By: Debadrita Ghosh Image credit: NBA & Twitter
This month the NBA sent its first round of checks to former players of the American Basketball Association.
After years of agitation by Dropping Dimes, a non-profit organization, the NBA and National Basketball Players came to an agreement in July to pay former ABA players $24.5 million.
As per the agreement the players are paid an average of $3,828 per annum as long as they were in the league. For example, a player with 3 seasons receives $11,484, a year.
The agreement as noted by Dana Hunsinger Benbow resulted in a legal dispute between the NBA and Dropping Dimes.
The Dropping Dimes claimed that these ABA players set the standard for the modern NBA game's frantic pace, flashy style with 3-point shots, with an emphasis on slam dunk competition. Due to such reasons, they deserved a pension.
In order to qualify for "recognition payments", not pensions, the NBA determined that 115 players who had spent 3 or more years in the ABA or had played in both ABA and NBA were eligible.
The former player’s reaction to the payments was described by Scott Tartar, the president and co-founder of Dropping Dimes. They all gathered around asking together, "What the hell?" Tartar called the timing "a Christmas miracle".
These checks were substantially bigger than most people had anticipated which took the players by surprise.
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