Kentucky Colonels

And I said, well, Cliff, I appreciate that, but...

There's only one team in the ABA I would consider playing for, and that's the Kentucky Colonels.

And a week later, I get a call from the Kentucky Colonels.

Dan, we're pleased to tell you we have your draft rights.

So people don't believe this.

I've never seen a sports league go through anything like this at all.

I mean, the only thing I could think of was when the ABA sort of merged with the NBA, and great teams like the Kentucky Colonels went by the wayside, and a few teams made it to the – made it to the NBA, but the greatest thing about that is, a little side note here in sports business history, the teams that didn't make it into the NBA they got in their contract that they would receive.

I can't remember what the percentage was, uh, 15 to 20% of the NBA's annual television revenue with two words after that in perpetuity, the greatest words you can ever have in a legal document are in perpetuity as in forever.

And when they did this in the seventies, the NBA was going broke.

University of Kentucky fans know Dan Issel as one of the players who left a major mark on basketball.

He's the all-time leading scorer for the Wildcats, who went on to professional success with the Kentucky Colonels and Denver Nuggets as a player, coach, and general manager.

In 1993, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Now he adds another accomplishment to his resume, author.

So with the first merger, four teams come over from the ABA.

Was there a franchise, I don't know, like the Kentucky Colonels or a franchise that didn't make that merger that would have been a real asset to have been in the NBA? You

asked my great friend, Ruby Brown, what's the best team he ever coached.

Happily, it was the Kentucky Colonels that he won championship with, with that front line of Gilmore, Issel, Cincy Powell, backcourt, Louis Dampier in the backcourt.

That team, I think they could have competed pretty well if they had entered the NBA intact.

I think that would have been the answer to your question.

The final score, the next 111, Utah 100.

Well, the New York Nets have done almost the impossible by winning the ABA championship, and they did it in high style as they beat the Virginia Squires in the first round, four games to one, then swept the highly regarded Kentucky Colonels in four straight games.

And then they manhandled the Utah Stars in five games to win the championship by a score of 111 to 100 in the fifth and now, of course, the deciding game before a jubilant crowd and a rather boisterous one at the Nassau Coliseum out on Nassau Long Island at Uniondale, New York.

So the New York Nets are champions of the ABA for the 1973-74 season, and Julius Irving has been named, as you might expect, the most valuable player in the ABA postseason competition, and he'll get a brand-new automobile for his efforts.

Yeah, my four favorite years of basketball.

Uh, I was, I was blessed to play 15 years of professional basketball, win a championship with the Kentucky Colonels.

Uh, but, uh, playing at, playing at Kentucky is special.

And, uh, uh, you know, I, the only thing I had to worry about there was keeping eligible, keeping my grades up.

[laughs]

To s- to say the least.

But, but after that, you mentioned the Kentucky Colonels.

But you're drafted by not just the Colonels, but the Detroit Pistons as well in the NBA.

...

Kentucky, Kentucky Colonels.

They were also in there.

Kentucky Colonels.

I remember having all these stickers with ABA teams [laughs] as a kid.

Kentucky Colonels, uh-

You missed the Minnesota Muskies.

Oh, don't remember them.

...

in the NBA, and I chose to go to the, uh, Kentucky Colonels, thinking that, uh, that, that was the first team that drafted me out of college-

Mm-hmm

... thinking that I would, uh, have a better opportunity there.

Actually, I, I have a t- uh, I, I actually am supposed to have three years, because I signed a two-year no-cut contract-

Mm.

Uh, with the Kentucky Colonels.

Okay.

The final score, the next 111, Utah 100.

Well, the New York Nets have done almost the impossible by winning the ABA championship, and they did it in high style as they beat the Virginia Squires in the first round, four games to one, then swept the highly regarded Kentucky Colonels in four straight games.

And then they manhandled the Utah Stars in five games to win the championship by a score of 111 to 100 in the fifth and now, of course, the deciding game before a jubilant crowd and a rather boisterous one at the Nassau Coliseum out on Nassau Long Island at Uniondale, New York.

So the New York Nets are champions of the ABA for the 1973-74 season, and Julius Irving has been named, as you might expect, the most valuable player in the ABA postseason competition, and he'll get a brand new automobile for his efforts.