All over the world, people have been familiar with the NBA, the different NBA teams, and their players. The NBA is one of the most well known basketball leagues in the world. Under the NBA, there are three additional leagues, the NBA D league, The ABA and FIVA.
The ABA (American Basketball Association) was founded in 1967 and had a distinguished look with its red, blue, and white Spalding basketballs. The ABA’s style and non-businesslike approach made it popular among fans. “The ABA and NBA merger in 1976 was not successful for the ABA and the NBA became the top known league that was aired on TV. In the merger, four ABA teams were absorbed into the NBA league: the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and San Antonio Spurs survived while others folded.
The new ABA league was established in 1999, and there rules have changed from the original ABA league. They do not compete with the NBA, but it competes within different teams of the ABA league only.
The ABA is the largest professional sports league in the U.S. When play begins next season, the league will have over 100 teams. It is also the most diversified professional sports league ever with over 75% of its teams owned by African – Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Women. (abalive.com)”
The league also provides opportunities for over 1000 players to play at the professional level and over 200 coaches to coach at the professional level. . (abalive.com)”
Aldis Presley Owner of a professional basketball franchise in the American Basketball Association and professional bowler of the PBA (Professional Bowlers Association always wanted to play professional basketball for the NBA.
The NBA was the top professional national basketball association, that had 30 teams and drafted new players once per year. With their only being 60 selections per year, Aldis saw the reality of being drafted by the NBA and decided to seek other opportunities to play professional basketball. While pursuing his degree in Exercise Science at Texas Wesleyan University in Ft. Worth, TX he discovered that he needed an agent to consider him for the NBA drafts. He had an opportunity in 2010 to speak with The Head Basketball coach for the Dallas Mavericks, and to show him his skillset on the court. The Mavericks coach informed him of other opportunities that were available such as playing for FIVA an International league. Aldis decided to look into FIVA, but his passion was to play Professional Basketball in America. He shared his interest with his father, who researched and discovered that there were opportunities in America on the professional level with one of the largest professional sports leagues called the ABA (American Basketball Association). A year later, there was opportunity to join the Atlanta Aliens an ABA team. Aldis moved back to Atlanta to try out for the team, and was drafted. He played for the ABA team the Atlanta Aliens in 2011 and was hired as a Basketball operations intern for the company. Due to the financial hardship of that franchise team, the team had to drop out of the ABA. After the team dropped out, Aldis and his father still wanted to find a way to make his dream come true, so they gathered the information and funds they needed to start their own franchise team within the ABA. Their team the Southwest Warriors was accepted by the ABA. Aldis and his father became the owners and co-owners the basketball operations that he learned in his internship equipped him to be ready to run the new team and meet the requirements of the ABA. The requirements that go into having your own professional franchise basketball team for the ABA included, basketball tryouts for men ages 20 and up who are physically fit., selecting the team , managing inside and outside basketball court regulations and procedures and then planning the basketball games among the different southwest regional teams. Aldis was able to use his passion of playing professional basketball, his educational background in Exercise Science, and his father’s Educational background in Economics to create a professional career for himself.
His team has played and traveled around the Southwest region of the country playing up against the best professional basketball players in America. His team made the national play offs in 2012 and continues to work towards becoming professional national champions. In the 2013- 2014 season, the team played a maximum of 40 games averaging 120 points a game.
In October 2014, the ABA will be airing games on ESPN.
Aldis’s team the Southwest Warriors will be on ESPN showing the world that with a dream, hard work and determination whatever you believe can come true.
References:
2.https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/American_Basketball_Association.html
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