The American Basketball Association draft was held from 1967 to 1975. Generally speaking, the ABA's drafts were considered a lot looser in terms of structure for teams to make their player choices when compared to the rivaling NBA. So much so, in fact, that in 1973, the ABA would host four different drafts that essentially held the same type of purpose at various different points of the year, while in 1974, the ABA would not only host a draft for college-based players, but also a draft for NBA players to be taken by ABA teams as well. In addition to that, according to former Washington Caps and Virginia Squires head coach Al Bianchi, the ABA would host their drafts on the drop of a hat and if a team wanted someone even after their draft was officially over and done with, they'd put him on their draft list anyway, which would later influence the rivaling NBA draft system during the 1970s decade.[1] Due to the secretive nature of the league's early drafts alongside their looser structures, not much is known about the draft records of where certain players were selected in which round early on outside of who the #1 pick of each draft was.
^This pick was the #1 pick for what was considered the 1973 ABA Senior Draft (the official version of the ABA draft that year), not the 1973 Special Circumstances Draft that happened months before the Senior Draft, the 1973 ABA Undergraduate Draft that was directly after the Senior Draft that officially connected to the aforementioned draft once that prior draft was done with, or even the 1973 Supplemental Draft that was done some time afterward that incidentally had more rounds by comparison to the other drafts that year.
^This pick was the #1 pick for the regular 1974 ABA Draft, not the subsequent 1974 ABA Draft of NBA Players.
Drafts
1967 ABA draft
No known record of which player was taken in which round outside of Jimmy Walker as the #1 pick by the Indiana Pacers was kept throughout the ABA's inaugural draft history. The reason for this was related to this draft being held in secret at the end of the league's three day long meetings held in Oakland, California (home of one of the founding ABA teams) on April 2. (Following that period of time, the team currently known now as the Denver Nuggets went by the initial name of the Denver Larks at the time (with ABA co-founder Dennis Murphy at one point thinking of expanding that team name to the Denver Lark Buntings instead of just having the team name as the Larks[3]) after previously ditching their original plans to play in Kansas City, Missouri before later changing their team name to the Denver Rockets before the start of the season due to ownership changes by the owners of Denver's Rocket Truck Lines company; the team currently known as the Brooklyn Nets initially went by the name of the New Jersey Freighters at first due to one of the owners also being the head of New Jersey's ABC Freight Forwarding Company at the time before later becoming the New York Americans and then ultimately entered their inaugural season as the New Jersey Americans due to there being no suitable arenas in New York at the time for them; and the team that later became the Oakland Oaks to start out their ABA tenure originally started out as the Oakland Americans at the time before a dispute with the New Jersey later turned into a future New York franchise led to the Oakland franchise originally trying to change their team name to the Oakland Jacks (named after Jack London) before ultimately changing their name to the Oaks, which was kind of considered a homage to the previous incarnation of the team name held in the second version of the American Basketball League, but was more considered a homage to the Pacific Coast League baseball team of the same name instead.[4][5][6]) What is known, however, was that the Indiana Pacers won the ABA draft lottery and would select Jimmy Walker as the #1 pick in the process, with the second round being reversed in drafting order.[7] Likewise, the New Orleans Buccaneers would be the first team to complete a draft day trade in the ABA by making a deal with the Oakland Oaks, as well as select multiple multi-athlete players in Bob Seagren and Ron Widby that year.[8]
It was later revealed by the Chaparrals' general manager at the time (and later, one-time future head coach) Max Williams that the draft ordering the team did that year was due to the team's original co-owner, Roland Speth (who later became the manager of The Monkees band), mistaking Williams' draft listing that he did in alphabetical order (with last names going from A-Z) for the list of the best possible talents being taken at hand as early as they could have done so.[9]
