The ABA.

The Colonels.

The memories…

Yes, as this new season kicks off, we’re going back for some fun. To a time when pro basketball was at its wildest and craziest–and most fun.

From 1967 to 1976 — nine full seasons during my peak sports-crazed teen years — I got to witness close-up entrepreneurial creativity at its purest. The three-point play, the 30-second clock, the first dunking contest, Moses Malone leading high schoolers going pro, bikini-ed Ball Girls, incredibly talented and bizarre player/characters like Marvin “Bad News” Barnes, enormous Afros –and run-and-gun offenses.

Without the big lumbering centers of the NBA, who actually stopped their offenses, the ABA showcased its players’ skills, allowing them the opportunity to freelance, and turned basketball into an artistic venture.

It was playground basketball at its best.

And our own Kentucky Colonels were one of the ABA’s most exciting and dominant teams. Many observers believe that the later Colonels teams, anchored by Artis Gilmore in the middle starting in the 1971-72 season, would have dominated most NBA teams.

In 1974-75, before 16,622 screaming fans in Freedom Hall, the Colonels knocked off their arch-nemesis, the Indiana Pacers, 110-105, to capture the series 4-1 for their one and only ABA championship. Yes, I was there.

Most experts now believe that the Colonels would have beaten the Rick Barry- led NBA champion Golden State Warriors. That Colonels team had two of the greatest pro players of all time–Dan Issel and Artis Gilmore–and the premier scorer in ABA history, little Louie Dampier. Oh, yeah, and it was coached by Hubie Brown.

By the time the ABA folded in 1976, the Colonels had won the most regular season games in ABA history. Generally, Kentucky, Indiana, New York, Denver and San Antonio had been the most consistently strong ABA teams.

It was clear to everyone that the Colonels had the talent and the fan support to join the NBA for the 1976-77 season. So it was an incredible shock to Louisville fans–and to true basketball aficionados nationwide– when owner John Y. Brown sold off Issel right after winning the championship, and then later the team.

Yes….. our own Kentucky Colonels once ruled the pro basketball world.

“The Slam Dunk Contest went right to the heart of the old ABA. The dunk was a bigger play in the ABA than it is in today’s NBA; it was a statement of your manhood and your talent.”

Dan “The Horse” Issel, ABA and NBA all -time great, and forward on the 1975 ABA Champion Kentucky Colonels.

“The best halftime innovation since the bathroom.” Sports Illustrated

“Then he …. took off. His afro was big then, and it was blowing. He went up and threw that baby down and the crowd went crazy.”

ABA All -Star Ron Boone on Dr. J’s amazing leap into history and lore …

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The ABA was an artistic and innovative success, but it financially struggled due to lack of TV revenues.

In 1976, the league was desperately trying to force a merger with the NBA. To garner publicity, the league was determined to make a splash at its last All-Star game.

An entire weekend of events was created, including a concert by Glen Campbell and Charlie Rich (Remember: This was Denver and it was the 70′s. Trust me, they were big.)

But it was one innovation that created an indelible impression.

The halftime Slam Dunk contest.

“We were sitting around the office one day, discussing things that would draw more people, and it just came to us — let’s have a dunk contest,” said Jim Bukata, former director of marketing for the ABA. “That’s really where it came from — three guys talking about what we could do to sell a few more tickets.”

“We actually got the idea from Julius (Erving) in a roundabout way,” Bukata said. “We had a guy named Jim Keeler, who was African-American, who handled the business affairs for the league. Julius used to kid him all the time, saying, ‘I’ll bet you’re the only black guy involved in the ABA who can’t dunk.’ And it kind of came in some way off that.”It was Julius really giving us the idea that we’re the league of the dunkers.

“So I said, ‘Let’s have a Slam Dunk Contest!”

Everyone said: “Great!”

Then we all said, “OK… how do you have a Slam Dunk Contest?”

