The American Basketball Association and the Contributions it Made to Professional Basketball
             The American Basketball Association had a short and wild life, yet it made
             great contributions to professional basketball. It increased the level of
             talent, changed the way the game was played, and produced some of the
             greatest stars to ever play the game. It also caused an increase in player
             salaries and turned pro basketball into a financial institution.
             The ABA was a place for untapped talent to emerge. Many players proved
             themselves in the ABA while the National Basketball Association rejected
             them. This greatly increased the talent level throughout professional hoops.
             At the same time of the creation of the ABA, the NBA only had 120 players,
             which meant that many worthy players were not getting the chance to play
             (Sachare 178). With about 90 players in the ABA, they got their chance. The
             ABA started to draft college players to compete with the NBA. Because both
             leagues wanted the best players, the ABA made a rule which said that the
             draftee did not have to be a college graduate. The NBA had a rule which said
             that the draftee must have graduated from college. As a result, many college
             stars began to go straight into the ABA before graduating. One which did
             this was Moses Malone, he was the first player to come straight out of high
             school into professional sports (Pluto 435). This was a revolutionary event
             in the history of professional sports. Now days, most college stars go to
             The ABA had a style of its own. Newsweek once described them,
             "Sex, drugs, platform shoes, sideburns, slam dunks, midnight franchise
             shifts, million dollar deferred-payment player contracts, the three-point
             shot, Dr. J, Marvin (Bad News) Barnes, LaVerne (Jelly) Tart,and Pat Boone.
             Pro sports the way they oughta be!" (Pluto 465)
             They were the complete opposite of the NBA. The NBA was traditiona
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