He was the guy who really made the ABA explode. I remember watching the ABA when I was younger and really liking Dr. Woody Harrelson, who plays Tropics teammate Monix, remembers his childhood experiences watching the ABA. Moons soul hit, Love Me Sexy, has its own parallel in the real ABA world: singer Pat Boone owned the ABA team the Oakland Oaks. Some of these unusual marketing strategies are manifested in Semi-Pro via Jackie Moons trademark flair. My goal was to go in there and get 40 points and walk out of there saying, Nobodys eating on Ice! If they were successful, everybody would get free McDonalds or free Kentucky Fried Chicken Needless to say, they were never successful at holding Gervin down. When I would travel into different cities, the opposing team would have try and hold Ice Gervin under thirty points. George Gervin, whose nickname is Ice, remembers: We used to have marketing ploys. The players supplemented their stability with ingenuity and creativity. That happened with the Floridians during the year that I was drafted. There were a number of other teams you played a game with one day and then a few weeks later you might find out theyd disbanded. The San Diego Conquistadors, for instance, played at San Diego State. There were a number of franchises that were not totally established, says James Silas. The huge stadium arena was not part of the ABAs identity. Depending on the size of a team, ABA franchises would often share a court with a local high school or college. Then, of course, the environment that we had to play in, adds Gilmore. The three-point shot, now a mainstay of NBA games, was also an invention of the ABA. The ABA basketball was red, white and blue, and it was a bit smaller than the NBA regulation-size ball. Probably one of the most unusual was the basketball, the colors of the basketball itself. There were a number of things that were different, says Artis Gilmore, who played for the Kentucky Colonels. Though four of the ABAs teams were adopted by the NBA, the leagues were very different. Other famous ABA players who went on to NBA glory include Artis Gilmore, George Gervin and James Silas (Erving and Gervin went on to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame). J, who played for the Virginia Squires and the New York Nets. Perhaps the most famous player in the ABA was Julius Erving, better known as Dr. Four of the ABAs most successful teams remained intact following the merger the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, New York Nets and Indiana Pacers. Despite contributing some impressive innovations to the game and a style of play that emphasized flair and showmanship, the ABA was ultimately absorbed by its well-established competitor. Though these teams are no longer in existence, they have a brief cinematic reprieve in “Semi-Pro,” as their logos and uniforms were painstakingly reproduced for the films game sequences.įrom 1967 to 1976, the American Basketball Association was a renegade basketball league that nipped at the heels of the NBA. The Tropics bear similarities to some of the defunct teams of the ABA–the Kentucky Colonels, the Anaheim Amigos and the Spirits of St. Note: Manual Measurement, ☐.“Semi-Pro” is the comedic story of the Flint Tropics, a fictitious ABA team that didnt quite make it. Just click ‘ Add To Cart‘ now to get yours while it’s still in stock.
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