No known record of which player was taken in which round outside of Elvin Hayes as the #1 pick by the Houston Mavericks was kept throughout the ABA's second ever draft. The reason why this would be the case was due to it being held in secret, with an evaluation draft being conducted on March 9 in Louisville, Kentucky (home of the Kentucky Colonels) that supposedly lasted only four rounds instead of five rounds like it did the previous year,[10] followed by two different drafts of similar nature occurring on April 27 & May 5 in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, Minnesota (homes to two out of four relocated ABA franchises entering their upcoming season, with the latter location also being the original headquarters of the ABA at that time) for rounds 6-10 and rounds 11-15 respectively.[11] During this period of time, the Anaheim Amigos would officially change their franchise's name into the Los Angeles Stars,[12] with the Stars keeping the original picks that they had under the Amigos name. Following the conclusion of this draft period, the New Jersey Americans would return to an original plan of theirs with playing in New York by becoming the New York Nets for the rest of their ABA tenure following a failed permanent home move to New Jersey in relation to a forced disqualification for a playoff qualifying match against the Kentucky Colonels (though ironically playing in the same arena that initially disqualified them playoff qualification last season on a more permanent basis (at first), but with new floor boards in place in order to avoid a repeat scenario like their last game of that inaugural season from occurring again),[5] while the Minnesota Muskies would move to Miami, Florida to become the Miami Floridians and the defending champion Pittsburgh Pipers would move to Minnesota to become the Minnesota Pipers.[13][14] This year's draft would also increase the number of overall rounds for the draft from 10 to 15 rounds, meaning an increase in selections occurred during this year as well. This year's draft events would also begin the ABA's plans to merge with the rivaling NBA in what would eventually become the NBA–ABA merger.[15]
No known record of which player was taken in which round outside of Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) as the #1 pick for his home area New York Nets and the Houston Mavericks (who would soon become the Carolina Cougars once the team officially entered the second day of the ABA draft[17]) selecting Neal Walk with the #2 overall pick under what was dubbed as "Operation Kingfish" at the time (similar to the opening results of the 1969 NBA draft) was kept throughout the ABA's third ever draft. The reason why that would be the case was because the ABA would host the first five rounds secretly on February 15 in Bloomington, Minnesota (the at the time home area of the Minnesota Pipers that was also nearby the ABA's headquarters at the time), with the following five rounds after that being completed on April 15 in Charlotte, North Carolina (around the same period of time the Houston Mavericks began their move to North Carolina to become the Carolina Cougars for their new home area). Additional rounds would be implemented later on, but a total of 10 official rounds with every team (with most teams utilizing additional rounds as well) had been completed that draft year, meaning this draft decreased the total amount of rounds from the previous draft they did. Following the repeated failures of persuading talented star players like Lew Alcindor to choose the ABA over the rivaling NBA (with miscommunication from the ABA commissioner to Alcindor on the final amount the Nets would spend for him being the last straw), George Mikan would effectively resign from his position as the commissioner of the ABA.[18] Also following the draft's conclusion, the Minnesota Pipers would return to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as the Pittsburgh Pipers once again and the new defending champion Oakland Oaks would move to Washington, D.C. to become the Washington Caps.[14][6] On a more positive note, the time after this draft would also be notable for the Denver Rockets acquiring sophomore power forward Spencer Haywood, a Hall of Famer in his own right from the University of Detroit that would ultimately cause a greater influence upon the NBA draft system (in exchange for the Rockets forfeiting their own first round pick the following draft year) due to the newly created hardship exception made by interim commissioner and Houston Mavericks turned Carolina Cougars owner James Carson Gardner and the subsequent Haywood v. National Basketball Association case that would come up years later in relation to Haywood's unique situation that came from him being signed up by the ABA first.[19]
No official known record of which player was taken in which round outside of Bob Lanier as the #1 territorial-based pick of the New York Nets was kept throughout the ABA's fourth ever draft. However, there would at least be a known record for the first three rounds for each and every team.[21] Despite that point, the ABA would hold this draft's first eight rounds at its earliest date yet on January 22 in Indianapolis (home of the Indiana Pacers), while the second half of the draft (which would go from rounds 9-17 this year, though teams would only go up as far as 15 or 16 rounds for this year's draft) would be held on March 15 in their new headquarters at New York (also the home area of the New York Nets). This draft would see the ABA become more successful in persuading young talents to join the ABA instead of the rivaling NBA, as well as showcase the most rounds in an ABA draft yet. However, it would also showcase the league's still ever-growing signs of instability from within after the draft ended with teams moving around and/or changing names in order to become more regional with their fanbase with the Dallas Chaparrals renaming themselves to the Texas Chaparrals in an attempt for their franchise to be more regional for the entire state of Texas following the Houston Mavericks' previous move to North Carolina to become the Carolina Cougars,[22] the runner-up Los Angeles Stars moving to Utah for the rest of their tenure to