USA TODAY International Edition
NBA in discussions to help former ABA players
INDIANAPOLIS – More than 100 remaining American Basketball Association players, many battling financial hardship and in desperate need of pensions to pay for everyday expenses such as rent and medical care, might soon get help from the NBA.
The NBA told IndyStar on Tuesday night it is working with Dropping Dimes Foundation, an Indianapolisbased organization that helps struggling ABA players. Dropping Dimes for years has been attempting to get the NBA to provide pensions to those players.
“We are in discussions with the Dropping Dimes Foundation on this issue,” said Tim Frank, senior vice president, league operations communications. Frank did not elaborate further, but it’s the first time the NBA has spoken publicly on the issue.
“It’s our hope at the Dropping Dimes Foundation that they actually follow through with this for the sake of so many wonderful guys out there who have been waiting for a long time,” said Scott Tarter, co- founder of Dropping Dimes.
The NBA’s statement comes after an IndyStar story, also published in USA TODAY, earlier Tuesday that revealed as many as 80% of the remaining ABA players who are destitute are Black. Those players said they feel like the NBA has let them fall through the cracks.
The ABA was founded in 1967 to compete with the NBA and adopted a faster- paced style of play.
When the ABA disbanded in 1976, merging with the NBA, four of its 11 teams were absorbed by the NBA – the Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, New York Nets and San Antonio Spurs.
The players on the other ABA teams were left hanging. No pension, salaries shut off, health insurance gone.
NBA players have had a pension plan since 1965. Any player with at least three years of service in the league is eligible for a monthly payment and access to other benefits, such as lifelong health care coverage, a college tuition reimbursement program and more.
Many of the ABA players never got to the NBA after the merger. Some did, but played only a year or two. Without those three years of service, it doesn’t matter how much they contributed to the ABA. They are left without that payout.
Nearly 80% of the players Dropping Dimes helps are Black. Eighteen men on the organization’s pension list have died in the past two years; 13 of them were Black.
Those players made the NBA game what it is today and they deserve something for that, Tarter said.
Dropping Dimes has done sophisticated calculations. If the NBA agrees to help the 108 remaining ABA players with the minimum $ 400 a month, it would cost the NBA $ 1.8 million a year.
The remaining ABA players range in age from 68 to 84. The average male life expectancy is early 70s.
“These guys are dying very quickly and they are not going to be around much longer,” Tarter said. “It’s not a callous thing to say. It’s important to recognize.
“That $ 1.8 million? The NBA won’t even need to fund 10 years from now.”