Arkansas RimRockers

The American Basketball Association (ABA) OTCBB: ABKB is a professional men's basketball league founded in 1999. The current ABA has no direct affiliation to the original league, also called the American Basketball Association, that merged with the NBA in 1976. The league holds the record for the most sports teams in a single league, standing at 45.

The annual operating cost for most teams ranges from $200 - 500K depending on how each individual member of the league operates their teams.

The expansion has had varied results.

Despite these some of the individual teams problems, a new round of expansion for 2005-2006 occurred, with forty-seven teams scheduled to begin play.

Another wave of expansion was announced for the 2006-2007 season, with the cost for a new expansion franchise was raised to $50,000. One notable 2006-2007 expansion franchise was the Vermont Frost Heaves, owned by Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff. Also in 2006-2007, former NBA player John Salley was named league commissioner and Maryland Nighthawks owner Tom Doyle was named chief operating officer.

Following the league's first public offering in 2006, it was reported that Joe Newman was voted out of his position as league CEO. In a form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2007, the ABA board of directors stated that Newman was removed as league CEO on January 31, 2007. It went on to state that Newman's actions as league CEO would be reviewed to ensure that they were performed with the board's permission. The same filing also claimed that Newman and other shareholders plotted to remove Tom Doyle, John Salley, and David Howitt from the board and elect Paul Riley as its director. Newman denied his removal ever occurred and claims he is still the league CEO . The lawsuits were settled in late March 2007 with Doyle and Salley's resignations from the ABA Board of Directors.

The ABA has also formed official partnerships with Jaws Marketing and Pony. Pony has even gone as far as putting ads in a variety of national publications and magazines in an effort to associate Pony with basketball again. For years Pony has been known as for its "street" shoes. This is why you will see a number of ABA players wearing Pony footwear.

The NBA Development League, or D-League, is the National Basketball Association's officially sponsored and operated developmental basketball organization. Known until summer 2005 as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL), the D-League started with eight teams in the fall of 2001. In March 2005, NBA commissioner David Stern announced a plan to expand the D-League to fifteen teams and develop it into a true minor league farm system, with two NBA teams sharing each D-League team. In 2006-07, the league had 12 teams, with each D-League team being affiliated with between 1 and 3 NBA teams.