/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/diarioas/VO4OIDGOYNBSZIK7D3EYV73TLQ.jpg)
The ABA, the old and countercultural, crazy and endearing American Basketball Association, was something whose history seems impossible to believe if it weren’t for the fact that we know that, yes, it happened. And it is all told in Terry Pluto’s wonderful book, “Loose Balls”, an oral story that maps what was, although it has not always been recognized as such, much more than a footnote in the history of the American basketball. The ABA was an impossible experiment, in which almost everything was done wrong and that was born to lose, in 1967. Basically, in reality, it was born to join the NBA, the 1976 merger that was more of a capitulation than a merger, such and as Julius Erving himself said, the legendary Doctor J. When both leagues united and the modern NBA was born, the ABA was consumed. Of what was left of it, four teams came out ahead: Denver Nuggets, New York Nets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs. Kentucky Colonels and Spirit of St Louis were two steps away from the finish line. Those who reached the big league had to swallow hard in what the NBA considered an expansion, not a merger: each of the four had to pay 3.2 million dollars, a fee for that supposed expansion. The numbers, titles and records of the ABA were considered dead, no longer valid. None of the four received money from television contracts during their first three years in the NBA (1976-79), they did not have a vote for two in important organizational issues and they did not participate in the 1976 draft. They could only choose new players with the draft of dispersal in which Colonels and Spirit players were distributed, including giants like Artis Gilmore and Moses Malone. Nothing less.
Oh, and the Nets had to pay another extra $4.8 million, these to the Knicks as compensation for breaking into their League from their same market, New York. The Nets, the last ABA champion, tried to save that payment by giving their neighbors Julius Erving, but the Knicks preferred the money. A mistake, it is obvious, that ended up with the Doctor in the Sixers, since the transfer (less than two hours) from the Big Apple to Philadelphia did not greatly disrupt his family life. This is how history is written.
While the NBA had the narrative, the history, the large markets and the disciplined and well-organized game, rigid, the ABA was a madness of dimensions between wonderful and catastrophic. Big stars, much more individual brilliance, tricolor ball, three-point shot… something that, curiously, the modern NBA has tended to resemble much more than its own mirror of the past. And also the first dunk contest, the craziest contests possible during breaks, scantily clad cheerleaders, provincial teams that played at home in several cities in the same region… Something that couldn’t last, franchises that moved several times in the same season and that they disappeared, with empty stands and without television agreements to live off of. A constant call to attention to the NBA in search of an agreement that the players’ unions of both leagues delayed because, until the Senate intervened, with two payers there were higher salaries and more job possibilities. The merger, they believed, would forge a de facto monopoly. But it ended up being inevitable.
The ABA, on the slopes, was a very serious thing. It was Julius Erving, Rick Barry, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, Dan Issel, Mel Daniels, Moses Malone, David Thompson… iconic players who would have had more recognition with more exposure and, of course, with their appropriate NBA numbers added to the years of the ABA, which ended up becoming an unfair black hole on their resumes. Like the Indiana Pacers, who won three ABA titles, more than anyone, and are still hunting for their first in the NBA. Only the Spurs, in fact, have been champions of those four who managed to jump off the sinking ship. The Nets have not achieved it either, although they remained forever as, in 1976, the last ABA champion.
Some games full of meaning
Five years before the merger, in 1971, the first (the other a year later, in 1972) of the two super games was played, Super Games that have been forgotten, of which there is hardly any documentary trace and to which (damn) legend has elevated to the status of cult classics, perhaps the best matches that no one talks about. Never. They were duels between the best players from both leagues, the ABA versus the NBA, with selections made from their All Star teams and made by their respective players’ unions. The objective was to show a competitiveness that opposed the interest in the merger, to demonstrate the sporting strength of two different competitions, to generate a confrontation that also led to interleague friendlies that were played in several preseasons. The dominant NBA, which had nothing to gain there, didn’t like them at all. To their players, yes, if only out of solidarity with those of the ABA, who wanted to vindicate themselves and demonstrate that, contrary to the general thinking of the time, they were no worse than their NBA counterparts. Their teams, those of the deranged ABA, were also going all out with the idea: with the exhibition, with whatever they could get out of there. And from anywhere. It was a matter of survival.
Some American basketball historians have insisted on claiming these Super Games as truly legendary duels, perhaps the best ever because of their names and because, unlike what the All Star Games were and increasingly became, the competitive level was very high. , the stars were eager. Stars: in the Barcelona ’92 Dream Team there were ten players (out of twelve) who made it onto the official list of the 50 best ever drawn up by the NBA. In the NBA team for this 1971 duel, there were ten out of eleven… and that is taking into account that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (that year he left behind his previous name: Lew Alcindor) was absent at the last minute because he got married one day before the game, which was played on May 28 at the Houston Astrodome. In 1972 (May 25, Nassau Coliseum on Long Island) there were ten hall of famers on the court, seven on the NBA side, three on the ABA side. This is what we know about those two duels whose memory is blurred between memory and mysticism:
1971: NBA 125-ABA 120
The goal of the party organized in Houston is to raise money for the Whitney Young Foundation, an organization that helped economically disadvantaged students have access to university. The entire box office went to this cause, while the money paid by television remained for the players and their unions, who invested it in boosting their pension funds. Each team was going to have eleven players, but the NBA ended up with ten due to Kareem’s loss, which was not covered. His coach was Bill Russell; The one from the ABA, Larry Brown.
