Author: Scott Adamson

Happy birthday, ABA

Break out the red, white and blue basketballs, dust off the Converse high-tops and let your hair down – or blow it out big and round.

Scott Adamson’s sports column appears when he feels sporty.

It’s the 53rd anniversary of the American Basketball Association’s birth, and today I pay tribute to the greatest roundball circuit ever created.

Announced on February 1, 1967, the ABA was officially unveiled during a news conference in New York on February 2. Plans called for the circuit to be divided into an Eastern Division featuring franchises in Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New York, New Orleans and Pittsburgh and a Western Division of Anaheim, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City and Oakland.

Former National Basketball Association great George Mikan was named commissioner, and he made it clear the newbies were going to challenge the NBA for talent.

“I have not read the present NBA contract, (but) we would be stupid not to ask players if they are not tied down,” Mikan told the Associated Press. “You have to respect contractual obligations, but if there is a player without a contract, we invite him to contact us.”

As for a bidding war, Mikan fully expected it.

“When two people compete, you show me a way it won’t spiral cost,” he said. “I’d like to be a 25-year-old kid now. The NBA isn’t happy with our move. They try to give the impression there’s no room for somebody else, but they’re expanding.”

Philadelphia 76ers standout Wilt Chamberlain was the first target of the ABA, and the 7-1 center didn’t deny his interest – or the interest of other NBA stars.

“I have been approached,” Chamberlain told the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicate. “I do listen to all financial offers – that’s all I can tell you. I know some of the other names, but I can’t reveal them.”

As a kid I wasn’t concerned with the business aspect of the ABA, but they had me at the red, white and blue basketball.

“It’s a patriotic ball,” Mikan told the Associated Press when he unveiled the multi-colored orb on August 19, 1967. “Everyone will stand when this one goes up.”

It was the 3-point shot (from 25-feet and beyond), however, that kept me.

It was actually a rule “borrowed” from the defunct American Basketball League, which lasted only one full season in the early 1960s.

“It gives the smaller players who usually perform at guard more of an opportunity to star in the ABA,” Mikan told United Press International. “It’ll open up the defense and make the game more enjoyable for the fans.”

Other rules that differed from the NBA included a 30-second shot clock and 12-foot lane.

But you have to have athletes to succeed, and the upstarts got them. In fact, 36 players selected by the NBA in the 1967 draft chose the ABA instead.

The league started in October, 1967, and actually had 11 teams – the Anaheim Amigos, Dallas Chaparrals, Denver Rockets, Houston Mavericks, Indiana Pacers, Kentucky Colonels, Minnesota Muskies, New Jersey Americans, New Orleans Buccaneers, Oakland Oaks and Pittsburgh Pipers.

Chamberlain decided to stay in the NBA but the ABA had guys like Connie Hawkins and Doug Moe, and quality basketball was delivered right out of the gate.

Over nine seasons the ABA produced superstars such as Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Artis Gilmore, and it was easy to love the high-scoring, free-spirited nature of the league. The players performed with such joy and abandon that it made every game fun to watch.

Like most leagues that challenge the establishment, however, the ABA struggled. Only two of its original teams (Indiana and Kentucky) survived relocation, dissolution and/or name changes during the organization’s existence.

And with most of its teams losing money (and losing bidding wars to the NBA) the ABA had no choice but to agree to a limited merger in 1976.

The Pacers, New York Nets (originally the Americans), Denver Nuggets (originally Rockets) and San Antonio Spurs (originally the Chaparrals) were absorbed by the NBA, and the American Basketball Association was no more.

I hated to see it go, but glad at least a few pieces of it lived on.

To this day the Nets remain my favorite pro team, and I always find myself rooting for the ABA survivors against the rest of the NBA.

The best part, though, is that the ABA’s stars and rules influenced the NBA to such a degree that it elevated the sport. Look at it that way, and it’s like the American Basketball Association never even left.

Still, I miss that red, white and blue basketball …

Grassroots soccer

In the movie “The American President,” Andrew Shepherd – the title character – delivers an impassioned speech during a news conference.

Scott Adamson’s column on soccer appears periodically, usually when he’s feeling especially soccerish.

At one point he says, “America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ‘cause it’s gonna put up a fight.”

It’s a terrific movie speech and truly resonates, especially in the current political climate.

But I’m not gonna to go there (that’s what Twitter is for). Instead, I want to hijack that excerpt and apply it to association football:

“Lower division American soccer isn’t easy. Lower division American soccer is advanced supportership. You’ve gotta want it bad, ‘cause it’s gonna put up a fight.”

Indeed it will.

And does.

If you’re a fan of Major League Soccer, you probably don’t spend a lot of time worrying about these things.

You go to an Atlanta United FC match at palatial Mercedes-Benz Stadium, do a couple of Viking Thunder Claps, enjoy your one price, all-you-care-to-drink cola, and you’ve been part of the experience.

It’s franchise soccer and if that’s what you like, that’s what MLS is providing.

If, however, you enjoy the kind of football built from the ground up, you have to accept the fact that you’re almost always on shaky ground.

Thanks to Greenville Football Club, I was finally able to realize there is much, much more to see in American soccer than what I see on television and big stadiums.

A lot of people are unaware of the lower divisions because they aren’t exposed to them, and I used to be one of those people.

But then Greenville FC came along and it opened my eyes to other clubs and other leagues.

It reintroduced me to the Atlanta Silverbacks and led me toward the paths of clubs such as Asheville City SC, Motorik FC Alexandria and Unity F.C.

And even though I don’t have a luxury box at Finley Stadium, I’m now an owner of Chattanooga FC. (Come to my house and I’ll gladly show you my yard sign and certificate).

That wouldn’t have happened if GVLFC hadn’t happened.

