Ginoong Kamote: 'NBA at 50: 1970s The NBA vs. the ABA'

Source:Ginoong Kamote- the NBA finally seeing competition in professional basketball with the ABA.

"The American Basketball Association also succeeded in signing a number of major stars, including Julius Erving, in part because it allowed teams to sign college undergraduates. The NBA expanded rapidly during this period, one purpose being to tie up the most viable cities. From 1966 to 1974, the NBA grew from nine franchises to 18; the New Orleans Jazz (now in Utah) came aboard in 1974. Then, following the 1976 season, the leagues reached a settlement that provided for the addition of four ABA franchises to the NBA, raising the number of franchises in the league at that time to 22. The franchises were the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and New York Nets. Some of the biggest stars of this era were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rick Barry, Dave Cowens, Julius Erving, Walt Frazier, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, Dan Issel and Pete Maravich." 

From Ginoong Kamote 

This might sound strange, but I don't think the National Basketball Association survives the 1970s without the American Basketball Association providing the competition that it did and taking players and coaches with them and even forcing the NBA to change it's style and modernize it's game. 

A lot of times competition can destroy a traditional business that's already established, because the new game in town (so to speak) is better and fresher and the establishment product is not able to adjust and goes out of business. But the ABA actually made the NBA better by forcing it to compete and improve its product to the point that they generally merged and the ABA became part of the NBA. Which was probably the ABA's original goal anyway.