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The NBA may have won the financial battle, but the ABA won the artistic war. With its stress on wide-open individual play, the adoption of the three-point basket and pressing defense, and the selling of flashy moves and flying dunks, today's NBA is just the ABA without the red-whie-and-blue ball.
Loose Balls, the first history of the ABA, is a wild ride through some of the wackiest, funniest, strangest times ever to hit pro sports - told entirely through the words of those who played, wrote, and connived their way through the league's nine seasons.
| Cast of Characters | 13 | |
| Year-by-Year Standings and Franchise Histories | 18 | |
| ABA Team Logos | 20 | |
| Prologue | 25 | |
| Part I | Opening Gambits | |
| Birth Pangs | 39 | |
| The Ball | 44 | |
| The First Jumper | 48 | |
| The Shakeout Begins | 52 | |
| Finding Players | 58 | |
| Opening Tip | 63 | |
| The 3-Pointer | 70 | |
| Larry and Doug | 75 | |
| The Hawk | 79 | |
| Bad Times in Oakland | 84 | |
| First-Year Notebook: 1967-68 | 87 | |
| The $1.3 Million Glass Ring: An ABA "Success" Story | 90 | |
| The Leaders Crumble | 99 | |
| Second-Year Notebook: 1968-69 | 108 | |
| Saved from the Brink | 110 | |
| Washington: First in War, First in Peace, and Third in the Western Division? | 113 | |
| Sideshow in Miami | 118 | |
| Third-Year Notebook: 1969-70 | 125 | |
| Raiding the Refs | 127 | |
| The Indiana Pacers: The Boston Celtics of the ABA | 134 | |
| Part II | Middle Game | |
| Star Wars | 177 | |
| Fourth-Year Notebook: 1970-71 | 200 | |
| The Stars Rise in L.A., but Shine in Utah | 202 | |
| The Meanest Men in the ABA | 215 | |
| Fifth-Year Notebook: 1971-72 | 220 | |
| Enter the Doctor | 222 | |
| From the Sublime to ... Johnny Neumann | 234 | |
| Memphis Follies | 239 | |
| Sixth-Year Notebook: 1972-73 | 246 | |
| Carolina: Where the Cougars Roamed | 248 | |
| Wendell Ladner: An ABA Original | 266 | |
| Seventh-Year Notebook: 1973-74 | 271 | |
| Coach Chamberlain | 274 | |
| Doctor J and the Rest | 277 | |
| The Rivalry | 285 | |
| A Big Move Spurs a Texas Revival | 289 | |
| Part III | Endgame | |
| The Legend of Doctor J | 317 | |
| Moses Malone: The Ultimate Underclassman | 323 | |
| The Kentucky Colonels: The ABA's Frontline Team | 329 | |
| Eighth-Year Notebook: 1974-75 | 347 | |
| The Wildest Team of Them All | 349 | |
| Escape Claws | 390 | |
| Denver: A Rock in the ABA | 395 | |
| Ninth-Year Notebook: 1975-76 | 402 | |
| Down the Tubes with Virginia | 403 | |
| The Last Championship | 417 | |
| Surrender | 421 | |
| Aftermath | 433 | |
| Index | 438 |
Overview
The NBA may have won the financial battle, but the ABA won the artistic war. With its stress on wide-open individual play, the adoption of the three-point basket and pressing defense, and the selling of flashy moves and ...