When The Athletic reached out to Nick Anderson and asked what it was like to play an NBA game with a red, white and blue American Basketball Association ball in 1997, he jokingly said he didn’t remember doing so.
“It was so long ago!” the former Orlando Magic shooting guard said through a team spokesperson Thursday afternoon.
But when asked about the contributions of the now-defunct league to the NBA, Anderson, the community ambassador with the Magic, said it changed the course of the NBA.
“The ABA marriage with the NBA: You go back and think of Dr. J (Julius Erving) — he was the ABA, what he did for the ABA — and then they merged,” Anderson said. “That was outstanding, Dr. J is Dr. J. The best players coming from the ABA and joining the NBA, that was a big hit for everybody and, obviously, changed the trajectory of the league today.”
The ABA was once perceived as gimmicky by purveyors of the NBA. The league played its first game on Oct. 13, 1967, with a 3-point line and a red, white and blue basketball.
Almost 30 years to the day after the ABA launched its inaugural season, NBA commissioner David Stern gave the ABA its flowers and recognition in a preseason matchup between the Magic and the San Antonio Spurs on Oct. 14, 1997.
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