The American Basketball Association (ABA) was established as a professional basketball league in 1967. When the ABA started play, the National Basketball Association (NBA) had only nine teams. The ABA gave cities that were hungry for professional basketball what they wanted. The ultimate goal was to get the NBA to expand by showing that basketball would be successful in new markets. The strategy was for this to lead to a merger between the ABA and the NBA. http://www.remembertheaba.com/ http://www.remembertheaba.com/ABAGeneralInfo/ABAFaq.html

The first commissioner of the ABA was George Mikan, a former NBA star in his own right.http://www.nba.com/history/players/mikan_bio.html Mikan made it apparent that this upstart league would be different from the beginning by changing one of the most basic parts of the game - the basketball. Instead of the typical orange ball used in all other organized play, the ABA used a red, white and blue ball, signifying its promise to be a game for America. Mikan also felt it was easier to see the colorful ball on the TV screen.http://www.nba.com/history/players/mikan_bio.html

Some of the ABA rules were different than those used in the NBA. The changes were designed to create a faster paced game. A three point shot was included in the game, with long range shots from outside an arc painted on the floor counting for 3 points. Another change was a shot clock, with 30 seconds allowed to make a shot rather than the 24 second rule of the NBA. The emphasis was on flashy play, with more running and less in the way of scripted plays. Slam dunks became common in the ABA, something rarely seen in the NBA. Players were more than happy to show off their skills of jumping to the basket and slamming the ball through the hoop during slam dunk contests.http://www.remembertheaba.com/ABAGeneralInfo/ABAFaq.html#ABABallBackground

The ABA was able to lure many big name players to its ranks. Players such as Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Artis Gilmore became big stars in the ABA.http://nbahoopsonline.com/History/Leagues/ABA/index.html With its knack for encouraging players to sign, the ABA was out-performing the NBA on the basketball court. The NBA was compelled to do something to keep its place as the dominant league in professional basketball. It was forced to compete with the ABA for players and television markets.http://www.basketball.com/nba/history.shtml http://nbahoopsonline.com/History/Leagues/ABA/index.html

The ABA never could measure up financially to the NBA. After a few years, it was apparent that the ABA was failing due to poor business decisions, such as putting teams in small markets. These teams had virtually no television coverage and were poor attendance draws. The ABA competed directly with the NBA in only three markets, Oakland, Los Angeles and New York City, so another devastating blow was the increased expansion of the NBA into markets that were previously untapped.http://www.basketball.com/nba/history.shtml http://www.remembertheaba.com/ABAGeneralInfo/ABAFaq.html#ABAGeneralBackground With the increasing number of teams and ability to offer players more money, the NBA was proving to be stronger than before. The NBA started cutting deeper into the ABA revenues. When the ABA started play in 1967, it had teams in eleven cities. By 1975, several of the original franchises had relocated in failed attempts to survive and there were only nine teams left. Before the end of the 1975-76 season, two other teams would fold.http://nbahoopsonline.com/History/Leagues/ABA/index.html http://www.remembertheaba.com/PlayoffPages/1968Playoffs.html http://www.remembertheaba.com/PlayoffPages/1976Playoffs.html

In 1976, the rival leagues merged. Of the seven remaining teams in the ABA, only four were brought into the NBA - the Indiana Pacers, New Jersey Nets (formerly New York), Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs.http://nbahoopsonline.com/History/Leagues/ABA/index.html The 2008 feature film Semi-Pro, starring Will Ferrell, is a comedy about a fictitious ABA team trying to survive so it can be included in the merger with the NBA.http://newline.com/properties/semipro.html http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0839980/synopsis