The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a men's professional basketball major league from 1967 to

1976. The ABA merged into the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1976, resulting in four ABA teams
joining the NBA and the introduction of the NBA 3-point shot in 1979.

League history
[edit]

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George McGinnis (Indiana Pacers) attempting a shot against the Kentucky

Colonels, 1972–73

The ABA was conceived at a time stretching from 1960 through the mid-1970s when numerous upstart leagues
were challenging, with varying degrees of success, the established major professional sports leagues in the
United States. Basketball was seen as particularly vulnerable to a challenge; its major league, the National
Basketball Association, was the youngest of the Big Four major leagues, having only played 21 seasons to that
point, and was still fending off contemporary challenging leagues (it had been less than five years since
the American Basketball League (ABL) shut down). According to one of the owners of the Indiana Pacers, its
goal was to force a merger with the more established league. Potential investors were told 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.[1]

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, though the
ABA did switch to the 24 second shot clock for the 1975–76 season) and use of a three-point field goal arc,
pioneered in the earlier ABL.[2] 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.[3]

In the 1973–74 season, the ABA also adopted the no-disqualification foul rule: instead of fouling out after six
infractions, when a player is charged with his seventh or succeeding fouls, the opposing team retains
possession and the offended team attempts any free throw.[4]
The ABA also went after four of the best referees in the NBA: Earl Strom, John Vanak, Norm Drucker and Joe
Gushue, getting them to "jump" leagues by offering them far more in money and benefits. In Earl Strom's
memoir Calling the Shots, Strom conveys both the heady sense of being courted by a rival league with money
to burn — and also the depression that set in the next year when he began refereeing in the ABA, with less
prominent players performing in inadequate arenas, in front of very small crowds. Nevertheless, the emergence
of the ABA boosted the salaries of referees just as it did the salaries of players.

However ABA Teams like Nets, Colonels, Pacers, Spurs, Nuggets and Stars, especially in latest seasons,
registered higher attendance on average than most of NBA teams at that time (excluding Lakers, Knicks,
Celtics, SuperSonics and Bucks).[5]

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.[6]

Doug Moe of the Carolina Cougars, 1969–70

The league succeeded in forcing a merger with the NBA in the 1976 offseason. Four ABA teams were
absorbed into the older league: the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and San Antonio Spurs.
As part of the merger agreement, the four teams were not permitted to participate in the 1976 NBA draft. The
merger was particularly hard on the Nets; the New York Knicks were firmly established in their arena, Madison
Square Garden, and would not permit the Nets to share dates there. For drawing audience away from the
Knicks, the Nets were forced to pay $4.3M to the Knicks organization. The Nets offered league superstar Julius
Erving instead but the Knicks declined. The Nets had to settle for an arena in Piscataway, New Jersey and, to
meet expenses, were forced to sell the contract of Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Two other clubs, the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis, were disbanded upon the merger, with
each getting a buyout: the Colonels received a one-time buyout that owner John Y. Brown, Jr. used to
purchase the NBA's Buffalo Braves, while the Spirits owners negotiated a cut of the other ABA teams'
television revenues in perpetuity. This deal netted the ownership group of the Spirits over $300M over nearly
four decades due to a large increase in television revenues. In 2014, the NBA and the Spirits ownership agreed
to phase out future payments in exchange for a one-time payment of $500M, making the total value for the deal
over $800M.[7] The seventh remaining team, the Virginia Squires, received nothing, as they had ceased
operations shortly before the merger. The players from the Colonels, Spirits, and Squires were made available
to NBA teams through a dispersal draft; the four teams absorbed by the NBA were allowed to choose players
from this draft.[citation needed]

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., other than the Atlanta metropolitan area
where the NBA's Hawks franchise relocated from St. Louis in 1968.

Commissioners
[edit]

 George Mikan 1967–1969

 James Carson Gardner 1969 (interim)[8]
 Jack Dolph 1969–1972
 Bob Carlson 1972–1973
 Mike Storen 1973–74
 Tedd Munchak 1974–75
 Dave DeBusschere 1975–76
NBA great George Mikan was the first commissioner of the ABA, where he introduced both the 3-point line and
the league's trademark red, white, and blue basketball.[9] Mikan resigned in 1969. Dave DeBusschere, one of
the stars of the New York Knicks championship teams, moved from his job as vice president and GM of the
ABA's New York Nets in 1975 to become the last commissioner of the ABA and facilitate the ABA–NBA
merger in 1976.[10]

Spencer Haywood Hardship Rule

[edit]

One of the primary contributions of the ABA to modern NBA was the introduction of the Spencer Haywood
Hardship Rule, which would later become the framework for the current NBA draft eligibility system that allows
players to declare for the NBA after being one year removed from their high school graduation. [11] The origin of
the Hardship Rule was a result of the NBA prohibiting players from joining the league until they had completed
their four years of college eligibility.[12]

In 1969, Spencer Haywood left the University of Detroit as a sophomore and signed with the Denver Rockets.
[13]
The ABA believed that in extenuating circumstances, such