The American Basketball Association, or ABA, played nine seasons from 1967 to 1976, when it merged with the NBA. Four ABA basketball teams (the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and New York Nets) were given seats at the NBA table, but teams like the Virginia Squires, where future Philadelphia 76er Julius Erving had played, and the Kentucky Colonels, home to future Chicago Bulls center Artis Gilmore, were dissolved.

The ABA did anything to attract fans, from halftime man-bear wrestling matches to shooting exhibitions by Playboy bunnies. The league’s ball was red, white, and blue, and it adopted the three-point shot long before the NBA.