become the Utah Stars,[12] the Miami Floridians being renamed to just "The Floridians" in a unique attempt to have the team represent all of Florida,[13] the New Orleans Buccaneers would briefly be renamed the Louisiana Buccaneers in order to represent all of Louisiana before newer ownership changed hands and led to them moving to Memphis, Tennessee in order to become the Memphis Pros,[23] the Pittsburgh Pipers briefly changing their team name to the Pittsburgh Pioneers before lawsuit threats by both Point Park College and a different "Name That Team" contestant via the winning essay entry supposedly going over the contest's 25 word limit forced them into creating the Pittsburgh Condors name that they'd use for the rest of their existence,[14] and the Washington Caps moving to the nearby state of Virginia to become the Virginia Squires due to the team hearing rumors of an NBA–ABA merger coming about,[6] which ultimately got delayed by six years due to the Oscar Robertson v. National Basketball Association antitrust lawsuit.[24]
This draft would be the first ABA draft to have a known record of who got selected where in the ABA beyond just the fact that Jim McDaniels was the #1 pick by the eventual champion Utah Stars from a trade involving the temporarily rebranded Texas Chaparrals later returning to their Dallas Chaparrals name (though they're now known as the San Antonio Spurs in more modern times) during this year following the draft,[22] according to "The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts". Not only that, but the ABA would also host the most rounds ever in one draft by this point in time with a grand total of twenty rounds officially being set this year. The first three rounds would be completed on January 22-23 at Greensboro, North Carolina (specifically, rounds one and two would be done on the 22nd alongside parts of round three, while round three was officially completed on the 23rd at the general home area of the Carolina Cougars), while the rest of the rounds starting from the fourth round onward would all be completed on March 15 in New York (which would be where the rest of the ABA's major drafts were held at going forward). The ABA would later rule that three of the players that the Virginia Squires drafted in Tom Riker, Jim Chones, and Barry Parkhill were actually ineligible underclassmen due to the original conditions that the ABA had to uphold in order to allow the initially planned NBA–ABA merger to happen in the first place despite the Denver Rockets keeping their own first round selection (the second of three straight first round picks that they had acquired via trades) of Ralph Simpson at hand (though the Squires would later get Parkhill back onto their team eventually),[33] while the Indiana Pacers essentially pranked the rest of the league by selecting a nonexistent player named "Slick Pinkham" from DePauw University as the official last pick of the 1971 ABA draft; Slick Pinkham was a portmanteau of head coach Bobby "Slick" Leonard and team owner Dick Tinkham, who actually did attend DePauw University and played basketball for them there back when he was a student.[34] Outside of the Texas Chaparrals returning to their Dallas Chaparrals name after the regular ABA draft ended,[22] no changes involving ABA teams would occur after this draft year, which would make it the most stable draft year in the ABA yet. Also following the draft were the initial plans of the NBA–ABA merger that would have seen every ABA team join the NBA except for the Virginia Squires (the reason for their exclusion related to them being too close of proximity to the Baltimore Bullets, now Washington Wizards, which would have forced them to either move yet again in order to join the NBA or fold operations altogether) starting by May 1971 before the Oscar Robertson v. National Basketball Association antitrust lawsuit ruined that merger plan entirely.[24]
The ABA would also host a "Special Circumstances" Draft later in the year on September 10, 1971 in Memphis, Tennessee (home of the Memphis Pros and the last time the ABA would ever host a draft event outside of their new headquarters in New York) as a response to the (at the time) recently implemented "NBA Hardship Draft" that the NBA was forced to utilize following the results of the Haywood v. National Basketball Association 1971 Supreme Court case. Unlike the NBA's "Hardship Draft", which saw six players enter that specific draft for the first time ever (though only five of those players would get drafted), the ABA's "Special Circumstances Draft" only saw three players from that special draft get selected there: Duquesne University's Mickey Davis for the Denver Rockets in the second round, the University of California's Phil Chenier for the Carolina Cougars in the second round, and North Carolina State University's Ed Leftwich for the New York Nets in the fourth round; no players were selected during the first or third rounds in question for that event (though technically speaking, Mickey Davis would be considered the #1 pick of the Special Circumstances Draft that year).[51] It is unknown how many players that the ABA had considered eligible for this particular draft were actually available during the time it happened. Nevertheless, there were no drafted choices in either the first round or the third round, meaning the listing below, including what the year in college at the time of the selection for these players, is as such.
