The four-part docuseries, directed by Kenan Kamwana Holley, is now streaming on Prime Video.

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s been 50 years since the American Basketball Association merged with the National Basketball Association in 1976. 

“Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association” is a four-part docuseries that explores the nine-year run of the ABA and its legacy on the game of basketball today.

“The ABA is one of those things I thought I knew about but didn’t know about it all,” said Emmy-winning director Kenan Kamwana Holley (“30 for 30,”). “This has been a pleasure to get to jump into the deep waters of sports, of a new sports story that’s coming from 50 years ago.”

The ABA introduced the 3-point shot and All-Star Game slam dunk competition, along with competing alongside the NBA teams.

“The ABA was so full of talent by the 1970 season, 1971, they were better than the NBA overall. You can look at the stats from those games, those last two years of the league, they beat the NBA more than the NBA beat them, and that blew me away,” Holley said. 

ABA legends Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Larry Brown, Spencer Haywood, George Gervin, Rick Barry and Bob Costas are interviewed throughout the docuseries to share their take on the league.

“They had so much love for the brotherhood. We went to Indianapolis and we met with Bob Netolicky, and we met with Freddie Lewis, and we met with all these guys who were incredible players, and thankfully, ‘Big George’ McGinnis was alive. We sat there and talked with him, and they had so much love for each other,” Holley said. “They said, ‘We were up against it. No one believed in us — not the media, not the press, not the NBA. Most of us got to the NBA because we were somehow being dissed by the other league or had some kind of trouble or something, so we loved each other.’ That revelation that these guys had never had this cultural mix before — it didn’t exist in America when they came together, as far as Black dudes and white dudes playing together on this level, on this scale — and coach George Karl summed it up: He said, ‘We got to know each other. First, we were feeling each other out. It became little friendships that became family.'”


Emmy, Grammy and Oscar winner Common narrates “Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association,” whose father, Lonnie Lynn, played in the ABA for four seasons.

“To have him get to look at the programs he’d never seen of his father, to get to watch the footage of his father’s teammates for the first time, you could see it resonating with him. Just as a person, just as someone being able to give that opportunity to another person, that was a beautiful thing to watch and get to connect with it,” Holley said of Common. “He’s such a soulful person that he actually named the series without realizing he did. He named the series just in his talking with us, and he and I were going back and forth, he started talking about the power of an individual soul, and that became the mantra for the crew for the rest of the production.”


While the Indiana Pacers have yet to win an NBA championship, they won three ABA titles in 1970, 1972 and 1973.

“One of the things that came through was when we spoke to Larry Brown, all he could talk about — he was the coach of the Denver Nuggets in the ABA — all he could talk about was the Indiana Pacers. When we spoke to Willie Wise — he’s a great two-way player — all he could talk about was the Indiana Pacers. We talked to George Gervin, all he could talk about was the Pacers, and they all said the same thing: ‘They’re a dynasty, a brotherhood.’ The way they flowed on the court, the way they played together, it was just beautiful to see,” Holley said.

“Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association” is now streaming on Prime Video.