Basketball and everything in between

This ladies and gentleman, is an awesome basketball book.  The book is written by Terry Pluto and it is an awesome read.  I think I acquired it from a book store in Seattle but I honestly can’t remember.  I think that I have re read this book over ten times and generally read it at least once a year.  It is awesome!

The book  was originally published in 1990 by Simon and Schuster. The book was written Terry Pluto, although much of his writing is limited to introductions and summaries of each season, much of the dialogue is from former players, league executives, and journalists, among others.

For those who don’t know anything about the ABA, a great summary can be found here .  The ABA was seen as a rogue league and it really upset the NBA when it was founded in 1967.  The ABA distinguished itself from its older counterpart with a more wide-open, flashy style of offensive play, as well as differences in rules (such as the 30 second shot clock and the 3 pointer).  NBA great George Mikan was appointed the first commisioner of the ABA and he is credited with introducing the trademark of the league – the Red, White and Blue basketball.   The stupid thing was that the ABA didn’t even trademark the ball and lost millions of dollars in revenue.  GM’s from around the league were rotuinely criticsed by the NBA for their contract negotiations.  The thing about the ABA was that the owners were willing to do things that was not accepted by the establishment.  The challenged the legitmacy of the rules at the time about ‘early entry’ draft picks by selecting Spencer Haywood in the 1968 – 69 ABA draft.  Haywood pleaded that, as his family’s sole wage earner, he should be allowed to earn a living in the ABA or else his family would face destitution. 

The ABA decided to take it a step further by drafting Moses Malone straight out of High School in the 1974 draft.  The book describes the amount of controversy surrounding this decision and the recruting battle that took place.  At one stage the ABA was banned by the NCAA Coaches Association in attending practices or entering buildings.  The ABA counted with having every player in the league write down the things (e.g. gifts, cash, cars etc) that they had received during their college career (which of course is very illegal)  The ABA was subsequently allowed back into NCAA buildings.

A feature of the ABA that the book describes is the ownership of the different franchies.   Some franchies such as the Indiana Pacers had fantastic ownership who paid their players on time and produced great teams. At the other end of the scale was Miami Floridians Owner Ned Doyle was constantly late in paying his players and they had awful teams. The only great thing that this team had going for them was their cheerleaders who paraded around games in bikinis that didn’t leave much to the imagination. The book describes that the original purpose of the league was to force a merger with the NBA and make some money.  The merger plans were raised every year and finally came about in 1976. 

The biggest star in ABA history is Julius Erving Dr J helped legitimize the ABA. Much as some players are considered “the team,” Dr. J was considered “the league.” He was the main asset of the ABA when it merged with the National Basketball Association (NBA) after the 1976 season.  Even at the end, when it was very obvious that a merger was going to happen, Dr J was still fighting to keep the league seperate.  He was worried that players would be without jobs (not him of course) but others. 

This is one of my favourite basketball books of all time.  It is all tattery and stained and my two year old son has ripped some pages but I keep it.  If you are a hoops fan, this is a must read.  You will not know many of the characters and some of the teams but you will appreciate the story and the struggle that these pioneers went through for the superstars of today.