Prime Video’s ‘Soul Power’ highlights ABA Indiana Pacers, Darnell Hillman
- Entertainment
ThePostMaster- 0
- 16 minutes read
Updated Feb. 10, 2026, 5:59 a.m. ET
- A new documentary, “Soul Power,” highlights the Indiana Pacers’ dynasty in the American Basketball Association.
- The ABA, which existed from 1967 to 1976, introduced the 3-point shot and slam dunk contest to professional basketball.
- The league was known for its player empowerment, cultural expression, and fostering a sense of brotherhood among players.
INDIANAPOLIS — Most nights, after a home game played in the electric, frenzied atmosphere of the State Fair Coliseum, the Indiana Pacers would head to Neto’s, a bar owned by one of their own, the heartthrob star of the team Bob Netolicky.
Inside Neto’s, the Pacers players of the American Basketball Association would mingle with their biggest fans, local celebrities and whoever else wanted to walk in and slap down a couple dollars on the counter for a drink and some blue and gold camaraderie.
Inside Neto’s, it didn’t matter who was Black or who was white. It didn’t matter who was a pro basketball player or who was a blue collar worker coming in after a long shift at the factory. It didn’t matter who voted Republican or who voted Democrat. All that mattered was that every single person in that bar had a common love.
“The Pacers united a community,” Netolicky says in “Soul Power,” Prime Video’s newest sports documentary, a four-part series which debuts Thursday and features the Pacers dynasty of the ABA.
“(The Pacers) were the only thing in town where Black people and white people both would go to and mix together,” Mark Montieth, who has covered the Pacers for decades as a writer, says in the film.
Prime Video gave IndyStar early access to “Soul Power,” a documentary that not only reveals how the bold, diverse and short-lived American Basketball Association reshaped professional basketball on the court, but how it impacted player empowerment and American sports culture off the court.
In the series, former players, league historians and sports journalists argue that the modern NBA game only exists because the ABA paved the way.
“(The NBA) looks a whole lot like the way we used to play in the ABA,” says Dan Issel, former Denver Nuggets player. The 3-point shot, the slam dunk contest and the fast offensive play all emanated from the league, a competitor to the NBA from 1967 to 1976.
But the ABA also was a league that stood for civil rights and formed a true brotherhood among competing teams, which were known to battle it out fiercely on the court, then go eat dinner together and party into the wee hours of the morning.
Of all the teams in the ABA, the Pacers may have epitomized the term “brotherhood” more than any other, says Larry Brown, who played in the ABA from 1967-1972 and coached the Pacers from 1993 to 1997.
As other teams in the ABA had players jumping to opposing franchises or fleeing to the rival NBA league, Indiana’s roster, including stars like Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, Bob Netolicky, Darnell Hillman, Billy Keller and George McGinnis, was a loyal and united one.
“I wish our world was like a Pacers locker room. It’s all about, can you play and are you a decent human being? Do you care about the people that sit next to you on both sides? That’s the only thing that matters,” Brown says. “(The Pacers) were so closely knit. When we would go to play them, you could just always sense that was a family. They developed an unbelievable bond.”
And that Pacers’ bond spilled over into the city.
“Walking into the coliseum, it was like this magical spectacle of diversity,” Amy Tinkham, daughter of former owner Dick Tinkham, says in the documentary, “and the Pacers did that.”
Among ‘Soul Power’ highlights? Darnell Hillman’s signature hairstyle
Darnell Hillman is laughing because he should be known as, or at least he’d like to be known as, Dr. Dunk. That was his nickname as the high-flying big man for the Pacers in the ABA and later in the NBA.
He was the winner of the first NBA slam dunk contest in 1977 performing moves that newspapers called more acrobatics than basketball. With his long, spindly arms, Hillman perfected rock-the-cradle, windmill and double pump reverse dunks, which ousted superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in that contest.
As an ABA Pacer, Hillman won back-to-back titles in 1972 and 1973.
Hillman is laughing because, all these years later, the No. 1 question he gets from people he encounters is not about basketball. It is about his trademark hairstyle.
“6-foot-9 without the Afro …” Hillman quips. ” 7-foot-3 with it.”
