I waited for a while to post my thoughts on this man, out of respect for the dead. Like most people on this earth, he was a flawed man and only in death, do we forget those. However one big flaw, and how it directly led to many former ABA players dying broke and suffering, is one flaw I cannot keep quiet about.
Before the ABA, the NBA was in complete control over the players. They had zero power, could not leave early to start their careers (unlike predominantly white sports like hockey or baseball) and basically had to shut up and take it or leave. They controlled teams, salaries etc. unless you went to play for the Globetrotters. It was a complete dictatorship and one they guarded vehemently.
The ABA ruined the gravy train for them, giving many players an option and driving up salaries in the ensuing bidding wars. They also allowed younger players, who declared hardship, to leave school and support their families, again like many white sports already allowed (without the hardship requirement). This was the number one reason player advocate Oscar Robertson fought a merger in 1972, specifically because he was opposed to this monopoly the NBA had until then. Players had a choice and power for the first time in history and the dinosaur league hated it. Especially then commissioner Larry O’Brien and his protege, you guessed it, David Stern. When Doctor J took the basketball world by storm, the NBA realized a merger was a must. How could a league claiming to be the best in the world, not have who many thought was the best player in the world? Something had to be done, the ABA was not in a financial position to fight any longer, and a merger was done (facts on the merger are detailed elsewhere on this site).
This merger was odious and showed the systemic hatred the NBA had for the ABA, making it so difficult for the 4 former ABA teams in the early post merger days. It was so bad, that the Nets had to sell Dr. J to the Sixers, simply to exist. And the NBA smiled.
As any business student knows, a merger means just that. A merger of two companies and the ABA players were supposed to, and promised, to be treated exactly like their NBA brothers, when it came to pensions and benefits. Knowing full well these poor players did not have the stomach, will, education, or financial power to fight them, the NBA (and David Stern and current commissioner Adam Silver) basically ignored them and their plights. And until this day, they suffer unheard. The numbers are dwindling and the NBA knows that if they wait them out, this will be a problem that resolves itself as in 10-20 years, there will be no one left alive. A more disgusting and evil plan, I’ve rarely heard.
Now I am the last person to blame anything on race, tending to give most people the benefit of the doubt. But something always stunk here for me. Hear me out.
David Stern already raised my eyebrows with the whole dress code fiasco, showing an alarming lack of sensitivity to a culture that dressed differently. And that backfired on him quickly. But that could have been an honest mistake. What they did after just leads me to believe there may be more there.
The NBA decided out of the goodness of their hearts, to give the pre-1965 BAA players a retroactive pension, when they had NO AGREEMENT TO DO SO. A group who are, coincidentally almost all white. Meanwhile the ABA, coincidentally almost all black, and THAT HAD AN AGREEMENT and MULTIPLE PROMISES, are left to die. Players and a league that created the modern game that makes them all billionaires!
You combine this, with how the NBA has reinvented themselves by stealing all the things the ABA did, and forgive me if I don’t mourn this man. I spend my time mourning the many many players who died with no recognition, who’s only crime was wanting to play ball.
