HBO Sports: The History of the ABA

Source:HBO Sports- Dr. J. Julius Erving the best player ever in the American Basketball Association. Perhaps the best player in pro basketball in the 1970s as well.

"Longshots - The Life & Times Of The American Basketball Association" 

From The True Sports Junkie

The ABA made the NBA better because it showed them that there were more players and markets that could compete in the NBA. During the 1969-70 NBA season there was only 14 NBA franchises in a country of 180 million people. There has always been a huge market for organized basketball in America, including pro basketball. But before David Stern came to the NBA in the mid 1980s as Commissioner, there was nobody in the NBA that knew how to market the league. And the management of the franchises didn't know how to market their clubs either. 

The ABA was successful because a lot of their clubs did merge into the NBA, like the New York Nets, Indianapolis Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, and Denver Nuggets. But also because the ABA proved that the NBA shouldn't just be a 14 team league that's competing with the NHL and North American Soccer League, and even professional indoor soccer just for attention and to have their games on TV and on radio. As well as proved that the ABA wasn't like the American Hockey League, but a division 1 major basketball league, that perhaps was just as good as the NBA as far as quality of talent and coaches.