Hillman’s hair takes a leading role in “Soul Power” as the film asks fellow ABA members to talk about the most memorable Afro in the league. “Darnell had the best, right?” former New York Nets player Steve Chubin says.
“Darnell Hillman, boy that (hair) used to be something,” says Van Vance, the Kentucky Colonels’ announcer from 1970 to 1976
“Oh my gosh, Darnell’s hair,” says the late Nancy Leonard, former Pacers assistant general manager. “It was a contest between he and Julius Erving to see who had the biggest Afro.”
Erving, arguably the ABA’s biggest superstar as Dr. J, reveals in the film that it was Hillman who taught him how to shape his hairstyle, “because it was wild and wooly for a while,” Erving says.
That lesson happened one night at Hillman’s house where he told Erving to ditch the Afro forks and picks everybody else was using and try an angel food cake cutter instead.
“And that’s where you pull that hair out. And once he got it out and saw just how big his Afro was … ” Hillman said Erving was amazed. “I said, ‘Go to the barber and just have him trim all the ends and clip all the ends and your hair will get the kind of shape you want.'”
Why the Afro is considered a critical part of the history of the ABA is because in the NBA, Afros were banned, as were other culturally ethnic attributes. The ABA has been called a renegade league where players could take whatever political stance they wanted, and they could dress however they wanted.
“We had the flare collars, we had the bellbottoms, we had the platform shoes,” Spencer Haywood, former ABA Denver Rocket, says in “Soul Power.” “We had the hats to match, we had the ‘fros. They couldn’t grow ‘fros in the NBA.”
Scott Tarter remembers growing up in Indianapolis in the 1970s, and he remembers his white brother and friends trying to tease their hair up into Afros like their favorite Pacer player. Alas, it never turned out nearly as beautifully as Hillman’s hair.
“I just remember it was all about style,” says Tarter who, along with his company, Lana Sports, owns the exclusive rights to the original ABA basketball, which is shown throughout “Soul Power.” “That red-white-and-blue ball was much more than cool looking, it was a symbol of and represented the diversity of the ABA.”
Flagship franchise of the ABA? The Pacers
“Soul Power” gives a major nod to Indiana’s team, with longtime sportscaster and former ABA announcer Bob Costas saying unequivocally that the Pacers ruled the league.
“No question, the (Pacers were the) flagship franchise of the ABA,” Costas says in the documentary. “In one city the entire time, one name, they won three of the nine ABA championships.”
The 1972 ABA Finals, which the Pacers won against the Nets, is featured during “Soul Power” and illustrates how the team dominated the league. Indiana was loaded with top talent and, had that Pacers team made it to the NBA, they would have been fierce competitors, Rick Barry, a player on the 1972 Nets, says in the documentary.
Barry then goes on to describe that Pacers roster: Roger Brown, “a terrific small forward.” George McGinnis, “an explosive guy. Jumping, strong, powerful. He was really tough.” Bob Netolicky, who “could play in the post, shoot the ball. You talk about a Kevin McHale, he was a Kevin McHale before Kevin McHale.”
Mel Daniels, “a terrific center for them, not a 7-footer but a really good player on both ends of the court.” Freddie Lewis “an outstanding player who could shoot the ball.” Darnell Hillman, “his nickname was Dr. Dunk because he could jump out of the gym.” Billy Keller, “a lights out shooter.”
That Indiana Pacers team struck fear in the heart of every ABA team, the documentary says.
The 1972 ABA Finals marked the third time the Pacers had made it to the finals in the league’s first five seasons. They won the championship in 1970 and were looking to become the first ABA team to win it twice.
The Pacers won the series in six games then became repeat champions in 1973.
“Soul Power” ends with players from the 1972 Pacers gathered together in a room, Netolicky, Keller, Hillman and more. Common, a rap artist and actor whose father played in the ABA and who narrates the documentary, speaks as those Pacers, now in their 70s, stand together.
“The ABA greats of the past serve as some of the last living legends in American sports,” Common says. “The roots of what they accomplished still reach out to connect us today.”
Stream “Soul Power” beginning Feb. 12 on Prime Video.
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.
