By ED ODEVEN
TOKYO (May 26, 2017)
First in a series
Editor’s note: Over the next few weeks, this website will features various articles about the NBA’s disgraceful treatment of former ABA players. The series-opening article features my interview with Allen Berrebbi, a Tampa-based tech entrepreneur, who wants to see his campaign go viral. Upcoming installments will include exclusive interviews with former ABA players, among others.
Fearless and passionate about raising awareness about the issue and building a social movement, Allen Berrebbi is taking the initiative to confront the NBA.
“The history of the NBA’s greed when it comes to paying and doing the right thing is long and sordid,” he tweeted.
In another Twitter missive, he wrote this: “Sign petition to tell Adam Silver and NBA to do the right thing. Please share.”
Here’s his petition:
Here’s Berrebbi’s explanation for his involvement in this issue.
“This issue has been bothering me for quite some time. The recognition and trademarks’ issues have been front and center for me for several years however the pension issue became known to me about 3-4 years ago, when I became friends with several players. I recognized the power of social media to raise awareness and would have liked to have planned a little better, but when I came to acquire a copy of the ‘kiss-off’ letter from the NBA, and after begging the players to cause their own storm, I had enough and started my campaign. I wanted this to hopefully come out during the playoffs, which is why it was rushed.
“Too many players are afraid of upsetting the NBA and the same with some wonderful people doing charity work on the players’ behalf. I could care less about pissing anyone off so here I am. These players are the founding fathers of the modern game, heck the Golden State Warriors owe them their very success, and they do nothing to not only pay them what is due, but acknowledge their place in history.
“NBA Cares is a joke, only caring about PR. Take some snapshots with some kids so you look good and sell more merchandise. Terrific. Or take a stance on politics to make you look like you care, again for popularity sake, but actually tell the NBA to take a little money out of everyone’s pocket to help the players who gave you all these opportunities and they are silent.
“For example, (NBA Players Association executive director) Michelle Roberts talked a big game, BEFORE. After they came up with a new CBA, she’s been just as quiet and ineffective as every other head of the players union. No one wants to upset the cart and their money train. Cowards, all of them.”
By reading the Retired ABA Players signed petition for benefits, which was sent to the NBA and NBPA early last month, one clearly sees that the NBA has done a great injustice to former ABA players for … decades. (This will be explained in greater clarity in upcoming articles, with background on the daily struggles of former ABA players, personalized stories and ample facts to explain how what’s addressed in the petition needs to enter the court of public opinion ASAP.)
Here’s the Retired ABA Players petition:
Petition without Tables 1-22 (1)
My interview with Berrebbi continues.
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What is your tie-in to the ABA? Were you a big fan during its years of competition?
Started as a fan, grew up loving the ABA and my old Nets as kid, often going to Nassau Coliseum to watch the Doctor (Julius Erving) operate, as well as my other fave, Super John Williamson. Big basketball fan, but as a lover of underdog, always preferred the ABA.
Did you meet many of the players over the years after the ABA ended and become personally interested in their plight (now) because of your relationships with them?
Yes. I have reached out over the years and been involved in some things that brought me into contact with many of them. I was briefly involved in the current “league” calling themselves the ABA; due to my thinking they were connected in some way (they’re not). I also got to become friends with many of the ABA Pacers when they invited me to be at the Roger Brown day in Indiana, through my reaching out to filmmaker Ted Green, who did a wonderful documentary http://tedgreenfilms.com/Film4.html on Roger.
Having drinks with the Pacers, I learned a lot of things. Some great and funny stories, but many heartbreaking things on what has become of some of these players who brought me such joy as a kid. I also reached out to the Dropping Dimes charity and offered to help in any way. Let me be very clear, however. While I have friends within the ABA players and care a great deal about the wonderful work the Dropping Dimes charity is doing and admire their board members a great deal, I am doing this completely 100 percent on my own.
