\u201cIt was a great league, a fun league. It was a tough league, and it could rival the NBA. It was just a great league because it allowed guys to play in the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Tom Hoover, former Knick and ABA player<\/p>\n
\u201cSoul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association\u201d has come to Prime Video. The streaming service is airing a four-part docu-series on the renowned ABA, complete with its colorful players, shady owners and cutting edge ideas. In the process, the league, approaching its 50th anniversary, changed professional basketball forever. <\/p>\n
Director Kenan Kamwana Holley crafted this sports tapestry with a lot of young talent.\u201cWe had a lot of young people on this team,\u201d Holley said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t know anything about the ABA, but that\u2019s why I brought them in. I wanted that energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
You may remember that some of the greatest NBA players got their start in the ABA like Hall of Famers Julius \u201cDoctor J\u201d Erving, Coach George Karl (co-executive producers along with Common), Brooklyn\u2019s Connie \u201cThe Hawk\u201d Hawkins and Olympic star and former Knick Spencer Haywood.<\/p>\n
You had players who jumped from the NBA (Rick Barry) to the ABA and back to the NBA and players who came out early (Haywood and Ralph Simpson) which was unheard of back then. The ABA gave basketball the Dunk Competition and the three-point shot. And don\u2019t forget those magnificent afros.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe name of this documentary is \u2018Soul Power,\u2019\u201d said baseball Hall of Famer Bob Costas, who got his start in broadcasting doing play-by-play for the Spirits of St. Louis. \u201cThe ABA was a Blacker league than the NBA. The ABA had encouraged guys to grow afros. They had contests to see who had the biggest afro, whereas the NBA actually discouraged their players from growing afros.\u201d<\/p>\n
To this day, Erving, the renowned \u201cDr. J,\u201d remembered the elements that made the ABA stand out. \u201cThe afros, the loosey-goosey style, the flash, the persistence of the little guys,\u201d he said. \u201cThe NBA wasn\u2019t allowing a lot of very good talented players who were 5-10, 5-11 \u2014 with Calvin Murphy being the exception \u2014 but the ABA had opened doors. We had guys who picked up the pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the little guys with spunk were Mack Calvin, Billy Keller, Louie Dampier, Freddie Lewis and Monte Towe. The ABA had high wire acts (Hawkins, Erving), tough guys (Warren Jabali and John Brisker), cheap owners (Roy Boe\/Nets who brokered the Dr. J sale to the 76ers) and racist owners like trucking magnate Bill Ringsby of the Denver Rockets, as Haywood reveals in the series.<\/p>\n
There was also mismanagement in the botched attempt to sign Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. A $1 million check made out to Abdul-Jabbar was never delivered by the commissioner. The episode led to the dismissal of George Mikan, an NBA Hall of Famer. By the way, the last ABA commissioner was former Knick Dave DeBusschere.<\/p>\n
The league could have been called the ATA (American Traveling Association) because teams always seemed to be on the move. The Brooklyn Nets used to be the New Jersey Americans who became the New York Nets (based in Commack, West Hempstead and Uniondale, Long Island), then back to New Jersey, and then to Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
Still, the ABA pedigree is strong with the likes of George \u201cIceman\u201d Gervin, Artis Gilmore, Larry Brown (player and coach), Brooklyn\u2019s Roger Brown and Billy Cunningham, Mel Daniels, Dan Issel, Moses Malone (another \u201chardship\u201d case), George McGinnis, Charlie Scott, and David Thompson \u2014 all members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
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