Note, this year does not include six rounds of the July 13 dispersal draft involving two former ABA teams or an expansion draft for the San Diego Conquistadors (who took Mike Barrett from the Virginia Squires as their first pick in that draft) that took place after the dispersal draft to replace one of those defunct teams in question, meaning this draft would not have the San Diego team involved.[52][53] Once again, the ABA planned on getting a head start on the rivaling NBA by starting their first five rounds of the draft on March 2 (with ordering based on records from February 20, though with the Pittsburgh Condors and Memphis Pros alternating between themselves on who has the first selection and who has the second selection in each round), while the rest of the draft (which would also be twenty rounds long) would finish up over a month later on April 12 up in New York. However, this draft would also be the first draft to allow each team to select a college underclassman to join their team within the first five rounds of the draft, which drew some ire and criticisms at the time amongst not just the NCAA, but also numerous college coaches as well. This allowed teams to select some special talented players like future Hall of Famers Bob McAdoo and Bill Walton, as well as players like Doug Collins and freshman David Brent being drafted earlier than the NBA had anticipated them being available, though most of those guys either returned to college or went to the NBA anyway, Unfortunately, the recording of who got selected where during the first five rounds in particular is not well known for this particular year, meaning some information for the earlier rounds is more scattershot and a bit messier to record by comparison to the later rounds, weirdly enough, although we do at least know the general draft ordering for the teams that selected players this year.[54] As such, the listing of the first five rounds in particular might not be 100% accurate information by comparison to the rest of the draft here. In any case, following the conclusion of this draft year, both "The Floridians" and the Pittsburgh Condors would declare themselves as defunct operations going forward (thus leading to only the aforementioned San Diego Conquistadors replacing just one of those two teams going forward[55]), while the Memphis Pros decided to change their team name to the Memphis Tams entering the upcoming season.[23]
New York Nets(forfeited #5 pick due to them signing Jim Chones, a player previously drafted by the Virginia Squires last year that got invalidated due to draft stipulations at the time[54])
On July 13, 1972, two of the ABA's first inaugural teams in "The Floridians" and the Pittsburgh Condors would have their players be dispersed in the first dispersal draft in the ABA's history. This dispersal draft would involve all of the original ABA teams at the time, but it would not include the San Diego Conquistadors expansion team since their creation was done after the dispersal draft happened. There would be six total rounds of draft picks from this dispersal draft that the nine ABA teams left over at the time would utilize from taking either "The Floridians" or Pittsburgh Condors players available.[61] Any players that weren't selected after this draft concluded would be placed on waivers and enter free agency afterward.[62] The following teams would select these players from either "The Floridians" or the Pittsburgh Condors.
Following the dispersal draft of "The Floridians" and Pittsburgh Condors, the ABA would host their first and only expansion draft in league history with the San Diego Conquistadors taking on one of the replacement spots for either "The Floridians" or the Pittsburgh Condors. The expansion draft for the San Diego Conquistadors would take place on August 10, 1972, almost a month after the dispersal draft had concluded, with the Conquistadors being allowed to have two selections of players in essentially one total round (but really two rounds[53]) from the nine remaining ABA teams at hand. However, the Indiana Pacers would later negotiate a deal with San Diego to only allow them to acquire the negating draft rights to Dwight Jones instead of two players on their end. In any case, the following players would be selected by the San Diego Conquistadors for the franchise's expansion draft.