In fact, I’ve received resistance about my actions as both the players and the charity want to continue to work with the NBA in a peaceful manner and don’t want to stir up trouble. Well to me, they’ve been nice far too long. I’ve begged them to do this for years and been stymied. But after catching the recent kiss-off letter from the NBA, I had enough and said I would do it with or without any help. I have made it very clear I am doing this strictly as an outraged super-fan.
How are you strategizing the tweets to publicize the campaign? Is it simply trying to keep repeating the same message often?
This came about very recently so it is not as well strategized as it would be if I had months to plan. But when yet another player (Skeeter Swift) died with no justice, plus the NBA’s kiss-off letter, I couldn’t wait anymore. Right now I’m hoping to repeat the message to the point of others taking the message and going viral with it.
How did you outline what you want the petition to become? Was there a lot of scribbling on paper and multiple drafts? Or a pretty straight-forward message to get people talking and thinking about the NBA’s stance on this issue? Is it moral outrage?
Yes, moral outrage for sure. And I’ve known in my heart what I want for the players from day one. First and foremost, they should be paid like any other player of that era. It was a MERGER and everyone knows what that means. And they were promised to be treated that way. Shame on the NBA for taking advantage of poor players, many of them uneducated in the ways of business, for their gain. However, speaking to the players confidentially, they would settle for even pre-1965 money, and cost of living increases. $300 lousy bucks per month, per year of eligibility.
The second thing I want, probably a lot more than the players themselves, is the trademarks of the ABA, outside of the four teams in the NBA now, to be given to the players so they can at the very least, hold on to their legacy without outsiders diminishing the brand and therefore the memory and history. For example, the more time passes, the more people will think the current ABA is what the REAL ABA was, which is an outrage. The original ABA was on par, talent-wise, with the NBA. They invented the modern game; they should have control of their likeness. So them and their children can bask in and enjoy their accomplishments.
How would you sum up your views on the multi-billion-dollar industry stiffing these pioneers?
Greed and perhaps racially biased. For sure there is an inbred ABA bias, inherent hatred against the upstart ABA for what they did to the game and forcing the merger. It is the ONLY explanation for why they would allow the marks to be used willy-nilly now.
Let me ask you this, if I was to use the NBA marks or one of their teams or even one of their players without permission or in a negative fashion, how soon would the office come down on me with a cease and desist? And they bragged recently about how they did the right thing with the pre-1965 players, who by sheer coincidence are predominantly white, and yet the more modern players from the ABA, who by sheer coincidence predominantly African American, are ignored and dying without justice. Smells bad to me and anyone who knows me knows I usually hate when people use the race card quickly but here, I don’t know what else to think. Maybe it is greed alone, but the bottom line is players are suffering. PERIOD. To satisfy the players, it would cost so little.
The NBA just signed a $24 BILLION contract, are you telling me they can’t afford to have each team contribute ONE TIME, a million dollars, to a fund in which the interest alone can fund the pension? And to give them the marks to a league they have no use for that was operational 40 years ago? BS.
You must be a busy guy with the jobs listed on your Twitter profile. So how much time are you currently planning/trying to spend for this crusade, for this petition?
It’s become a big part of my non-work time. No specific plan on how much time, just squeezing it in as much as possible.
And what is your target, signatures for the petition? How many names do you want to collect to throw it back at Adam Silver and basically put him in a corner that he has only one way to get out of? Do you have a targeted timetable for this campaign? To complete it this summer? This year?
My goal is one thing and one thing only. To show the world what the NBA has done to these players for no good reason other than greed and perhaps bias, and maybe let the NBA realize that in this internet age, you can’t get away with anything anymore, especially keeping secrets of your bad behavior. And hopefully they will realize this is plain bad business and bad PR and they can look like heroes very cheaply. NBA Cares? Prove it. That’s my goal.
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Follow Allen Berrebbi on Twitter: @krbmedia
Recommended reading
https://droppingdimes.org/2016/07/slam-magazine-aba-players-get-back-feet/
Ed Odeven Reporting 