The Birth of Freaky-Deeky

Forty-one years ago today, the American Basketball Association officially came into being with a press conference at the Summit Hotel in New York. Obviously, given the historical implications for the future of basketball, this was an important affair, but it was also important for all sorts of reasons crucial to the A.B.A.'s future in the moment, not the least of which was the initiative and authority shown by the league's commissioner, George Mikan, in the face of the incipient chaos that would come to characterize the A.B.A. both on the court and off. Here's how league-founder Dennis Murphy described the press conference to Terry Pluto in Pluto's classic oral history of the league, Loose Balls:

George didn't agree to be commissioner until about 10 minutes before the start of the press conference we had set up at the Summit Hotel in New York to introduce the league to the media... and to George's credit, he saved the first press conference. We had about 50 media people there... The press conference was Connie Seredin's idea and it was heavy on schmaltz. We had stars like Frank Gifford there. We had girls in hot pants handing out drinks and press releases. We gave away red, white and blue basketballs. But the thing also started to look like a zoo and we were going to get ripped in the press. George sensed we could be in trouble. He said, "This is all a bunch of crap. I'm gonna get up there and run this show." That's exactly what he did... I'm convinced that we would have died at that first press conference without him. Let's face it, when a guy who was the greatest basketball player of his era, a guy who is a successful businessman and a guy who is 6'10" with the charisma of Mikan stood up and spoke, people listened.