For this year's draft, the ABA would hold a special circumstances draft lasting for two rounds for the ten teams in the league on January 15, a senior draft lasting for ten rounds on April 25 (one day after the 1973 NBA draft began (despite the NBA's draft initially being held on April 9 that year), thus technically marking the first time an NBA draft was held before an ABA draft), an undergraduate draft also lasting for only two rounds that was also on April 25, and a supplemental draft on May 18 that lasted for a total of fifteen rounds (though with only 72 total picks for that draft by eight of the ten ABA teams involved), all of which was held entirely within New York.[63][53] During the period of time between the special circumstances draft and the senior and undergraduate drafts occurred, the Dallas Chaparrals would be bought out and move to San Antonio, Texas to initially become the San Antonio Gunslingers before becoming the San Antonio Spurs franchise that's well known to this day.[22] However, while the ABA would try and draft players that would be considered as those that fit the "Hardship Exemption" in the NBA or qualify under the "Special Circumstances" notion for the ABA before the NBA could do so once again (sometimes succeeding in the process), the rest of the ABA's drafts afterward would all take place after the NBA completed their one singular draft, which would technically make it the first time the ABA draft was finished after the NBA finished their drafting period. As such, there would technically be four correct names for the first pick of the ABA draft: Mike Bantom from St. Joseph's College in Pennsylvania by the Denver Rockets (now known as the modern-day version of the Denver Nuggets) in the special circumstances draft, Bo Lamar from the University of Southwestern Louisiana by the San Diego Conquistadors for the senior draft, Bill Walton from UCLA by the San Diego Conquistadors as well for the undergraduate draft (officially considered to be picks #101-120 for the April 25 draft day), and Larry Moore from the University of Texas at Arlington by the San Diego Conquistadors for the supplemental draft (the only ABA player to be considered a #1 pick to not play basketball professionally[64]) after the initial big draft day was completed. Not only that, if one were to combine the total rounds from all four of those drafts into one whole draft properly, this year's draft would have officially lasted for a massive 29 total rounds with the most number of players drafted for a grand total of 212 players selected for officially recorded data. However, to simplify the process a bit in this case, this year's draft coverage will have the four drafts separated as they originally were presented at the time. Outside of the Dallas Chaparrals moving to San Antonio in order to essentially become the modern-day San Antonio Spurs that currently exist in the NBA to this day following the end of the regular season months after the special circumstances draft ended, no other team movement changes occurred following the conclusions of the rest of these draft events, thus tying 1971 as the most stable draft year period for the ABA's teams due to no one outside of the Chaparrals franchise moving or changing team names once again.
1973 ABA special circumstances draft
This draft would technically be considered the last draft event that the Dallas Chaparrals would participate in under that name. Following the end of the 1972–73 ABA season, the Chaparrals franchise would move to San Antonio, Texas to initially be called the San Antonio Gunslingers before later entering the upcoming season onward as the San Antonio Spurs. As such, the San Antonio franchise would claim all of the Chaparrals franchise's draft rights from not just this draft, but also the other drafts held later in the year. That being said, every player selected in this particular draft except for George Gervin were selected as players that the ABA had deemed necessary to be drafted early via special circumstances coming out of college or university, regardless of whether they were already close toward graduating from said college or university before the draft began or not. In the case of George Gervin, he had actually left his college he was going to during his sophomore year in order to play minor league basketball of sorts in the originally named Continental Basketball Association before it was about to go defunct a year later.
For these next three draft events, the San Antonio Spurs were drafting under their initial team name of the San Antonio Gunslingers at the time. They would only change their team name to the Spurs some time before the 1973–74 ABA season officially began. Also for this draft, the focus involved would have teams draft only senior eligible players from colleges and universities for teams to potentially sign onto their teams over the rivaling NBA teams. Ironically, a few of these players selected in this wouldn't technically be considered proper seniors for one reason or another.
The ABA undergraduate draft would be considered a continuation of the official ABA draft (known for this year as the ABA senior draft properly), with ABA teams selecting undergraduate prospects from various colleges and universities early on in the hopes that they would play for them in the ABA, similar to what they had done with some prospects in the past or with what's currently going on in the present day with some players in more modern NBA drafts. As such, this draft's round and pick orders will be listed with the official round and pick numbers as it normally would be, followed by what the ABA considered the official round and pick numbers in parentheses due to the loose structure at hand for this year's ABA draft and only this year's ABA draft.
Interestingly, the only two teams to decline participation in entering the supplemental draft for the ABA this year were the Indiana Pacers and New York Nets. All other teams involved would use multiple selections within multiple rounds in order to take whoever was available within this particular draft. Unlike the other drafts at hand, this particular draft would see scant few successes, with most of these players never even playing professionally altogether and the few that did mostly having success playing in the NBA instead.
