Mathew Manos
Ap[ril 11, 2003
Mister Eries
The American Basketball Association had a short and wild life, yet it made great contributions to professional basketball. It increased the level of talent, changed the way the game was played, and produced some of the greatest stars to ever play the game. It also caused an increase in player salaries and turned pro basketball into a financial institution.
The ABA was a place for untapped talent to emerge. Many players proved themselves in the ABA while the National Basketball Association rejected them. This greatly increased the talent level throughout professional hoops.
At the same time of the creation of the ABA, the NBA only had 120 players, which meant that many worthy players were not getting the chance to play (Sachare 178). With about 90 players in the ABA, they got their chance. The ABA started to draft college players to compete with the NBA.
English: Julius Erving in 1981 performing a slam d...
English: Basketball article stub icon
NBA players 2006Because both leagues wanted the best players, the ABA made a rule which said that the draftee did not have to be a college graduate. The NBA had a rule which said that the draftee must have graduated from college. As a result, many college
stars began to go straight into the ABA before graduating. One which did this was Moses Malone, he was the first player to come straight out of high school into professional sports (Pluto 435). This was a revolutionary event in the history of professional sports. Now days, most college stars go to
the pros without graduating.
The ABA had a style of its own. Newsweek once described them,"Sex, drugs, platform shoes, sideburns, slam dunks, midnight franchise shifts, million dollar deferred-payment player contracts, the three-point
shot, Dr. J, Marvin (Bad News) Barnes, LaVerne (Jelly) Tart,and Pat Boone. Pro sports the way they oughta...
ABA
I'm appreciative of your good essay on the American Basketball Association and how it helped shape the history of the sport. In sports as is true in other areas, innovations are often made by upstarts and later integrated into the mainstream. Your report was well documented and researched. The bibliography you provided will help fans of the sport and others find out more about this interesting topic. Well done!
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