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    • American Basketball Association 1967- The Arrival of the NBA’s Rival

    by admin in Basketball Leagues | Comments Off on American Basketball Association 1967- The Arrival of the NBA’s Rival

    American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league, formed in 1967, to compete with the rival league NBA and to expand the game of basketball by introducing it to the new markets. The first season started with eleven teams, known as Pittsburgh Pipers, Minnesota Muskies, Indiana Pacers, Kentucky Colonels, New Jersey Americans, New Orleans Buccaneers, Dallas Chaparrals, Denver Rockets, Houston Mavericks, Anaheim Amigos and Oakland Oaks. The league turned out to be an instant success as it featured some of the big names like Moses Malone, Julies Erving, Artis Gilmore, Rick Berry and Connie Hawkins, their speedy and flamboyant playing style was highly appraised.

    The league also introduced some new rules, to make itself prominent and different from its counterpart NBA. A red, white and blue colored ball was used instead of the traditional orange ball. The league introduced Three-Point shot (an arc marked at the specific distance from the basket, the field goal made outside the arc worth’s 3 points); a 30-second shot clock was permitted opposite to the NBA’s 24-second shot clock (to make a shot in 30 seconds rather than 24 seconds) and Slam Dunk Contest, which was enjoyed and appreciated by the crowd.

    The ever growing popularity of ABA was a worrying sign for the NBA. The NBA started to make some moves; they contracted some players from the ABA, expanded the promotion through television and increased the number of the teams. NBA made itself financially too much strong, that the ABA was left far behind in the race.

    Some inadequate decisions from the administration of ABA also proved very costly. They focused on the relatively new smaller markets of Southeast region, while their rivals were paying their attention on the bigger markets of Northeast, Midwest and West coast. Lack of audience on the courts of small areas brought loses for the financers; their television viewer ship was also not enough, almost nothing to speak of.

    The things were going from bad to worst for the league. In 1975-76 season, only 9 teams left in the league, two teams Utah Stars and San Diego Sails were folded before the end of the season. It was the time when the league decided to absorb itself into the rival league NBA. The Kentucky Colonels, Spirits of St. Louis and Virginia Squires were disbanded prior to the absorption. The remaining four teams New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs were merged in the NBA.




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