think that was fair to a lot of players
53:14all of a sudden things are crumbling and falling apart it was total chaos
53:21i'm trying to get liar i'm trying to get liar i'm trying to get liar i'm trying to get liar
53:29you i'm trying to get liar i'm trying to get liar i'm trying to get liar i'm trying to get
53:33like
53:35go this chopper it came with a band losing it came in with it's ten not dropping no music
53:39this is my fans go like how does he do it so clean with me i'm finished game not sipping
53:46no water
53:47i'm trying to get liar i'm trying to get liar you i'm trying to get liar i'm trying to get
54:06liar
54:16so
54:21you
Comments