Another former ABA player dies waiting on pension from NBA. He left behind a chilling photo.
INDIANAPOLIS When Sam Smith died in his modest home on the east side of Indianapolis, he died a man who not long before had swallowed his pride and made a phone call to ask for gas money. He died a man who had to make a call to ask for help with funeral expenses for his daughter.
He died a man who was an American Basketball Association player, a pioneer who blazed the trail for what the NBA is today.
But basketball ended for Smith. After winning an ABA championship with the Utah Stars, he got a job as a security supervisor at the Ford assembly plant in Indianapolis. Years passed. Times got harder. More years passed.
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When the ABA disbanded in 1976, merging with the NBA, four of its 11 teams were absorbed by the NBA the Pacers, Nuggets, New York Nets and San Antonio Spurs. The players who didn't find a long-term spot in the NBA were left with no pension, salaries shut off and health insurance gone.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2022/06/09/sam-smith-former-aba-player-dies-waiting-pension-nba/7565607001/