The American Basketball League played one full season, 1961–1962, and approximately one-third of the next season until the league folded on December 31, 1962. The ABL was the first basketball league to have a three-point field goal for shots attempted from longer distance. Other rules that set the league apart from the National Basketball Association (NBA) were a 30-second shot clock, as opposed to 24, and a wider free throw lane of 18 feet instead of the NBA's then-standard 12; the NBA would later expand their free throw lane to 16 feet (a couple of feet shorter than the ABL's free throw lane) a few years later in 1964, partially as a means of preventing the dominance of center play there, which is still in use to this day.

Formation The league was formed when Harlem Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein was not awarded the Los Angeles NBA franchise he felt he had been promised in return for his years of supporting the NBA with doubleheader games featuring his highly popular Trotters.

When Minneapolis Lakers owner Bob Short was permitted to move the Lakers to Los Angeles, Saperstein reacted by convincing National Alliance of Basketball Leagues (NABL) team owner Paul Cohen (Tuck Tapers) and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Champion Cleveland Pipers owner George Steinbrenner to take the top NABL and AAU teams and players and form a rival league.

Saperstein had been secretly planning the new league since 1959 but it is unclear whether he would have abandoned these plans had he been granted the NBA franchise. In reality, Saperstein and Cohen each secretly made arrangements with local promoters in the other cities to finance those teams so there would be an eight-team league. The eight teams would be separated into two divisions: the East Division (originally hosting the Chicago Majors, Cleveland Pipers, Pittsburgh Rens, and Washington Tapers) and the West Division (hosting the Hawaii Chiefs, Kansas City Steers, Los Angeles Jets, and San Francisco Saints).

Saperstein placed the Los Angeles Jets to take on the transplanted Lakers. He got Bill Sharman as coach and signed former NBA players Larry Friend and George Yardley to give the team instant credibility. The idea backfired; the Jets did not last the season.

George Steinbrenner In Cleveland, Steinbrenner's coach was John McLendon, who became the first African-American coach of a major pro basketball team. He was hired by Pipers' general manager, Mike Cleary, later the Executive Director of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. McLendon had several of his star players from Tennessee State such as John Barnhill and Ben Warley, plus several former Akron Wingfoots, such as Johnny Cox and Jimmy Darrow, who had won the AAU National Championship the year before. In a game against the Hawaii Chiefs, Steinbrenner sold player Grady McCollum to the Chiefs at halftime. McLendon chafed at Steinbrenner's interference and quit in midseason, following the team's return from playing in Hawaii. Steinbrenner immediately named Sharman, from the recently defunct Jets, as his coach, and the Pipers went on to win the only ABL title in the league's brief history.

Jerry Lucas Steinbrenner signed All-American Jerry Lucas to a contract worth $40,000. With the Lucas signing, Steinbrenner had a secret deal with NBA commissioner Maurice Podoloff. The Pipers would merge with the Kansas City Steers and join the NBA. A schedule was printed for the 1963–64 NBA season with the Pipers playing the New York Knicks in the first game. The gambit worked, but the ABL sued to block the move, and as a result Steinbrenner had a team and no league. Instead of returning to the ABL, Steinbrenner folded his tent.

Relocation The Hawaii Chiefs drew well, but other teams felt the cost of air travel was prohibitive, resulting in scheduling that saw the Eastern teams playing all of their games in Hawaii within a 5-6 day period and vice versa. After that first season, the Chiefs relocated to Long Beach, California. The San Francisco Saints escaped head-to-head competition with the newly relocated San Francisco Warriors by heading to Oakland. Paul Cohen, who secretly owned the Pittsburgh team as well as officially owning the Tapers, moved the Tapers again from New York, where they had been an NABL powerhouse for years, to Philadelphia, where he hoped to fill the void of the move of the Warriors (with Wilt Chamberlain) from Philadelphia to San Francisco.

The radical changes, combined with uneven attendance (although some teams, such as the Kansas City Steers, drew well), and no fresh capital from new owners, caused Saperstein and Cohen to decide to throw in the towel with the close of 1962 on December 31. The league that pioneered the three-point shot and the wider foul line (both eventually adopted by the rest of the basketball world) was gone. After the ABL folded, Steinbrenner had $125,000 in debts and personal losses of $2 million.

Teams Chicago Majors (1961–62, 1962–63) Cleveland Pipers (1961–62) Kansas City Steers (1961–62, 1962–63) Long Beach Chiefs (1962–63 as Hawaii Chiefs in 1961–62) Los Angeles Jets (1961–62, disbanded during season) Oakland Oaks (1962–63 as San Francisco Saints in 1961–62) Philadelphia Tapers (1962–63, as Washington Tapers in 1961–62; moved to New York during 1961–62 season; as New York Tapers in 1961–62) Pittsburgh Rens (1961–62, 1962–63)

Champions Year Winner Result Runner-up 1961–62 Cleveland Pipers 3–2 Kansas City Steers 1962–63 Kansas City Steers declared champions

Notable players List of ABL players:

Jack Adams Dick Barnett Sylvester "Sy" Blye Bucky Bolyard Bill Bridges Frank Burgess Jeff Cohen Kelly Coleman Gene Conley Johnny Cox Connie Dierking Bevo Francis Connie Hawkins Tony Jackson Roger Kaiser Maurice King Herb Lee Walt Mangham Nick Mantis Phil Rollins Fred Sawyer Ken Sears Larry Siegfried Bill Spivey Bruce Spraggins Larry Staverman John F. Sullivan Dan Swartz Roger Taylor Gene Tormohlen Herschell Turner Ben Warley Win Wilfong George Yardley Wayne Yates

Drafts During the new ABL's existence, Abe Saperstein and the league would compete with the NBA by creating their own draft system against the NBA draft system of that era in time. They would only have two whole ABL drafts to work with during their existence before prematurely shutting down the league in 1962.