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Dr. J: ” When the idea of a Slam Dunk contest was presented, it concerned me some…. I always considered myself a very good dunker…but my best dunks were always done in the game. I didn’t think about them, I just did them.

The other thing….it would be held at halftime….our legs would be a little tired. Now the Slam Dunk contest is held on a different day than the All-Star Game.

Really, none of us did much preparing… we all sort of winged it.”

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The contest matched our own Artis Gilmore, the 7-2 center for the Kentucky Colonels; George Gervin, a 6-7 guard for the San Antonio Spurs; Larry Kenon, a 6-9 forward who was a teammate of Gervin’s with the Spurs; David Thompson, a 6-4 guard for the Nuggets; and Erving a 6-7 forward for the New York Nets. Dunks were judged on “artistic ability, imagination, body flow as well as fan response.”

All true basketball fans of that era knew it was going to be a showdown between Erving and Thompson.

One of the great leapers of all time, Thompson wowed the partisan Denver crowd with a windmill slam, a two-handed reverse and the first recorded 360 dunk.

For his first dunk, Julius Erving stood underneath the basket and dunked two balls at once. But Dr. J’s second was the one that will always be remembered.

“It was unreal,” said All-Star Ron Boone, now a television commentator for the Utah Jazz. “First of all, the contest was the first of its kind, which made it so exciting to watch. Everyone was bringing the house down.

“Then when it came to Julius’ time and he walked up to the free-throw line and started marking these steps off, going back to the other end of the court. Well, you knew what was coming — ‘Oooh, he’s going to take off from the free-throw line.’ Everybody was on the edge of their seats watching. The anticipation was great.”

“Then he went and took off. His afro was big then, and it was blowing. He went up and threw that baby down and the crowd went crazy.”

The Doctor himself: “Here was my philosophy — dare to be great…. I always like to take chances every now and then, and this was taking a chance because back then you didn’t have the spring-back (breakaway) rims. You had a rim that if you didn’t get above it, and dunk the ball through the right way, the rim would throw you to the ground…”

“With that rigid rim with no spring-back connection, you had to bring the truth in.

“I just wanted to make a nice, soaring play that would get the fans out of their seats. I really started going at half court and got a good running start and made sure that I made the shot authoritatively.”

A link to the video of Dr. J’s leap into history and legend…

http://www.sportsvideodaily.com/wp/index.php/2011/01/27/jan-27-1976-first-slam-dunk-contest//

ck it out at the 5:30 mark…

Replays of that dunk and the contest on the ( 3 ! ) national news channels electrified sports fans,  helped prompt a lifting of the ban on college dunking in 1976–and also  inspired a new Doctor just a few years later,  our own Darrell Griffith and his 360′s.

I checked Google–as you can imagine, there are not that many people in recorded history that have been able to dunk a ball from the free throw line.

In addition to Dr. J, Jim “Kangeroo Kid” Pollard –a 6’3″ white guy from the 50′s!– Wilt Chamberlain, Clyde Drexler, Michael Jordan, and Scottie Pippen, and Brent Barry have each dunked while jumping from around the free throw line, which is 15 feet from the basket. There are maybe a dozen other names of jumping jack no-bodies-you-never-hear-ofs.

Unlike all the others, Chamberlain did not require a full running start, but instead began from INSIDE the top half of the free throw circle. (Was this guy superhuman, or what!)

To show what kind of hops he had, Dr. J repeated his ABA feat 8 yrs later in 1984 when the NBA restarted the dunk contest–and that dunk is considered one of the greatest in NBA history.

Four year later in 1988 –but 12 years after the Doctor first did it– his Airness himself, Michael Jordan, replicated the Doctor’s dunk from the free throw line to win that year’s contest.

For a comparison to Doc’s dunk, here’s the video of MJ’s :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_3YyE9oyFQ

(Much of my research on the ABA came from two sources: the Web site Remember the ABA

http://www.remembertheaba.com/ABAArticles/MurphyArticleABA.html

and from probably the best resource on the ABA, the book Loose Balls by Terry Pluto.)

