ABSTRACT
By 1970, the owners of professional basketball teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the American Basketball Association (ABA) wanted to merge the two leagues because a war between them over players had led to escalating salaries. The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) responded with a lawsuit to block the merger, citing antitrust regulations. When the owners went to Congress to ask for a special antitrust exemption, they were denied. This case study discusses how the NBPA used public relations strategies and techniques to block the first NBA-ABA merger attempt. This case study offers a means to understand how and why some entities succeed in their public debates while others failed. For the scholar, this case study adds to the limited literature on legislative lobbying from a communication perspective. For the sports public relations practitioner, this study provides guidelines for the effective use of communication in legislative lobbying efforts.
