When people think about the ABA, they usually think about Dr. J and the iconic red, white and blue basketball.
But the story they don’t think about is the one told in the new documentary The Waiting Game, and it’s a story that basketball fans need to know.
The film project came together after creator Michael Husain met the co-founder of the not-for-profit organization “Dropping Dimes” in his home state of Indiana.
“They were formed to help struggling ABA guys,” Michael told me in our interview. “And the first thing I told him was ‘The ABA guys are struggling financially? I didn’t know that.’”
Not many know about that struggle, but it’s a reality many former players are facing.
To understand the life challenges faced by these former pro players, you must first know about the history of the ABA, particularly its merger with the NBA in 1976.
When the league first started in 1967, it was constructed to fill the void of basketball in cities not housing one of the 10 NBA teams. Once former NBA player George Mikan was appointed as its first commissioner, the league created more separation between the two leagues by focusing on entertainment, with high flying dunks, up tempo play, high scoring games, three-pointers, players with catchy nicknames and, of course, the iconic red, white and blue basketball, which, unfortunately, was never copyrighted.
After a few years, the ABA could see things weren’t going to last, so on June 17th, 1976, a merger with the NBA was announced, the latter taking the following four teams- the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, the New York Nets (eventually becoming the Brooklyn Nets) and the San Antonio Spurs.
Three teams not absorbed were the Virginia Squires, the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis.
The Squires went bankrupt before the merger. The Colonels received a $3.3 million payout and the Spirits negotiated the legendary payout of $2.2 million plus 1/7 of a share of each of the four remaining ABA (now NBA) teams’ television rights in perpetuity, which turned out to be a total windfall of $800 million over the life of the deal.
The merger gave players longer careers, kept basketball in key cities and, most interestingly, gave ABA team owners the ability to now own NBA franchises.
So while the owners and some players did well, other players weren’t as lucky for after the dispersal draft that August, many ABA players were left off NBA rosters.
And that’s where the problems arose.
