The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.
The original ABA was founded in 1967, competing with the well-established National Basketball Association, until the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. According to The NBA Encyclopedia, its long-term goal was to force a merger with the more established league. ABA officials told potential owners that they ...
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The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.
The original ABA was founded in 1967, competing with the well-established National Basketball Association, until the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. According to The NBA Encyclopedia, its long-term goal was to force a merger with the more established league. ABA officials told potential owners that they could get an ABA team for half of what it cost to get an NBA expansion team at the time. When the merger occurred, ABA officials said, their investment would more than double.
Ultimately, four ABA teams were absorbed into the older league: the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs. Two other clubs, the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis were disbanded upon the merger. A third, the Virginia Squires, had folded less than a month earlier, missing out on the opportunities that a merger might have provided....
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