NBA to create $24.5 million program for former ABA players

NBA to create $24.5 million program for former ABA players: 'This will be life changing for them'

The NBA board of governors voted Tuesday to pay $24.5 million to former American Basketball Association players

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many of whom are struggling to pay rent, medical bills and buy the basic necessities to live.

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The agreement reached by the NBA and its players association ends a years-long

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battle launched by the Indianapolis-based Dropping Dimes Foundation.

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Dropping Dimes, a non-profit founded in 2014 to help struggling former ABA players and their families

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has been pleading with the NBA to give players of the now-defunct ABA the money it says they deserve.

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About 115 players are eligible for the payout, which the NBA is calling "recognition payments," not pensions

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Those players either spent three or more years in the ABA or played at least three combined years in the ABA and NBA

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