Former UCLA star John Vallely served as player-coach of a team which also had Joe Ellis, Eddie Mast, Hank Siemiontkowski and one Belgian, Willy Steveniers.

[2][10] Playing in green and blue, their coach was Del Harris and players included Roy Ebron, Pete Cross and Jeff Halliburton[2] The team had an uneasy relationship with the Spanish Basketball Federation who heavily restricted them in the venues and dates of their games.

This was achieved thanks to constant promotional efforts (for which they were said to have spent between $45,000 and $50,000), with English adverts taken in the press to attract American immigrants, colour ads posted throughout Tel Aviv and radio spots.

[13] The team was owned by businessmen Robert Hecht (regional vice-president of the United States Committee Sports for Israel) and J. Livingston Kosberg, while former National Basketball Association (NBA) public relations director Haskell Cohen served as its general manager.

[3] They were effectively a touring team as they also played in Augsburg, Berlin, Böblingen, Essen, Leverkusen, Sankt Ilgen, Rüsselsheim and even Cuxhaven in the northern point of the country.

Van Den Broeck was said to be the European representative of ABA commissioner Mike Storen, who had reportedly mandated him to study the possibility of starting a professional competition throughout Europe.

The meeting was productive and a league structure was announced soon after, with a calendar ranging from the following October to April involving eight teams based in major European cities (five franchises in France, Belgium and Israel were said to be ready).

Van Den Broeck replied in a confrontational tone that he was unfazed by "professional amateurs" who were "afraid they're going to lose the good life when the real pros arrive".

A communique from the organisation was released on 8 March 1974, naming the league the European Basketball Association (EBA) and formally announcing its creation had occurred in Paris a day earlier.

In late April 1974 a syndicate of American businessmen led by the France-based John Coburn announced the creation of the International Basketball Association (IBA) in Paris.

It had already reportedly sold eight franchises in seven countries (France, Spain, West Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland) and planned to add up to four more to form two divisions of four to six teams each.

In fact, William Jones sent a letter in August to national federations expressing his resolute opposition to any professional league in Europe, threatening to expel any player, referee or official who helped it in any way.

Despite this, Jones selected Raimundo Saporta and Borislav Stanković to serve as FIBA representatives in talks with the IBA to take place on 3 September in Geneva.

A way to get an exemption to play on a weekend would be to partner with a local team, for example FC Barcelona for the Iberia Superstars, wherein the professionals would cede 40% of ticket sales to the amateur side.

Other familiar players (mostly from their college days) were John Vallely, Joe Ellis (both Belgium), Luther Rackley, Bill Chamberlain (both Lyon-Grenoble) and Wendell Hudson (London).

Five teams announced their coaches, respectively Belgium (John Vallely), Tel Aviv (Herb Brown), Munich (former 76er Larry Jones who would also play), Switzerland (Jack Holley) and Madrid (Beryl Shipley, infamous for his recruiting violations at Southwestern Louisiana).

[9] Faced with an unwelcoming attitude by French basketball authorities (especially Pierre Mazeaud, sports state secretary) and the country's taxation system, the investors from the Lyon-Grenoble also pulled out of the league.,[21][2] leaving five teams in the competition which would start on 17 January, namely the Superstars, Belgium Lions, Israel Sabras, Munich Eagles and Swiss Alpines.

Despite some interest from locally based US Army servicemen and the presence of an American TV crew, the turnout proved a disappointment for the organisers as only around 400 to 500 spectators were scattered round a 6,000-seat arena.

After a slow start to the season in which the Sabras amassed a 2–7 record whilst playing on the road, the team won eight games in a row to climb up the league table.

[14] On 27 March 1975 it was announced that the league schedule would be cut by ten games and that playoffs would be played between the best ranked sides (namely the Sabras, Lions and Alpines) in a double knock-out format (with Israel receiving a bye) on 3 April in Tel Aviv.

[16][41] The league ended a few days later on the 31st however as both the Belgium and the Swiss teams refused to travel to Israel for the playoffs citing security concerns amidst the ongoing Arab–Israeli conflict.

It was assumed that the main reasons for this withdrawal were financial as those teams were taking heavy losses and wanted to avoid the costs of travelling and paying players.

[11] Iberia Superstars officials criticised the Spanish federation and accused it of not having respected the deal agreed between them (the team had been prevented from playing in Madrid thanks to Saporta's influence).

[6] At a meeting in Antwerp on 9 April between Hecht and Davis and FIBA representatives such as Saporta and Busnel it emerged that the EPBL had lost 2,5 million dollars during the season (though part of this sum could be deducted from American taxes).

[39][1] Jean-Jacques Maleval from France's L'Équipe was impressed by the spectacular shots made despite aggressive defending, noting the rhythm would be hard to follow for European teams.

He also highlighted the quality of the guards' playmaking and ball-handling, conversely noting the centers were less dominant (European amateurs teams tended to exclusively recruit tall forwards as foreign players).

[6] Observer's such as Pierre Tessier from L'Équipe Basket Magazine pondered whether the European public would be willing to watch a limited number of teams play each other repeatedly (as in the ABA and NBA) within a short period of time.

This led Swiss Le Temps journalist Jean-Pierre Gatoni to observe that only dedicated basketball fans would be prepared to go to these games weekly and these could be hard to find in countries like Switzerland.

Former Munich Eagles manager Lee Meade called the league an "ill-fated effort by some American entrepreneurs who thought because they had money they could shove pro basketball down the throats of Europeans.

"[19] This meant EPBL owners and managers made little effort to promote their league (with few ads placed in the media) as they assumed bringing professional American-style basketball would be enough to attract fans.