Validation is a basic human need, and when it’s not present, or when it’s replaced by disrespect or disregard, the pain suffered by those affected is real.
The new Prime Video docuseries “Soul Power: the Legend of the American Basketball Association” debuts Thursday. Among many things the four-part series accomplishes is to give anyone of those involved in the ABA a sense of accomplishment: what you did was good, and it mattered.
“We weren’t just this funny-looking league that plays with a crazy-looking ball and the three-point shot,” Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown says in the series. “We were quality players and coaches, and we could compete at the highest level.”
Brown is considered one of the greatest coaches in history. He was active in all nine years (1967-76) of the ABA’s existence, playing for five years and coaching for four.
His voice is one of many in the docuseries that tells the wild, sprawling, multilayered story of the league that brought the three-point shot; the dunk contest; the red, white and blue basketball; dance teams and fast-paced play to the game of basketball.
The running theme of the series focuses on the costly nine-year battle waged between the ABA and NBA owners before a merger agreement in 1976. Along the way, the NBA executives often attempted to discredit the ABA with tired bromides such as, “They don’t play defense, they aren’t disciplined, and those guys couldn’t play in our league.”
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Over a half-century later, ABA star Willie Wise, a 6-foot-6 swingman for the Utah Stars who could score from anywhere on the floor and was considered a top defender, remembers the summation of one NBA general manager.
“He said, ‘The ABA has a couple of good players, and the rest are clowns.’ I can’t tell you how much that hurt. We had some great players who went to the NBA and became All-Stars and won championships. The ABA was like a family, because it always felt like us against the world.”
Former Seattle SuperSonics coach George Karl is one of the executive producers of the docuseries. In his typical blunt style, he refers to the NBA’s disrespect of the ABA game as a “[BS] narrative.” Karl played three seasons in the ABA and two in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs. He’s been an evangelist for the ABA for many years and considers “Soul Power” one of the crowning achievements in his career.
Another of the film’s executive producers is Brett Goldberg, who credits Karl with being the heaviest of lifters in getting the film done.
“He was the creator,” Goldberg says. “It was his vision. This film does not happen without George Karl.”
Karl came up with the idea for the documentary during the COVID pandemic, after he did a podcast with Hall of Famer Julius Erving. Erving, the greatest of ABA players, is another executive producer on the project, as is rapper and actor Common, who narrates the film.
After his discussion with Erving, who was nicknamed Dr. J, Karl found himself thinking about the league semifinal playoff series between his Spurs and Erving’s Nets in 1976. He dug up tapes and rewatched the games.
The Spurs lost four games to three, and the series is remembered by ABA aficionados primarily for an Easter Sunday melee triggered by a fight between Karl and Nets guard Brian Taylor. It eventually involved every player on both teams, lasted several minutes and required police intervention.
“That was a hell of a series,” Karl says.
Rewatching a playoff series from a half-century earlier got the idea percolating that there were a lot of great stories from the ABA that hadn’t been told. He began a five-year quest to produce the film.
“It was hard work,” he says. “But as I spent more time with the players and heard more stories it became an honor on my part to be able to help tell them. It got to the point where the story had to be told. Whatever difficulties we were having, my motto was, ‘I don’t give a damn, because we’ve got to get this thing done.’ ”
The producers unearthed a significant amount of never-seen video. The docuseries touches on several issues and stories, including the formation of the league, the botched attempt to sign UCLA star Lew Alcindor, the bold move to sign underclassmen and even high school players, the arrival and quick departure of eventual Sonic Spencer Haywood, the rise of Dr. J and the lengthy attempt to get the NBA to agree to a merger.
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There’s also time dedicated to the success many Black players enjoyed when the ABA arrived. In 1967, some NBA teams were still operating under an informal “race quota” agreement designed to limit the number of Black players on rosters.
“The NBA had good players (in the late 60s),” says Bob Netolicky, a key member of the Indiana Pacers teams that dominated the league for several seasons, “but people don’t like to mention that they only wanted one or two Black players on a team. That left a ton of players out there who didn’t have a chance to play.”
No such agreement existed within the ABA ownership structure.
Added Netolicky: “(Pacers coach) Slick Leonard took a lot of good talent and made us all play together instead of individually. That’s how we won.”
They also won, like most successful ABA teams, with a roster that featured several Black stars unencumbered by any “informal agreements” to limit their playing time. Karl believes the ABA’s attitude toward race dramatically sped up the integration of the NBA, pointing out that, “In Year 1 of the merger there were 35 Black athletes (from the ABA) who made (NBA) teams.”
Like Brown, Netolicky was another nine-year ABA member. He heard all the talk that the league was inferior, talk he dismissed because it primarily came from NBA owners and management, and media members currying favor with both. The people who mattered to Netolicky? He says they knew the score.
“The players in the ABA and NBA all got along. When you get to the pros, players can tell who can play and who can’t. By (the ABA’s) third year, we were on a par with them, easily. And most of them knew it. Remember the Philadelphia (76ers) team that won nine games in 1973? The NBA had bad teams, too.”
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Netolicky, Karl, Wise and just about everyone else involved remain dumbfounded that the NBA has refused to use the red, white, and blue basketball that became wildly popular on playgrounds in the 1970s. The ABA was mocked by traditionalists for using the multicolored sphere in games until everyone realized that it allowed fans to see the rotation during shots and is much more pleasing to the eye than the brown ball the NBA has stuck with for nearly 80 years.
Netolicky wrote a book years ago with ABA and Pacers co-founder Dick Tinkham called, “We Changed the Game.” Tinkham wrote in the book that when a merger agreement was reached, longtime Knicks executive Ned Irish made a proclamation.
“There are two things you’ll never see in the NBA, the three-point shot and that damned ball.”
The three-point shot was added three years after the merger. The ball? Still not added. “I think fans would love it,” Karl maintains.
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Another thing Karl would love is for the NBA to recognize the stats of the ABA in official records. Such a move would benefit players such as Erving, Dan Issel, Moses Malone, George Gervin and others on career lists. Brown sits ninth on the all-time coaches list with 1,098 wins. Add 229 wins from his four years in the ABA, and he’d be in fourth place with 1,227.
“We were the trendsetters for the way the game is played today,” Wise says. “The three-point shot, players slashing to the hoop. The fast pace of the game. Give us credit where credit is due.”
It comes back to validation, which in the final episode comes from Hall of Famer and broadcaster Charles Barkley.
“We owe a great deal of gratitude to the ABA,” he says, “because when those guys came to the NBA they were all great players. It really was the turning point in the history of basketball.”
Karl hopes “Soul Power” can have an impact on the basketball world.
“If that happens, I’d be a very happy man. As you get older you’re looking at your legacy. I’m very proud that this movie will be a part of my legacy.”
Karl says induction into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame and his coaching tree are his proudest basketball achievements. If this series accomplishes his goal, it would join those two on his list.
“I hope ABA players get the recognition that they deserve and have that last hurrah and celebrate the fraternity that we had.”
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