But again, if you cast your lot with grassroots soccer, things will often get muddy.

On Tuesday, Greenville FC officially announced it was taking a hiatus from the National Premier Soccer League this year.

There is the hope it will return in 2021 – whether in the NPSL or some other circuit – but it still comes as a blow to supporters who’ve made the club an integral part of their summers.

But hey – things are tough all over.

The Silverbacks, rebranded as Atlanta SC, went from the NPSL to the National Independent Soccer Association and now seems to have basically just disappeared.

Go to its website and, well, it doesn’t have one anymore.

Other clubs across the country come and go, of course, breaking the hearts of those who follow them yet rarely rating a mention in the national soccer conversation.

Look, it would be a lot easier to step away from it all.

I support Celtic FC and also enjoy following Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund. That gives me a lot of soccer to enjoy spread out over a lot of months.

But it’s a helluva drive from my house to Glasgow.

On the other hand Sirrine Stadium – the most recent home of Greenville FC – is just a couple of miles away.

Local soccer isn’t sexy, but it’s real. There’s a reason the world’s game is ultimately rooted in small communities.

So wherever you live, seek out the men and women who play for the clubs near you.

Buy a ticket.

Buy a shirt.

Buy into the dream.

It’s “gonna put up a fight,” but one day – if you’re lucky – you might just see that the struggle was worth it.

Soccer Twitter would’ve loved 1993

Soccer Twitter is much like political Twitter in that it reveals a huge divide – with a healthy dose of infighting.

Scott Adamson’s column on soccer appears periodically, usually when he’s feeling especially soccerish.

Some are all-in with Major League Soccer – the golden child of the United States Soccer Federation – and believe the closed professional pyramid that includes the United Soccer League and its three branches is all well and good.

Then again, there are those among the USL faithful who have issues with MLS and wouldn’t mind a hostile takeover.

People who like to see their clubs grow from a community sprout have little use for franchise soccer, and find themselves at odds with the “bought not built” model.

And many of us want America to follow the world’s lead and adopt a system of promotion and relegation.

Throw in the National Women’s Soccer League, the fledgling National Independent Soccer Association and amateur loops such as the National Premier Soccer League, United Premier Soccer League and Women’s Premier Soccer League, and you have thousands of different voices screaming in hundreds of different directions and making an incredible amount of noise.

If you think soccer Twitter is lively now, though, imagine what it would’ve been like had it existed back in 1993. In case you’ve forgotten, are too young remember or never cared to begin with, that was a huge year for American soccer.

With the first World Cup coming to the United States in 1994, the country had a mandate from FIFA to establish a Division 1 league.

Originally such a league was supposed to be in place by 1992, so FIFA was already getting antsy about the delay. But officials from the USSF promised one would be established no later than 1995, and soccer’s mad dash for a major league was on.

The primary candidates were the Super League proposed by the USSF and something known as League One America.

The existing American Professional Soccer League waited in the wings, with its officials thinking the APSL could be in the mix if given a fair shake.

League One America had the wildest aspirations – by far.

The brainchild of Chicago businessman Jim Paglia, League One would be a single entity model with 12 teams playing in 20,000-seat stadiums constructed specifically for the league. There would also be “adjacent entertainment complexes and exhibit halls” so the matches would be part of events.

Players would make an average of $65,000 per season with individual and team performance incentives.

But League One America was all about the Americanization of the game, and its proposed rule changes turned association football into a whole new sport.

There would be tiered points depending on where the ball was kicked (the pitch would be divided into sections) and which player kicked it. According to a retrospective written for The Guardian back in 2016, points ranged from “one for a striker to three for a defender, and a team could earn an extra half point if their player scored between the posts of the traditional-sized goal and a new, larger outer goal that was being proposed.”

“Admittedly our proposal is more radical, but it is also more workable,” Paglia told the Orlando Sentinel in a December, 1993, story. “You combine all of our elements and you lower the risk factor.”

Such a league would’ve been interesting, but it wouldn’t have been soccer as anyone knew it.

The USSF eyed 12 teams in major U.S. markets playing in a league with USSF president and World Cup Organizing Committee head Alan Rothenberg serving as commissioner.

It would function as a single entity for three years before stadium owners could buy “licensing rights” from the league.

“There are elements in the World Cup organization, people in the venues, in operations and marketing who are among the best and the brightest,” Rothenberg told the Hartford Courant for a July, 1993, story. “They could be the core of the management group for a new league.”

As for the APSL, which had existing teams in Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Vancouver, it hoped to formulate a business plan that would allow it to attain Division 1 status and possibly merge with any other “major” league that might be formed following the World Cup.

Los Angeles Salsa president William De La Peña, who was also a member of the USSF board of directors, told the Tampa Tribune in November, 1993, he wanted a fair process.

“I don’t believe the (USSF) is in any position to approve only one plan to control soccer in this country,” he said. “We would have some reservations about anti-trust violations. We could have the three leagues all coordinate together and let the market determine which system works best.”

Of course in the end, the USSF idea won.

The Super League plan morphed into Major League Soccer, which was founded in 1995 and started play with 10 franchises in 1996.

The APSL was rebranded as the A-League in 1995 (and its remnants ultimately became part of the USL), and League One America never got beyond the drawing board.

One can only imagine the cussing and discussing on Twitter while these organizations were making their plays.

Fortunately for the argumentative types, domestic soccer is as dysfunctional as ever, and remains tasty fodder for Twitter fights.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention this tidbit. Shortly after the World Cup was awarded to the United States in 1988, the USSF drew up a development plan for the sport. One of its key features was promotion/relegation.

Feel free to Tweet among yourselves …

* This story was updated to clarify information about the APSL.