THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

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Term Paper Title	THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
# of Words	1226
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.9

THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

" The ABA was basketball’s Wild West, and Julius Erving, George Gervin, James Silas, and all the other ABA stars were the gunfighters."
Bob Costas

What do the Utah Jazz, New York Nets, San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, and Houston Rockets all have in common? They all got their professional start in the American Basketball Association.

It was created in 1965 by Dennis Murphy but it didn’t start as a basketball league. It started as a football league but it merged together with the NFL in a few weeks. Dennis Murphy then decided to either make a global hockey league or another basketball league. Since he knew and liked basketball stronger he came up with a new basketball league the American Basketball Association.

George Mikan thought of the idea of making the ball colorful so that you could see it better on TV and in the stands. George decided to make the ball red, white, and blue like the colors of the American flag so people would stand up if they saw it. It basically got the idea from the first part of leagues name, American. They had a huge promotion of these colorful ball giving away over thirty million to children country wide. Mikan was later named the first commissioner of the ABA.

After they set up the first teams they added a three point play to the game. The ABA created this play to give the game more excitement and to increase the scoring. It was a half circular shape that was outside the key. It was twenty - two feet from the basket on the corners and twenty - three feet and nine inches from the basket at the top of the key. The distance has slightly change in today’s professional game. George Mikan described it as " the home run in basketball." They later called this the three pointer. It was a great addition to the game and is a big part of today’s NBA.

The Slam Dunk Contest and the allstar game is very popular in today’s world. But did you know it started in the ABA. Sports Illustrated called it " the best half - time invention since the rest of the room." The first allstar game was held in Denver in 1976. One of the most spectacular dunks came from this contest. Julius Erving jumped from the free throw line and swung the ball in helicopter fashion and was able to dunk it. Only two other people have been able to do this spectacular dunk, the legend Michael Jordan and Bret Barry.

The first teams of the ABA were the Pittsburgh Pipers, Minnesota Muskies, Indiana Pacers, Kentucky Colonels...

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