Posted by hoopsdude on 2/24/2017 1:55:00 PM (view original):
Born in 1995... so bds is close in age, but then there are guys like vancem, ltb, and sixer who somehow remember the ABA... dios mio it makes me feel like a baby

Well, I was maybe eight at the most during the ABA's last year, but yeah, I'm older than you. But also, the cultural vibe of the ABA reverberated for a few years after the league closed its doors. For quite a while, you still saw those wacky patriotic balls on playgrounds, and you knew which NBA stars had started in the ABA or defected there for a while.

There are at least a couple WIS owners who can tell stories about seeing Wilt play. I'm definitely younger than that. The big heroes I remember were Dr. J, David Thompson (because I was growing up near Denver), Kareem, and a young Moses.

Kareem never ABA - A train tho...

Gentlemen, I didn't know I would generate so much conversation. April 16,1981 - A drunk driver, driving on the wrong side of a double yellow line hit me almost head on. Broken right ankle,both knees,left hip,right wrist,right elbow,concussion and trama shock induced vascular migraines. This ended my basketball mobility. I am 77,Elder Statesman.

Posted by banditone on 2/24/2017 4:50:00 PM (view original):
Gentlemen, I didn't know I would generate so much conversation. April 16,1981 - A drunk driver, driving on the wrong side of a double yellow line hit me almost head on. Broken right ankle,both knees,left hip,right wrist,right elbow,concussion and trama shock induced vascular migraines. This ended my basketball mobility. I am 77,Elder Statesman.

Damn Bandit. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
You must be a very tough monkey! Here's to you
for coming through something, I know I could never
withstand!

War Banditone

always nice to have you in leagues.

Posted by beachhouse on 2/24/2017 5:08:00 PM (view original):
War Banditone

always nice to have you in leagues.

Yes!

Looks like I'm right in the middle as far as age goes...

There were still quite a few surviving ABA ball when I was a kid... My cousin had one. I remember thinking they were so cool.

My first year of being a fan was 1977 when the PDX Blazers won the title. The 4 ABA teams were integrated that season, Denver, Indiana, New Jersey Nets and the San Antonio Spurs. David Thompson was amazing. His career was too short. George Gervin was too cool and so smooth. Dan Issel was a rugged dude and a good scoring big man.

I think its cool that we have guys who grew up watching the ABA, guys, like myself who grew up watching Bird, Magic, Jordan, Barkley, & The Bad Boys. Guys who grew up watching Duncan, Kobe, KG, & T-Mac, And even guys who grew up watching Lebron, D-Wade, & Durant... And everyone in between... I wonder if that has any bearing on how we build our teams... Just pretty cool that we all come together to enjoy whatever it is we enjoy about this site which, I'm sure varies among us.

Started following NBA from 1981, watching Magic, Kareem, Bird, and Dr. J. Wish I had chance to see Wilt, Oscar, and Russell at their prime, but I was born in 1969.

I shared this story once before on wis years back, but I think it might be a good time to share it again. in the 1960's there was a tv program called ABC's Wide World of Sports hosted by kurt gowdy. well, on one particular show he was interviewing bill Russell. the tv crew used a ladder and placed two stacks of 4 quarters each on top of the backboard. bill Russell said he could snatch those stacks cleanly off the top in two tries. one stack placed at each end of the backboard. my father sat up in his lazy-boy chair and declared, "impossible. damn Russell thinks he's wilt." with bill's huge smile, he got into position then winked into the camera. I started laughing. he coiled down, then leaped up like a 7 foot frog and cleanly swiped off the first of two stacks of quarters. I thought my father would pass out. then Russell did it again. wow!. never faltered. kurt gowdy immediately shoved the microphone into Russell's face and said. he had never seen anything like that before. did he think he was the only nba player who could do that. and Russell said, "oh yes, mr chamberlain also lost 2 dollars to me." hahaha. I think you might be able to find that video on utube though I never tried.

Posted by copernicus on 2/24/2017 3:51:00 PM (view original):
Kareem never ABA - A train tho...

Yep, I wasn't just listing ABA players there...just those that had my attention and got argued over on the playground hoops court. Rick Barry, too, although he didn't have much gas left in his tank.

Posted by banditone on 2/24/2017 4:50:00 PM (view original):
Gentlemen, I didn't know I would generate so much conversation. April 16,1981 - A drunk driver, driving on the wrong side of a double yellow line hit me almost head on. Broken right ankle,both knees,left hip,right wrist,right elbow,concussion and trama shock induced vascular migraines. This ended my basketball mobility. I am 77,Elder Statesman.

Thanks for sharing a bit, bandit. Sounds like you were both incredibly unlucky and incredibly lucky. I lost a close friend and nearly lost my sister to drunk drivers pretty close to that same year. Glad you made it out okay enough.

Do you guys remeber what happened when Kareem came out? The ABA was about 3 years in and needed a super star. They had it set up to have Kareem go to the New York Nets so that he could play in his home town if he agreed to sign with them. The NBA offered no such deal. Kareem's family controlled the situation. They told both leagues that they each would get a one time best offer chance to sign Kareem, Lew Alcindor in those days, with no counter offers period.

So the ABA league rep George Mikan and the NBA rep each put a deal forward in separate to Kareem's family. The NBA won the deal and George Mikan tried to counter the offer. At which time he was informed that this was not the way that they had told him that it was going to go. Mikan then said that he always believed that Kareem's family would in fact take a counter offer to get the price up. So Mikan's excuse was that he didn't make the best offer the first time as he thought that the ABA would get to counter.

That was IMO a very stupid move and in fact may have sealed the deal on the ABA going down.