1961 ABL draft The inaugural ABL draft took place at Chicago, Illinois on March 19, 1961, over a week before the 1961 NBA draft began. The ABL proved to be a helpful alternative for some players that had been implicated in the 1961 NCAA University Division men's basketball gambling scandal (as well as the 1951 college basketball point-shaving scandal in the case of Bill Spivey), as a select few players like Tony Jackson and Connie Hawkins (who would not be drafted there, but would sign up with the ABL following this draft) would manage to see professional playing time they otherwise wouldn't have due to their bans from the NBA at the time. Outside of those players, however, the ABL would see scant success from this year’s draft with the players they got, as a vast majority of players would sign with the NBA instead if they weren't banned from that league already. Outside of that, only the territorial selections for this year (which every team got two of this year) were officially recorded for each team. While every team got enough picks to showcase entire, proper teams, no known round records were officially held during that period of time, though it was known that Rafer Johnson was drafted in what could technically be considered the first round of that draft (even though he's officially considered to be a territorial pick) by the Los Angeles Jets and he would go into the 1956 & 1960 Summer Olympics for the decathlon.

Territorial Picks

Chicago Majors Hank Whitney, Iowa State University Don Kojis, Marquette University Cleveland Pipers Larry Siegfried, Ohio State University Walt Bellamy, Indiana University Hawaii Chiefs Frank Burgess, Gonzaga University Dave Mills, Seattle University Kansas City Steers Bob Nordmann, St. Louis University Charlie Henke, University of Missouri Los Angeles Jets Rafer Johnson, University of California, Los Angeles Gary Phillips, University of Houston Pittsburgh Rens Tom Stith, St. Bonaventure University Jack Egan, St. Joseph's College San Francisco Saints Tom Meschery, St. Mary's College of California Bill McClintock, University of California Washington Tapers Doug Moe, University of North Carolina Roger Kaiser, Georgia Institute of Technology

Additional Selections

Chicago Majors Howie Carl, DePaul University Jack Turner, University of Louisville Fred Sawyer, University of Louisville John Wessels, University of Illinois John Tidwell, University of Michigan Bill Crosby, University of Notre Dame Tom Lewis, Wake Forest College Carl Cole, Eastern Kentucky State College Stanley Niewierowski, North Carolina State College Sam Barnard, Iowa State University Joe Scott, University of Missouri Ron Zagar, University of Iowa Skip Wolfe, Memphis State University Jim Kowalke, University of Nebraska

Cleveland Pipers Ned Jennings, University of Kentucky Rossie Johnson, Tennessee A&I University George Finley, Tennessee A&I University Art Werts, Tennessee A&I University Richie Hoyt, Ohio State University Tom Chilton, East Tennessee State College Bunk Adams, Ohio University Bob Wiesenhahn, University of Cincinnati Bob Pawlak, Toledo University Phil Dubensky, University of Dayton Ed Auzenbergs, Columbia University

Hawaii Chiefs Jeff Cohen, College of William & Mary Doug Kistler, Duke University Chris Smith, University of Virginia Karl Anderson, Oregon State University Bill Depp, Vanderbilt University Max Perry, Utah State University Dale Wise, University of Evansville Jim Altenhofen, University of Portland Rollie Williams, University of Idaho Dave Eastis, Brigham Young University John Tulley, University of Notre Dame Albert Almanza, University of Texas Lowery Kirk, Memphis State University Dave Kissinger, Hardin–Simmons University

Kansas City Steers Bill Bridges, University of Kansas Cedrick Price, Kansas State University Glen Mankowski, St. Louis University David Voss, Temple University Larry Swift, Northeast Missouri State Teachers College Dick Kepley, University of North Carolina Whitey Martin, St. Bonaventure University Clyde Rhoden, University of Arkansas Don Jacobson, University of South Dakota Bob McDonald, University of Maryland Jerry Graves, Mississippi State University Dick Hickox, University of Miami, Florida Wayne Clark, University of Texas

Los Angeles Jets Bill Engesser, Los Angeles State College Bill Heymen, Los Angeles State College Leo Hill, Los Angeles State College Bill Ellis, University of California, Los Angeles Wayne Yates, Memphis State University York Larese, University of North Carolina Al Butler, Niagara University Clint Names, University of Washington Bill Lickert, University of Kentucky Al Saunders, Bradley University Jim Ritchie, West Virginia University Tom Grissom, North Texas State University

Pittsburgh Rens Tony Jackson, St. John's University Bob Slobodnik, Duquesne University Ned Twyman, Duquesne University John Fridley, University of Pittsburgh Dick Falenski, University of Pittsburgh Lee Patrone, West Virginia University Mark DuMars, Penn State University Ron Heller, Municipal University of Wichita Fred Moses, Oklahoma City University George Patterson, Toledo University Ron Godfrey, University of Miami, Florida Roger Brooks, Indiana State College Ernie Fields, Penn State University Don Black, University of Massachusetts Bob DiStefano, North Carolina State College Bob Ayersman, Virginia Polytechnic Institute Tom Booker, University of Richmond Pete Chudy, Syracuse University Jim Galicki, Toledo University

San Francisco Saints Stan Morrison, University of California Earl Shultz, University of California John Berberich, University of California, Los Angeles