The Nuggets were one of four ABA teams that joined the older league in a 1976 merger.
As we relish one of the greatest couple of weeks on the sporting calendar — the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final, going back and forth on alternating nights — a pair of long-forgotten leagues deserve a shoutout.The American Basketball Association and World Hockey Association have been gone for decades, but their brash challenges to the set-in-their-ways NBA and NHL left a mark that is still recognizable today.
“We fertilized the ground for the future of professional basketball in Miami," said Mack Calvin, who played two seasons for the Floridians. “The same in Charlotte. The same in Memphis. The same in New Orleans. The same in Dallas. The same in Houston. All of those cities were ABA cities that the NBA did not dare touch until we went in.”
The ABA developed some true giants of the game, including Julius Erving, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin and the five-time all-star Calvin — not to mention that dazzling red, white and blue ball. But it couldn't overcome paltry crowds, shaky finances and a fly-by-night reputation. Which seems a good time to throw out kudos to the WHA, which forced the NHL to look southward with its 1972 launch and recently marked the 50th anniversary of the New England Whalers claiming the first championship.
The Miami Screaming Eagles were supposed to be a charter member of the WHA, and they even signed the first major player to defect from the NHL, goaltender Bernie Parent.
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