‘Soul Power’ revisits the ABA’s lasting impact on the NBA

Basketball did not always look this free. Or this loud. Or this fun.

Before the NBA loosened its tie and learned to smile, there was the Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association. Prime Video’s four-part series, which debuted Feb. 12, tells the story of the league that forced the NBA to evolve, whether it wanted to or not.

This is not nostalgia. It is context. And if you enjoy the modern game even a little, it is required viewing.

The NBA would not be what it is today without the American Basketball Association.

The three-point line, the dunk contest, and the league’s emphasis on creativity and personality all trace back to the ABA, a challenger league that made basketball joyful when the NBA still felt stiff.

Executive produced by Julius Erving and George Karl, Soul Power uses interviews and archival footage to chart the ABA’s rise, its financial chaos, and its eventual merger with the NBA in 1976.

The league may have disappeared, but its fingerprints are everywhere.

This was not just a different league. It was a different lifestyle. The ABA leaned into fashion, fast breaks, and flair, while the NBA was still leaning conservative.

One look at Larry Brown on the sideline in denim overalls tells you everything you need to know.

At the center of it all is Dr. J. Julius Erving was the face of the league, the first superstar to truly take the game above the rim.

The series digs into why he mattered, why teams chased him, and how his presence helped push the merger forward.

The most affecting moments, though, belong to Spencer Haywood. His journey from growing up as the son of a Mississippi sharecropper to becoming a star and a legal trailblazer is both fascinating and heartbreaking. His reflections carry real weight.

There is no shortage of legends throughout. Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, Rick Barry, Moses Malone.

One of the more surprising highlights comes from Bob Costas, who recounts his early days as the 22-year-old voice of the Spirits of St. Louis and a near-disastrous on-air moment that somehow slipped by in the 1970s.

Only four ABA franchises still exist today. The Nuggets, Pacers, Nets, and Spurs. The rest faded away, including the Kentucky Colonels, Virginia Squires, and Spirits of St. Louis. Their influence, however, did not fade with them.

The series also gives overdue recognition to figures like Ellie Brown Moore, who became the first woman to own a professional basketball team when she purchased the Colonels in 1973.

She later appointed the first all-female board of directors in pro sports history and helped stabilize the franchise financially.

“They were able to develop something really special,” Gilmore says in the series.

He is right.

Soul Power is not just about what the ABA was. It is about why the NBA looks the way it does now. And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.