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The ABA survivors were constant winners, both in attendance and on the floor, being involved in every playoff series.  

Game 5 of the 1974-1975 championship series, dubbed as the "I-65 Series" with Indiana, drew 16,622 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.  

Kentucky and St. Louis were disbanded, and Virginia folded before the merger.

Sports writers of the time called the ABA a "failed experiment" at the time of the merger.   Many praised the great players, while damning the ineptly-run league.   While the ABA did not survive to establish itself as an equal of the National Basketball Association, it forced changes in the business and the rules of the game that opened the doors to the success that they NBA enjoys today.

The ABA made a comeback in 2000 as the ill-fated ABA-2000.   With the unrealistic goal of becoming an "alternate" league to the behemoth NBA, the league struggled and foundered by 2002.   Remnants of the ABA-2000 have reformed as the ABA once again. This incarnation has the more humble goal of serving up minor league players to the NBA. Offering up ownership to rappers and other entrepreneurs shut out by the NBA establishment, the league may once again re-shape the face of basketball.

 

 

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