'Soul Power': How the American Basketball Association Revolutionized the Game Forever
Go back in time inside the league that established the 3-point shot and All-Star games
There are major sports memories that never leave you—for some, a championship game, a player, a draft pick. For me, it’s the memories of playing basketball in the alley with a child’s recreation of the rim with old wood and plastic crates and the dream of being a basketball player.
Prime Video’s 4-part docuseries Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association is both a history lesson and an emotional time machine. According to Amazon MGM Studios, the series is the “first definitive docuseries about the American Basketball Association,” chronicling the league’s birth in 1967 and the 9 chaotic, revolutionary seasons that forced the NBA to take notice.
Executive produced by Common, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Todd Lieberman, George Karl, and Kenan Kamwana Holley—who also serves as the director—Soul Power explores the players and the time that changed basketball forever. And there is no better time than Black History Month than to formally document and celebrate the ABA.
If you grew up on loving basketball, Soul Power will leave you breathless.
Before streaming and YouTube highlights were in the palms of our hands, there were DVDs, radio, and late-night sports highlights with grainy footage that had everyone glued to their TVs. And if you grew up in the 90s, you knew the likes of those from AND1 mixtapes, Rucker Park legends, and the frenzy surrounding new NBA Live and future NBA games on gaming systems.
Even then, basketball wasn’t just a sport—it was a lifestyle.
From pick-up games to the latest shoes, we copied everyone from Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Steve Kerr, Dennis Rodman, Shawn Kemp, and even the street legends who made the game feel limitless—Philip “Hot Sauce” Champion, Rafer “Skip to My Lou” Alston, and Nancy “Lady Magic” Lieberman, the First Lady of Rucker Park.
And Soul Power makes it extremely clear: none of those we idolize would have the platform they have to inspire us if not for the pioneers of the ABA.
Soul Power is the story of a league and of players who were bold enough to challenge the giant that was the NBA—constantly watching and innovating their play and their practices, ultimately changing the sport forever.
The series explores how the ABA paved the way for:
3-point shot system
The slam dunk contest
Teams that historically franchised into the NBA (Nets, Spurs, Nuggets, Pacers)
Opportunities for women in sports and sports business
A generation of men who would go down in basketball history
Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Spencer Haywood, George Gervin, Rick Barry, and George Karl lend their time and memories to the series, recounting every obstacle and inequity they faced in demanding respect from a league that considered them substandard.
It was through that lens that ignited the players in the ABA to do something extraordinary—leaning into everything that made their game better:
Flavor.
Flashiness.
Autonomy.
During a time where basketball players were looked at as mere entertainment spectacles, the air of “just shut up and play basketball” felt by the NBA, the ABA responded with with a counter they could no longer ignore:
You will notice us. And you will respect our game.
One of the more powerful elements that Soul Power explores is basketball through a historical context. Founded during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the ABA was one of the first truly racially integrated institutions in the U.S. This was no longer just basketball history. This was American history.
The ABA created a space for Black athletes to express their individuality, personality, exceptional skill that colored outside the confines of the NBA, and agency in ways that still echo in all sports even today. As the legends in the series recount these pivotal moments—the excitement, the defiance, the disappointment, and the joy—you can feel how this era isn’t just an era for them. It’s a lifetime.
The product of their courage, bravery, and brotherhood led to the increase of women’s interest in the sport—not just as fans but as business women in the career. Ellie Brown, owner of the Kentucky Colonels, created an all female board member team for the Colonels and innovated marketing efforts to get the community invested in the team. This level of commitment to the success of a franchise continues to live on in basketball today. Their bold display of passion and pushing their creativity to the brink paved the way not just women to participate, but created an avenue for empowerment for new league creation—like Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart launching Unrivaled, a league created for women in the WNBA to earn year-round income and equity ownership.
This collective effort and empowerment proves that what everyone contributed to the ABA did can never be undone. They had the passion to challenge a giant and, in the long run, it paid off.
Soul Power doesn’t just detail a league. It celebrates a movement that reshaped and mobilized professional sports forever. That’s not just basketball. That’s power.
Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association premieres Thursday, February 12, on Prime Video. Check out the trailer below.
© Kivonshe | So There’s That
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