{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"129: ABA Basketball's Origin Story \u2013 With Founder Dennis Murphy","description":"The American Basketball Association was not founder Dennis Murphy\u2019s original intent.  Thwarted in his attempt to get the fast-growing city of Anaheim, CA (he was mayor of nearby Buena Park) into the fledgling American Football League during the mid-1960s, Murphy quickly pivoted his attention to basketball \u2013 reasoning that with only 12 teams in the staid, yet long-established National Basketball Association, there surely must have been room for more. \u201cWhat the hell,\u201d Murphy told author Terry Pluto in his seminal 1990 oral history Loose Balls.  \u201cThe AFL had worked, hadn't it?  Maybe we could force a merger with the NBA." By the end of the ABA\u2019s ninth season in 1976, Murphy\u2019s unwitting prescience had become reality \u2013 and along with it, a validating blueprint for how to modernize professional sports in North America. The legendarily inveterate sports entrepreneur  (Murph: The Sports Entrepreneur Man and His Leagues) joins the podcast to discuss how the iconically idiosyncratic ABA got started, as well as hints of how other future pursuits \u2013 like the World Hockey Association, World Team Tennis, the World Football League, and Roller Hockey International \u2013 would similarly come to be.  Check out Warby Parker \u2013 whose exclusive Home Try-On program is the free, no obligation way to select high-quality eyeglass frames in the convenience of your own home!  Go to warbyparker.com\/GOODSEATS to take the simple quiz and find the perfect pair(s) for you! ","author_name":"Good Seats Still Available","author_url":"https:\/\/goodseatsstillavailable.com","html":"