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Loose Balls
- Narrated by: Bo Foxworth, Jack Garrett, William Harper, Michael McConnohie, J. D. Jackson, P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 20 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Sports & Outdoors, Basketball
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Summary
What do Julius Erving, Larry Brown, Moses Malone, Bob Costas, the Indiana Pacers, the San Antonio Spurs and the Slam Dunk Contest have in common? They all got their professional starts in the American Basketball Association.
The NBA may have won the financial battle, but the ABA won the artistic war. With its stress on wide-open individual play, the adoption of the 3-point shot and pressing defense, and the encouragement of flashy moves and flying dunks, today's NBA is still -- decades later -- just the ABA without the red, white and blue ball.
Loose Balls is, after all these years, the definitive and most widely respected history of the ABA. It's a wild ride through some of the wackiest, funniest, strangest times ever to hit pro sports -- told entirely through the (often incredible) words of those who played, wrote and connived their way through the league's nine seasons.
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What listeners say about Loose Balls
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Me & My Girls
- 20-06-13
Memories for the middle aged male
I grew up in North Carolina in the early seventies and I was occasionally able to watch the Carolina Cougars. The ABA was a freewheeling league, where a lot of weird things happened; and the game appeared to be a lotta fun; both for the fans and the players. I watched the game where George McGinnis set a new rebounding record by banging the ball of the rim and backboard and catching it a few times. I can still remember the voice of the Cougars; Bob Laney of WSOC-AM doing the play-by-play as I lay in my room on the bottom bunk at night while my little brother slept in the top bunk.
When I originally listened to this book the narrator was horrible, now there are several different voices telling the story and when they quote the players, coaches, executives of the league it even sounds like them. There are limits to how relevant some of the information is since this book was originally published in 1990. The changes in the world , not to mention the world of professional basketball have been legion in the last 30 years. If you're a hard-core fan of the ABA; or a fan of old school hoops from the seventies; this will probably be an excellent listen for you. For those who weren't even alive during the time of the ABA it is a look back at a world that might be hard to conceive of in today's sports climate. It was a mirror as to what the sport would become; The 3 point shot began there as did the original slam dunk contest. The league was years ahead of the NBA in promoting stars instead of teams, and focusing on providing the fans a show if not always great basketball. So like the fans of this mostly forgotten league did back in the day, sit back and enjoy.
9 people found this helpful
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- Trin
- 27-07-21
Interesting Read
This is a very well researched and interesting book. I did not realize how much the NBA tool from the ABA.
I also did not realize how many great players came rom the ABA.
1 person found this helpful
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- thom karmik
- 09-02-22
Good Book, Embarrassing Audio Presentation
A book that should have been perfect for audio, but this is the worst audio performance of a book I have ever purchased. Mispronounced names throughout, horrrible attempts at accents. Whoever produced this should be embarrassed.
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- K. Taylor
- 14-01-22
Great Memories of My Childhood in the 70’s
I grew up in Indiana following the Pacers and then Dr. J. I had not heard all these player’s names in decades. Really great to relive this era of pro basketball and get such a detailed behind the scenes perspective.
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- Anonymous User
- 13-01-22
Fun and Entertaining
I vaguely remember the ABA having come of age as a hoops fan shortly after the merger. Accordingly, i do remember guys like George Gervin, Dr J and other less legendary players like Billy Paultz. My perception of the ABA at that time was that it was a wildcat league of rebels and free spirits. This book kind of backs that up. I found it to be a fun experience with one amusing story after the other. I also found myself looking up a lot of the players I never saw play and reading about their accomplishments. It was well done and while there’s an occasional faux pas in the pronunciation of various names, it’s not a big deal to me and I didn’t find it distracting. Very enjoyable and fun to sit through.
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- JIM HOWELL
- 09-12-21
Extremely comprehensive look back
Any diehard basketball fan should listen to this. So much history, and so much information about how today’s NBA really got kick-started. Only drawback - although it will be downright hilarious for those listeners that knew the right way to say them - was the massive amount of botched pronunciations of ABA players’ names. And the easiest one was the one they never got right: Larry KEE-nehn. Spurs’ fans will be yelling at their app! (The Dave DeBusschere attempts are pretty funny, too.)
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- Eric Bynum
- 05-11-21
has a lot of interesting stories
interesting stories but not a huge fan of the format. over all a good listen though.
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- Kate
- 31-10-21
A slog of a listen
There is no narrative structure to this. The author truly went for an oral history in this book, to underscore the belief that there is little documentation of the history of the ABA and we have to rely on personal testimonials and hearsay. Some was interesting. Mostly it was a chore. The problem is this is a long narration of nothing but disjointed quotes and comments. I argue this isn’t a book without any cohesive narrative tying things together. This is someone’s research notes loosely organized.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-07-21
great book
really enjoyed the story telling. it was a fun listen to book. i liked it
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- Bert Wright
- 01-07-21
One of the best sports books.
Incredible, entertaining, and unbelievable story of the ABA. Crazy innocent times and Pluto captures that aura through meticulous interviews and prose. The audio disappointment is the countless mispronunciations of player names. Isn’t there someone who polices/reviews the performances prior to publication? That being said, I didn’t want this to end.