The #American #Basketball #Association (ABA) announced that the upcoming season will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of this iconic, ground-breaking league. "Yes, it was 50 years ago that my partner, Dick Tinkham, and a group of businessmen came up with the idea to create a new basketball league to rival the NBA," stated Joe Newman, #ABA Co-Founder. "It started with some magnificent players like Julius "Dr. J" Erving, George Gervin, Spencer Haywood, Connie Hawkins, Rick Barry and many other legends and the famous red, white and blue ball. The ABA became so impactful that four ABA teams merged into the #NBA  Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs and Brooklyn Nets. After being dormant for several years, in 2000, the ABA returned and today is the largest professional sports league in the #US with 100+ teams anticipated for the upcoming season. The ABA is also the most diversified professional sports league in history with over 75% of its owners being African-American, Hispanic, Asian, women, Native Americans and disabled.

 

The original ABA was founded in 1967, competing with the well-established National Basketball Association, until reaching an agreement of merger in 1976. Ultimately, four ABA teams were absorbed into the older league: the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs.

The original ABA was founded in 1967, competing with the well-established National Basketball Association, until the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. According to The NBA Encyclopedia, its long-term goal was to force a merger with the more established league. ABA officials told potential owners that they could get an ABA team for half of what it cost to get an NBA expansion team at the time. When the merger occurred, ABA officials said, their investment would more than double.

Ultimately, four ABA teams were absorbed into the older league: the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs. Two other clubs, the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis were disbanded upon the merger. A third, the Virginia Squires, had folded less than a month earlier, missing out on the opportunities that a merger might have provided.

The ABA distinguished itself from its older counterpart with a more wide-open, flashy style of offensive play, as well as differences in rules (a 30-second shot clock – as opposed to the NBA’s 24-second clock. The ABA did switch to the 24 second shot clock for the 1975-76 season – and use of a three-point field goal arc. Also, the ABA used a colorful red, white and blue ball, instead of the NBA’s traditional orange ball. The ABA also had several “regional” franchises, such as the Virginia Squires and Carolina Cougars, that played “home” games in several cities.

The freewheeling style of the ABA eventually caught on with fans, but the lack of a national television contract and protracted financial losses would spell doom for the ABA as an independent circuit. In 1976, its last year of existence, the ABA pioneered the now-popular slam dunk contest at its all-star game in Denver.

One of the more significant long-term contributions of the ABA to professional basketball was to tap into markets in the southeast that had been collegiate basketball hotbeds (including North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky). The NBA was focused on the urban areas of the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast. At the time, it showed no interest in placing a team south of Washington, D.C.

​