Basketball in Argentina
Basketball was introduced in Argentina in 1912 by the "Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes" (Young Men's Christians Association – YCMA), with the first Federation created in 1921 to organise the competitions. In 1929, the Argentine Basketball Federation ("Confederación Argentina de Basketball") was established. The body currently controls the Argentina national team.
American Basketball Association
The ABA was conceived at a time stretching from 1960 through the mid-1970s when numerous upstart leagues were challenging, with varying degrees of success, the established major professional sports leagues in the United States. Basketball was seen as particularly vulnerable to a challenge; its major league, the National Basketball Association, was the youngest of the Big Four major leagues, having only played 21 seasons to that point, and was still fending off contemporary challenging leagues (it had been less than five years since the American Basketball League (ABL) shut down). According to one of the owners of the Indiana Pacers, its goal was to force a merger with the more established league. Potential investors were told that they could get an ABA team for half of what it cost to get an NBA expansion team at the time. When the merger occurred, ABA officials said their investment would more than double.