The American Basketball Association And The Contributions It Made To Professional Basketball

The American Basketball Association and the Contributions it Made to Professional Basketball

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. Because 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. N...

The American Basketball Association And The Contributions It Made To Professional Basketball

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