Coach Pitino and Jerry are fired up, as the Cards sizzle for their 7th straight W.

God, I’m pumped, aren’t U ?

Seven straight.  Five against four ranked teams and your arch-rival, including two in  the most frenzied arenas on the rocky Big East road.

This time, the  Cards silenced over 25,000 orange-clad fans in the largest BBall arena in the land, and kissed-off the #8 Cuse and their Hall of Fame coach with a 13-2 lock-down in the last 3 minutes of the game.

Syracuse entered the game leading the Big East,  shooting 50%,  averaging 80 pts per game, and had 5 players posting double figures per game.

But  the Cards badgered them into their worst  aim of the year–35%–including 27% in the second half.

And pounded them on the boards.

And turned them over 18 times to our 10.

Fellow Card Fans:  This Card team is turning into the monster we had all dreamed it could be.

We may not shoot well, but by god, we’ll make you shoot worse.  And  after we’ve sent   shock wave after wave of kamikaze D-men at you, you will crack.

Yes, you will crack.

In this game, Louisville frankly controlled most of the game in both halves. The passing was again crisp–our A/TO ratio was 1.8/1 !  Which is very high for us–well above our 1.2/1 avg.   I remember some great bounce feeds from both Edgar Sosa and Preston Knowles.

Terrence Jennings played his best game of the season, anchoring the post better than Samardo in this contest.

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I can’t say enough about our rebounding this game or for the last several.  Just a month ago,  many were questioning our toughness on the boards. Over the last three weeks, we have now  faced some of the great big men and front courts in the country and flat out-rebounded them.

In this game, as usual, we were led by a familiar duo:  Earl Clark double-doubled again with 16 pts and 13 BIG bounds (and had a UK- like 7 BIG TO’s again! ).  T Will almost doubled-up, coming in at 15 pts and 9 boards, and frankly lead the Cards at most of the big moments again.

I’ve never been a big T Will fan until the last several games…but he is THE MAN right now, a Griff -like super-human that can take us to the promised land.

But two other Cards also continued their string of significant contributions during this streak–and Good Edgar and Terrence Jennings may prove to be the final pieces of a national championship team for us.

A title  team needs an above average point guard.   Good Edgar has been back since his Lazarus-like rebirth against UK, and he had another great outing against the Cuse, with 13 pts , with 3 of 7 3-balls, and most importantly 3 assists and –NO turnovers.  He showed daring AND control.

A title team needs a good back up center.  Terrence Jennings has now proven over the last few games he has arrived.  He has split time with Samardo recently, and this  new Samardo/Jennings combo is quite a multi-faceted beast for opposing teams to handle.

The only disappointment this game was Samardo Samuels, who seemed to regress and shrink against the Syracuse front wall.  It was back to one of those games where he could not finish 2-footers.

(Damn it , Sammy,  use a head fake or two, and get the +1 too.)

But I’m a Sammy fan:  He’s figuring it out slowly but surely.  As are the rest of this very talented Card team.

We are #1 in defensive efficiency in the country–and 103rd in O efficiency.

Our D isn’t going to get worse.  So in my opinion, we only have upside–and a lot of it still, even though our team is playing like a monster now, 1/3 the way through this season!

For instance, if Jerry Smith gets going  again, we ratchet up our outside threat considerably.  Right now, our best shooter is taking only a handful of shots each game.

Now I understand Jerry is the ultimate  team player – he whips that towel harder than anyone! But we need him to care enough to fight through those screens.. because erratic, low shooting % from outside is one of our last Achilles tendons to a third ring.

A last word from Earl: “This was real important. “Everybody was telling us how tough it is to play in here. When we walked in and saw how many people there were, it was just great.”

Yes, Earl, it is great…and now you all are coming back home  as conquering heroes to our own glorious cathedral to the god of basketball for the next three games.

Do you think it’s going to be a little crazy in the Hall?

Good Edgar...are you really here to stay?