Wow, what a sobering final episode, many poignant emotional moments in there - including the last hoorah of the ABA, the epic comeback the Nets had against the Nuggets in Game 6 in 1976.
It’s really a shame the ABA didn’t have the marketing machine or the TV deals the NBA did. The ABA looked it had a fantastic product, just had a litany of financial problems, hence teams asking to join the NBA and others folding.
As a Bulls fan, I didn’t know my favorite team was the one that killed the Kentucky Colonels just to get Artis Gilmore, to block the Colonels from joining, but the Colonels got their flowers in this documentary, especially the 1975 Championship team. If the NBA ever expands into Kentucky, I hope the Colonels name is brought back, just as I hope the Sonics are brought back to Seattle.
The showing of the 1976-77 NBA season showed how many of the former ABA players excelled after the merger, including the Doc. And the Nets being strapped for cash led to them having to sell Dr. J to Philly.
I loved seeing the footage of the first dunk contest. That’s back when stars competed, whereas the only person in this year’s dunk contest I’d ever even heard of was Jaxson Hayes.
What really hurt and upset me was seeing how many ABA players were out of a job after the merger AND the NBA didn’t give these veterans a pension until nearly 50 years later. That’s criminal, and that Sam Smith photo was heartbreaking. Now, the NBA should incorporate ABA stats, just as MLB has done with the Negro Leagues.
What I took from Soul Power is the ABA was a progressive league, it depicted not just the sport, but society at the time, some of the same challenges society is going through now. It was a forward thinking league - young owners, women in charge, integration and acceptance, with real, true talent and actually beloved teams like the Colonels who had a big fanbase despite being blocked from joining the NBA.
I thought Common did an outstanding job narrating the series, and the fact his dad played in the ABA was a very nice touch.
You can’t tell me the ABA was an inferior league. It had financial troubles and struggles with marketing and TV deals, but the Warriors didn’t want to play the Colonels. Dr. K, Skywalker, McGinnis, Haywood, Mel Daniels, A-Train, Issel, Gervin, Moses, Secretary of Defense - those names alone showed they could play. Moses and Dr. J went on to lead one of the best teams in NBA history in the 1982-83 76ers. And the fact that ABA teams won many exhibition games against NBA teams shows they could play.
I especially loved what Common said that went David went against Goliath won, but for Goliath to beat David, he had to become David.
Praises
- Presentation, narration, remastering of footage were top notch.
- Dr. J was a producer and an all-time great, but while a lot of the series touched on him, it wasn’t all about him.
- It was very informative. It did a fantastic job showing how forward-thinking the ABA was, portraying society at the time, but all the ways the ABA changed the game - 3-pointers, dunking amidst the Lew Alcindor Rule, women in charge, young people in charge, the dunk contest, drafting underclassmen, drafting high schoolers. A lot of these impacted the game for decades that continue today, or while high schoolers can’t be drafted at the moment, LeBron is still playing, and the impact high schoolers went on to make, it shows how forward-thinking the ABA was, and how much it worked and proved people wrong. I had no idea Larry O’Brien’s office was victimized during Watergate.
Criticisms
- The Utah Stars won the ABA Championship in 1971, yet as thorough as this series was, for all it covered in just four episodes, it barely even acknowledged the Stars.
- The documentary did a fantastic job of touching on so many greats - Dr. J, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, David Thompson, Spencer Haywood, Rick Barry, Moses Malone, Dan Issel, Bobby Jones, yet why did this documentary show so little love to Mel Daniels? The Pacers won three ABA Championships in four years, with Mel Daniels being a two-time ABA MVP, seven-time All-Star, four-time First-Team All-ABA, yet Soul Power didn’t give Mel Daniels nearly enough love. Billy Paultz, though arguably one of the better players not in the Hall of Fame, seemingly got acknowledged more than Mel Daniels did.
- The documentary inferred to Spencer Haywood being the first pro basketball player to win an MVP as a rookie, though Wes Unseld won the NBA MVP his rookie year before Spencer Haywood’s rookie year in the ABA and Wilt Chamberlain also won the MVP his first year in the NBA.
Conclusions
This series did an outstanding job portraying what happened on the court, off the court, the highs and the lows of the ABA, showing how the ABA changed the game and how ahead of its time it was. It evoked a range of emotions, one I would recommend you watch if you have Prime.
I give it an A, 9/10.
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