The legendary Mel Daniels remembered how the little league players faced this event: “The NBA did not intimidate us, we knew that in the end we all put on some shoes and a uniform and go out to a court to play. It was said that we were worse, so they wanted to prove that this was not the case. We wanted to make it clear that we were just as good… or better. But it didn’t matter, I remember that I put a cap on Elvin Hayes and the next day the newspaper spoke as if he had put it on me. In the first half, NBA rules were used: 24 seconds of possession and no three-point shot. In the second, from ABA: 30 seconds and line of three valid. The final free throws by Oscar Robertson and Walt Frazier (MVP with 26 points) ensured a very close victory (125-120) for an NBA that perhaps had some help: the referees were from their competition and gave them 31 free throws… only in the last quarter. To give perspective, that would have been a record at that time for a complete game in that NBA. With only six baskets in play in that stretch (6/23), the personnel line assured them victory in a duel that was played with the intensity of, at least, a regular season game. In which 16,324 spectators attended and in which these players formed:
NBA: John Havlicek (10 puntos), Dave DeBusschere (17), Nate Thurmond (3), Oscar Robertson (17), Dave Bing (11), Walt Frazier (26), Elvin Hayes (17), Earl Monroe (12), Lou Hudson (7) y Billy Cunningham (5).
ABA: Rick Barry (20), Willie Wise (16), Zelmo Beaty (10), Larry Jones (15), Charlie Scott (11), Mel Daniels (15), John Brisker (14), Roger Brown (9), Steve Jones (6), Donnie Freeman (4) y Bill Melchionni (0).
1972: NBA 106-ABA 104
14,086 live spectators to experience a duel that demonstrated the emerging strength of the players, still minuscule when compared to the level of empowerment they now enjoy. The NBA did not want this replay, but the players could do better despite the threats of sanctions and suspensions. Kareem was missing again, and neither were Jerry West (last-minute sick leave due to illness of his wife and children, but who publicly supported the duel), Dave Debusschere (injured) and Walt Frazier, who turned around when he was going towards the pavilion for last minute recommendation from his agent, who didn’t want any problems.
The New York Times spoke in its report of a game “with a lot of back-and-forth rhythm” and “many spectacular plays,” one in which the important thing was “vindication at a time of great turmoil for professional basketball.”
The coaches this time were Elgin Baylor (NBA) and Al Bianchi (ABA). The game was even fiercer, with stronger defenses and the presence of legends like Wilt Chamberlain and Julius Erving, who just played his rookie year with Virginia Squires after only three years at College. There are recordings, but in black and white and with enormous deficiencies, especially in sound. The triple was activated in the second half, and the ball was first the ABA ball (tricolor: white, red and blue) and, after the break, the brown NBA ball.
The ABA team swept from the start (30-47 at 7:35 before halftime) but could not maintain its lead, in part because Julius Erving spent too much time on the bench between the second and third quarters. In the last set, of which not a single image remains, Rick Barry put the ABA team within one (105-104) with 13 seconds left, Archie Clark only hit a free throw (106-104) and the scrum for The rebound reduced time and there was only a desperate three-pointer left by Barry, which did not go in. Bob Lanier was chosen MVP (he scored 15 points) but the action that everyone present still remembers was an incredible dunk by Erving, a flight by the Doctor that left everyone speechless. “The most incredible dunk I had ever seen in my life stole my ball,” Paul Silas said. “He jumped from beyond the line of person, he was like three seconds in the air. “You can’t explain it in words, you can’t do it justice by telling it,” Mel Daniels marveled years later.
NBA: John Havlicek (17 puntos), Connie Hawkins (6), Wilt Chamberlain (6), Oscar Robertson (14), Archie Clark (15), Bob Lanier (15), Nate Archibald (12), Bob Love (10), Gail Goodrich (8) y Paul Silas (3).
ABA: Rick Barry (11), Dan Issel (8), Artis Gilmore (14), Jimmy Jones (7), Donnie Freeman (16), Julius Erving (13), Ralph Simpson (12), Willie Wise (12), George Thompson (7), Roger Brown (2) y Mel Daniels (2).
In 1976, on the verge of giving up, the ABA organized its last All Star Game. As there were almost no teams left that would allow a logical division into two formations, a duel between the host, Denver Nuggets, and a selection of the rest of the franchises was chosen. Everything was improvised, it was the hallmark of the house. And during the break, what seemed like a bizarre event was organized: the dunk contest. Erving, Doctor J, won it by flying from the personnel line, just before jumping to the NBA. Just before the merger and history swallowed up an ABA that, from then on, became just a legend.
2023-11-30 11:12:55
#Super #Games #mystery #games #history
