Story and Mission

Welcome to the American Basketball Federation (ABF). This project results from a simple question, “What if the NBA/ABA merged and formed a European soccer style pyramid?” I created the USFL Distant Replay 30 years ago and then had enough time to simulate the first 4 (yes, four) seasons of that league. While working on that, I came up with the idea of the NBA/ABA merger as a promotion/relegation league. Allowin the idea to marinate more, I decided to add/relocate a few teams, add another tier to the league, and the ABF was borm.

My mission is both to create and honor history. I love sports and sports history. When I was in high school, I created a hockey league and simulated entire seasons using the polyhedral dice from my Dungeons and Dragons set. Then, when I discovered sports simulator board games, I played the APBA style games for both baseball and football many times over. That led to the discovery of Dave Koch simulators, the idea of the USFL DIstant Replay, time to build the web pages and simulate the games, and now the ABF.

League Identity

Instead of absorbing the smaller league, in the ABF creates a pyramid structure of three tiers of competition; the Premier League, the Championship, and the Founder’s Cup. Similar to the soccer leagues across the world, teams can earn promotion and relegation among these three leagues. The bottom three teams of the premier league each year are relegated to the Championship. The top two teams of the Championship promote to take their place. In addition, a single elimination tournament (similar to the play in tournament in the NBA) between the 3rd and 6th place team in the Championship play for the third promotion spot. The bottom two teams of the championship are relegated to the Founder’s Cup. The top two Founder’s Cup teams take their place.

The final promotion/relegation rule is unique to the ABF; the Founder’s Challenge. The 10th place team in the Championship plays an addition do or die game against the 3rd place team in the Founder’s Cup to determine who takes what place in each tier. The Championship tournament and the Founder’s Challenge bring playoff intensity along with the excitement of game to game competition that I hope will bring interest from the fans.

To further distinguish the three tiers, I came up with the idea of a different ball played at each tier. The Premier division plays with the traditional NBA ball. It represents the pinnacle of basketball. It’s tradition, prestige, and the highest level of competition. It’s excellence–the ball that everyone grows up wanting to play with. The Championship uses the classic ABA red and white ball. This symbolizes ambition, flair and innovation. This is the tier that the ABF innovates to pay homage to the ABA’s legacy of excitement and rule-bending. The Founder’s Cup utilizes the old school leather ball from the NBA’s history. This elicits foundation, grit, and origins. Here, teams are built from the ground up where the game is stripped down and unadorned. By showing your skill with the Founders ball, you gain the opportunity through a display of raw skill.

You don’t choose your ball in the ABF–you earn it.

Commisioner’s Note

My name is Shawn Lucas. I’m a 50 year old high school math teacher, husband, and father. I enjoy creative project and sports. Along with the ABF and USFL Distant Replay, I hope to create an alternate timeline for the NFL/AFL merger and major league baseball (not sure of the angle here just yet). Be on the lookout for those projects and please bookmark both sites to follow along as the stories unfold. Thanks for visiting. Let’s rewrite history together.

For more, visit and read the Credits/Faq page.