Pro Basketball Leagues Merge; New York to Retain Two Teams
June 18, 1976
By Sam Goldaper Special to The New York Times
The New York Times Archives
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June 18, 1976, Page 1
HYANNIS, Mass., June 17—The National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association finally merged today into a 22‐team league.
Four of the A.B.A.'s six teams —the New York Nets, the In diana Pacers, the Denver Nuggets and the San Antonio Spurs —have been absorbed into the N.B.A. and will play in the 1976–77 season.
Each of these franchises will pay $3.2 million in cash to the N.B.A., with the first payment of $1 million due on July 15 and the remainder on Sept. 15. The Nets also must indemnify the Knicks for moving into their New York territory. The Nets play their games at Nassau Col. iseum in Uniondale, L.I.
Mike Burke, president of the Knicks, said the indemnification would be “roughly in the same ball park” as the Islanders palc the Rangers when the Long Island team joined the National Hockey League in 1972. The islanders’ owners, some of whom also have a share of the Nets, are paying Madison Square Garden 54 million over a 20‐year period. The Garden owns the Rangers.
More negotiations between the Knicks and Nets will be held and they could result in trades that could possibly lower the Nets’ indemnirication payments.
Since the A. B. A. began as an 11‐team league for the 1967–68 season, it had 22 different franchises, seven commissioners and had been involved in countless lawsuits. The league contends it has lost $40 million.
The A.B.A. started the 1975–76 season as a 10‐team league, but in rapid succession the Baltimore Claws folded on Oct. 20 and the San Diego Sails dropped out Nov. 10, followed by the Utah Stars on Dec. 3 and the Virginia Squires May 10.
The Kentucky Colonels and Utah Rockies, who were to take over the Spirits of St. Louis franchise next season, were left out of the consolidation and they will be paid about $3 million each by the four teams accepted into the N.B.A.
The Kentucky and Utah players will be dispersed in a special draft in which the 18 N.B.A. teams, plus the four newcomers, will participate. The Chicago Bulls will have the first pick because they had the worst record in the league. They are expected to select Artis Gilmore, the 7‐foot‐2‐inch Kentucky Colonel center. Several other outstanding players will be available, among them Moses Malone, Maurice Lucas and Marvin Barnes.
There could be a lot of tracting or selling of draft picks.
The Knicks are almost certain to bid for at least one of those stars to fill their need for an overpowering big man. The Knicks are scheduled to pick sixth in the dispersal draft.
The New Orleans Jazz had drafted Moses Malone, who played for St. Louis, and the Los Angeles Lakers had taken Mark Olberding of the San Antonio Spurs in lieu of their first‐round selections in the 1977 college draft. Today those teams were given back their top picks after dropping their rights to those players.
Joe Caldwell, the overpowering center of the Philadelphia 76ers had signed for delivery next season; Don Chaney, the former Boston Celtic backcourt man, and Lonnie Shelton were placed in the “further negotiations” category. Shelton, who contends he was coerced into signing with St. Louis, has since been drafted by the Knicks.
Intensive merger negotiations between Larry O'Brien, the N.B.A. commissioner, and Dave DeBusschere, his A.B.A. counterpart, began at the suggestion of Federal Judge Robert L. Carter of the Southern New York District Court. He asked both sides to attempt an out‐of‐court settlement of the A.B.A. antitrust suit against the N.B.A.
Lawyers for both sides are scheduled to appear before Judge Carter tomorrow to tell him what progress has been made. But he already has been informed of today's agreement.
David Stern and Michael Cardozo, the N.B.A. lawyers who worked until 6:30 this morning to hammer out the agreement with Bob Carlson, the A.B.A. lawyer, figured it would take 60 to 90 days before all deals were completed.
Although many problems may still develop in future negotiations, nothing is expected to hinder the ultimate agreement. Especially since each N.B.A. owner will receive almost $700,000 and there is an almost additional $5 million awaiting them in the third year of their television contract with CBS. The television network had promised the extra money if the N.B.A. would accept at least four teams into the league.
The vote for the consolidation was 17‐1, with the unexpected dissenting vote cast by Sam Schulman, the owner of the Seattle SuperSonics. Schulman had been a leading proponent for the merger for almost eight years.
“It was a protest vote,” said Schulman. “There were some little things they did that upset me, like taking away some of the draft rights certain teams had held.”
Would Schulman have voted against the merger if his was the deciding vote? He smiled and offered a “no comment.”
O'Brien, who spent most of his first year in office determined to take pro basketball out of the courts, has now succeeded in effecting two major settlements of problems that had cost the league more than $1.5 million in legal and court costs this year. During the N.B.A. AllStar break a settlement of the so‐called Oscar Robertson antitrust suit was made with the N.B.A. Players Association.
The N.B.A. advisory committee, consisting of Abe Pollin of the Washington Bullets, Burke, William Wirtz of the Chicago Bulls and William Alverson of the Milwaukee Bucks, plus O'Brien and Simon Gourdine, the deputy commissioner, came to the league's annual meeting with merger plans involving four, five and six A.B.A. teams.
The owners favored the four‐team plan while Ozzie Silma, the owner of the Spirits of St. Louis, sat around for four days hoping that plan would fail and the N.B.A. owners would eventually admit his team.
When the $3.2 million cash settlement was finally substituted yesterday for the original $4.5 million five‐year payout plan, Prentice Yancey, the general counsel of the A.B.A. Players Association, was summoned from Atlanta.
During the all‐night negotiations, Yancey entered into an accord that included the honoring of all present A.B.A. contracts, including those of players who may not make it to the N.B.A. A pool was also set up that would pay off the contracts of those players whose teams had folded.
Yancey said the A.B.A. player representatives would have to approve the deal.
As for the new N.B.A. teams, their rosters were frozen as of May I. They will not share in’ any television monies for the next four years and, should the league decide to share gate receipts in the future, they would be excluded from the vote. In the N.B.A. the home team weeps all the receipts. The new teas will have no say in their elegiment in the league's from divisions.
Larry Fleisher, the general counsel of the N.B.A. Players Association, sail, “It's better to have two teams disbanded rather than six. I don't think the A.B.A. would have been able to survive another year.”
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