YouTube Gold: A Cool ABA Documentary

The ABA, which only existed from 1967 to 1976, and which was chaotically managed at best, nonetheless had a revolutionary and enduring impact on basketball.

When you look around and you see the showmanship in the NBA today – that all came from the ABA.

And when the ABA was still around, the NBA hated it. They saw it as a circus act. Dunks? Three point shots? 150 point games?

The NBA had no interest in that…until the leagues merged.

Then you started to see guys like Julius Erving, David Thompson, Moses Malone, George McGinnis, George Gervin, Artis Gilmore, Marvin Barnes and dozens of other players who completely changed basketball.

And then there was Wendell Ladner, who, let’s just say, was utterly unique, and his, uh, interactions with John Brisker. It was best summed up by Ladner going into the Pittsburgh Condors locker room and saying “Hey, John, you wanna fight right now or wait for the game?”

Both guys came to sad endings – Ladner died in a plane wreck and Brisker was last seen in Uganda during the Idi Amin era and was declared dead a few years after that.

The ABA left behind unbelievable stories and transformed the NBA into something very different from the staid, walk-it-up league that it was before the merger. The ABA can’t come back, which is okay. But could they please bring back the ball?

Because the ball was spectacular.