American Basketball League (1961-1963)

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American Basketball League (1961-1963)
Sport	Basketball
Founded	1961
No. of teams	8
Country	United States
Folded	1963
Last champions	Cleveland Pipers

The American Basketball League played one full season, 1961-1962, and part of 1962-1963. The league actually folded on December 31, 1962. The ABL was the first basketball league to have a three point shot for baskets scored far away from the goal.

The league was formed when basketball mogul Abe Saperstein did not get the Los Angeles National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise he felt he had been promised in return for his years of supporting the NBA with doubleheader games featuring his Harlem Globetrotters. When Minneapolis Lakers owner Bob Short was permitted to move the Lakers to Los Angeles, Saperstein reacted by convincing National Alliance of Basketball Leagues (NABL) team owner Paul Cohen (Tuck Tapers) and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Champion Cleveland Pipers owner George Steinbrenner to take the top NABL and AAU teams and players and form a rival league. Saperstein and Cohen each secretly made arrangements with local promoters in the other cities to finance those teams so there would be an eight-team league. Saperstein's ego led him to place the Los Angeles Jets in Los Angeles to take on the transplanted Lakers. He got Bill Sharman as coach and signed former NBA players Larry Friend and George Yardley to give the team instant credibility. The idea backfired and the Jets did not last the season.

In Cleveland, Steinbrenner's coach was the legendary John McLendon, who became the first African-American coach of a major pro basketball team. McLendon had several of his star players from Tennessee State such as John Barnhill and Ben Warley, plus several former Akron Wingfoots, such as Johnny Cox and Jimmy Darrow, who had won the AAU National Championship the year before. McLendon chafed at Steinbrenner's interference and quit in midseason. Steinbrenner immediately named Sharman, from the recently defunct Jets, as his coach, and the Pipers won the 1961 ABL title. The Tuck Tapers were placed in Washington after years in New York as an NABL team, but soon returned to New York in midseason. Despite good attendance in several cities, the league had more problems prior to year two. Steinbrenner signed All-American Jerry Lucas to a contract, planning to use the move to force his way into the NBA. The gambit worked, but the ABL sued to block the move, and as a result Steinbrenner had a team and no league. Instead of returning to the ABL, Steinbrenner folded his tent. This chicanery masked a series of other ABL moves. The Hawaii Chiefs drew well, but other teams felt the air travel was just too expensive. The Chiefs relocated in Long Beach, as Saperstein was bound and determined to create havoc for the Lakers. San Francisco escaped head-to-head competition with the newly relocated Warriors by heading to Oakland. Paul Cohen, who secretly owned the Pittsburgh team as well as officially owning the Tapers, moved the Tapers again from New York, where they had been an NABL powerhouse for years, to Philadelphia, where he hoped to fill the void of the shocking move of the Warriors (with Wilt Chamberlain) from Philadelphia to San Francisco.

The multiple radical changes, combined with uneven attendance (although some teams, such as the Kansas City Steers, drew well), and no fresh capital from new owners, caused Saperstein and Cohen to decide to throw in the towel with the close of 1962 on December 31. Just like that, the league that pioneered the three point shot and the wider foul line (both eventually adopted by the rest of the basketball world) was gone. The Philadelphia Tapers, Kansas City Steers, Hawaii Chiefs, Cleveland Pipers and even the Los Angeles Jets after a time all came back and returned to their NABL roots, where they continue to this day as AAU Elite teams.

TOP ABL Players included Johnny Cox, Larry Friend, Bill Spivey, Roger Kaiser, Jeff Cohen, George Yardley, Larry Siegfried, Ben Warley, Connie Dierking, Bill Bridges, Win Wilfong, Gene Conley, Gene Tormohlen, Fred Sawyer, Bevo Francis, Maurice King (basketball player), Nick Romanoff, Charlie Tyra, Sylvester 'Cy' Blye, Roger Taylor, Rick Herrscher, Frank Burgess, Dick Brott, Archie Dees, Larry Swift, Lee Harman, Phil Wilcox, Connie Hawkins, Bruce Spraggins, and Larry Comley.