Rick Barry Discusses: Is the ABA As Good as the NBA? 1973

The National Basketball Association is better than the American Basketball Association, but it is no longer a great deal better.

Billy Cunningham: Tale of Two Leagues, 1974

“It’s a different life four months a year. I get up when I want to. I don’t play basketball at all. I visit friends and stay with my family. As a professional, I live in two different worlds. I live two different lives.”

Who Are the All-Time Greatest Slam-Dunk Artists? 1977

Dr. J. is the slam-dunk champ of the ABA. Won it fair and square at halftime of the league’s All-Star game last winter.

The Pressure on Pistol Pete

Today, Pete Maravich is remembered as one of the iconic NBA figures of the 1970s. Less well known is that Maravich entered the 1970 NBA draft as the college superstar whom nobody wanted. For most NBA general managers, drafting Maravich seemed about as dangerous as volunteering to stand blindfolded before a firing squad. The danger came not from Pistol Pete. He was considered a good kid. It was the double-barreled barrage of attention behind him that would be unsurvivable.