Continued from page 5 ...

Keep On Truckin' Baby

With merger placed on the back burner, the ABA kept on keeping on.

Figures proved the league solid in many cities, as attendance increased 35% between 1971-1976.   In 1972, the league expanded to San Diego with the opening of the poorly brand-named Conquistadores.

Yet   insolvency continued to plague segments of the league.  

That same year, the league purchased and disbanded the Pittsburgh Condors and the Floridians franchises.  

From 1974-1976, the owners of the Virginia Squires sold away marquee players Julius Erving and George Gervin to the Nets and the Spurs to keep the franchise afloat.   The public turned cynical and turned away from the turnstiles.

Fiddling While The Ship Goes Down

As the 1975-1976 season began, the ABA found itself in deep water.    The New York Nets and the Denver Nuggets applied to join the NBA.   The NBA owners took no action.  

Indiana ran into financial problems.   The league lost the Utah Stars and the San Diego Sails, the new name of the Conquistadores under new management,   before the twentieth game of the season.

The Utah team foundered because owner Billy Daniels drained cash into outside ventures and ran for governor in Colorado.   The franchise bit the dust despite averaging   attendance of 6,097, healthy by ABA standards.

Meanwhile, in San Diego, it was learned that the team was not being considered for merger.   It seems that Los Angeles Lakers owner, Jack Kent Cooke, didn't want to lose his controlling grip on Southern California.    With the merger all but terminal, the owner bailed.  

As if ignoring the problems, the league continued to dribble with its own sense of bravado born from their struggle to survive.   They refused to go gently into that good night.

During the 1974-1975 season, in a move not intended on making friends, the ABA held a draft of NBA players.  

Then, Kentucky Colonel owner John Y. Brown urged ABA commissioner Dave DeBusschere   to challenge the NBA to a winner-take-all $1million championship series between the Kentucky Colonels and the Golden State Warriors.  

The NBA declined.

Dissolving into History

On June 17, 1976, the merger of the ABA and NBA became reality.  

Playing a multi-million dollar game of "Survivor" the NBA voted just four of the ABA franchises on to their lucrative "island": Indiana, Denver, New York, and San Antonio.  

Survival came at a high price. Each franchise paid $3.2 million to join the NBA.   Former ABA teams also agreed not to receive any television money for three years and not to participate in the 1976 college draft.

The Kentucky Colonels, a team that should have been included, was left out in the cold.   In range of NBA franchises, and John Brown's defiant challenge may have sealed the doom of a club that was one of the better attended in the league.

 

Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Next