The ABA Changed The Game. Will It Change It Again?
The American Basketball Association re-wrote the book on the business and sport of basketball. Can it do it again?

Pete Madzelan Sports Historian Minor League News When the initials "ABA" are mentioned, it conjures up images of Dr. J and the first "air game"; The red, white and blue ball aloft, a psychedelic show spinning down through the net; The freewheeling bebop basketball of George Gervin, Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, Ron Boone and Rick Barry.   Hoop riffs with the free-form style of a Charlie Parker jazz solo. Always called an "alternative" to the NBA, the American Basketball Association (1967-1976;2000-2002;2003-Current) infused an energy and excitement that was missing from NBA hoops. The upstart league changed the way that the game is run and played forever. The Open Door In 1967, the NBA was foot-draggingly slow to expand.   Ownership groups and rapidly-growing cities made offers to expand the league, which were largely rebuffed. There were a number of growing cities that were capable of supporting professional basketball, including high school and college hotbeds like Indianapolis and Louisville.

The world around the NBA was changing too.   Even though the NBA had African-American athletes and fans, the league was still largely the domain of a white establishment that had run it since its inception.  

The ticket prices of the sixties, modest by today's standards, still locked out a lot of minority fans who could only watch professional basketball on television.

It was also in 1967 that a group of investors balked at the high price tag for a franchise, the plodding pace of the league's expansion, and the missed market segments that the NBA refused to consider.

They decided to form their own league, the American Basketball Association, playing in the growing cities that the NBA shut out and appealing to whole new segments of fans with players who looked and acted a whole lot more cool .

Changing the Game

Basketball was still the domain of the sport's purists. Fans came to see the game . The "stars", even those the likes of a Wilt Chamberlain or a Jerry West, were still not bigger than the game.   Television coverage was in its infancy.   The NBA ruled the airwaves, and dominated local news coverage with their teams within hundreds of miles of any franchise.

It would seem suicidal to take on the NBA establishment. ABA owners never cowered in the face of the NBA's media dominance.   Secretly, though, their reserve plan was to keep enough compatibility that a merger remained a viable bailout plan. They decided that the ABA   was to be a unique form of basketball. Just as long is it wasn't too unique.

The Different Game Is Still The Same

In direct contrast to the NBA, the ABA season was to be shorter, with a more open and fast-paced game.   By opening day, though, the season expanded to 78 games, close to the NBA schedule of that day.

In spite of a number of rules changes floated by owners, coaches, and even players, the ABA rule book in place when the first ball was thrown into the air looked a great deal like the one used by the NBA.

Yet, there were essential differences.   Besides the speed of the game, the key difference in the ABA was the key itself: The three-point field goal.   It wasn't an original invention, but rather an innovation borrowed from the short-lived American Basketball League that existed from 1961-1962.

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