Soul Power - Change is Coming
The new docuseries Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association examines the cultural and historical context of the American Basketball Association. Featuring interviews from former players, historians, coaches, and pundits, (including George Gervin, Larry Brown, Willie Wise, Tom Hoover, Bobby Jones, Spencer Haywood, George Karl, Dan Issel, Bob Costas, Jim Eakins, Bob Ryan, Pat Boone, Theresa Runstedtler, Julius Erving and so many more). The first episode of the series looks at the launch of of the ABA in 1967, seeing the success of the AFL, and the league's drive to innovate and to breathe new life in a dying sport that was a distant third behind baseball and football for the American audience.
The ABA offered faster paced games, more physicality (where a fight might break out in any game), the innovation of the three-point line, and going for broke on all kinds of marketing including the red, white, and blue ball. Launching in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, the league also broke the unspoken racial quota of the NBA of the time allowing a far more integrated workplace in the ABA where Black players would shine.
The documentary also discusses the league willing to give talented players with a troubled past like Connie Hawkins, who was unjustly implicated in a point-shaving scandal in college, the chance the NBA refused to offer and leading the Pittsburgh Pipers to the first ABA Championship. Rick Barry discusses leaving for the ABA after having success, but not much fun, in the NBA providing publicity and legal drama while also giving the new league its first big star signing (although it was Warren Jabali that led the Oakland Oaks to their first championship).
Not all is rosy, as the documentary covers the controversy of the ABA Commissioner George Mikan and the league bungling their attempt to get Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It also highlights how the NBA lawsuit to initially block Barry's play in the ABA slowed the influx of known stars while ABA-grown stars like Hawkins jumped to the NBA at the first opportunity. Needing a leg up to compete, the ABA made a decision to draft underclassman (offering them access to a pool of players the NBA weren't yet targeting) in another innovation that would eventually become a staple of professional basketball.
- Title: Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association - Change is Coming
- IMDb: link