Once again, the ABA would host their draft in New York, this time deciding to greatly simplify the process again. This time, the ABA draft would be reduced from 29 overall rounds from four different drafts to ten rounds held on two days for just one simple draft, with the first two rounds taking place on March 6 and the rest of the rounds afterward wrapping up the event on April 17. The draft would be notable for the fact that it would lead to one of the first successful direct to high school players in basketball history with Moses Malone being drafted by the Utah Stars directly out of Petersburg High School in Petersburg, Virginia. His success would help lead to the selection of Bill Willoughby, another direct to high school senior player, for the following year's ABA draft alongside other future successful direct to high school players in the NBA entering the late 1990s and early 2000s (and a few postgraduate high schoolers in the late 2010s as well). In addition to these 10 rounds of the regular ABA draft for college players alongside high schooler Moses Malone, there would also be what was called an ABA draft of NBA players done during that same year following the conclusion of the regular ABA draft.[78] The ABA's drafting of NBA players would last for five rounds (with the Seattle SuperSonics' Bob Kauffman being the #1 pick for that event by the Virginia Squires) and take place following the actual ABA draft's conclusion, with both the press and the fans alike not knowing what to make of the ABA's draft situation with the NBA's players of all possible things.[79] Following these draft days' conclusions, the Carolina Cougars would move to St. Louis, Missouri to become the uniquely named Spirits of St. Louis franchise,[17] the Denver Rockets would officially rebrand themselves into the Denver Nuggets (partially as a homage to the former Denver Nuggets NBA team that played in the 1949–50 NBA season, but mainly as the winning entry in their "Name That Team" contest) in order to make their personal transition into the NBA a lot more easier on their end due to the NBA already having a team named the Rockets around via the Houston Rockets,[4] and the Memphis Tams would officially rebrand themselves as the Memphis Sounds for what would later become their final season in Memphis.[23]
This draft was done with the intention of trying to have the ABA's teams go ahead and sign up some of the NBA's own players onto their own teams instead of remaining onto their NBA teams properly. However, none of the NBA's players would go ahead and sign up with the ABA teams that drafted them there. At most, a few of those players would join up with some of those ABA teams later on either in the ABA or the NBA instead, but not directly entering the 1974–75 ABA season. A couple of these players that were drafted by the ABA would later retire from professional play before the upcoming season began as well.
For the final draft year of the ABA, this draft would officially last for eight rounds in New York, with the Denver Nuggets having a bonus choice taken at around the start of the draft (the Spirits of St. Louis also had a bonus pick as well, but ultimately skipped out on using it in the process).[82][83] It would also start at the latest time an ABA draft had ever started a draft, with it beginning on June 16, a few weeks after the NBA had finished up their own draft instead. By this point in time, the ABA was starting to truly feel the struggles of competing against the NBA without having a proper national TV contract to help generate more money for it. Following this draft's end, the Memphis Sounds would move up to Baltimore, Maryland to initially play as the Baltimore Hustlers before controversy with that team name forced them to rename the team into the Baltimore Claws instead,[23] while the San Diego Conquistadors would rebrand themselves as the San Diego Sails entering what would become the ABA's final season.[55] Not only that, but it was reported that the Denver Nuggets and New York Nets were trying to sneak themselves into the NBA directly ahead of the eventual NBA–ABA merger as teams that would join in early (with those two teams also wanting the Kentucky Colonels to join them before the team owner's loyalty to the ABA stopped that team from joining in[84]) before court orders forced them both to stay put for one last, final ABA season that, funnily enough, ultimately led to the Nets winning the final ABA championship over the Nuggets.[24] However, the real endgame for the ABA would come during its final season of play, with the league seeing the likes of the Baltimore Claws, San Diego Sails, Utah Stars, and Virginia Squires all fold at various points throughout the season (with the Claws folding during the preseason period, the Squires folding either near the end of or after the season before they had a chance to join the other surviving ABA teams in the upcoming NBA–ABA merger, and it getting to the point where the NBA conducted a draft with a select few undergraduate players from the ABA near the end of 1975 and the 1976 ABA All-Star Game essentially being the Denver Nuggets against the rest of the ABA's All-Stars, with the Nuggets winning that game in question), thus leaving the ABA with only six teams left (the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, Kentucky Colonels, New York Nets, San Antonio Spurs, and Spirits of St. Louis, the last of whom had originally planned to move to Utah themselves to become the Utah Rockies had the team or the ABA somehow managed to continue onward, though they were also willing to move to Hartford, Connecticut for the NBA's sake) by the end of their final season and entering the NBA–ABA merger without anything else to do on their ends besides negotiating with the NBA itself by 1976, not even being allowed to participate in the 1976 NBA draft (though the surviving teams could participate in the upcoming ABA dispersal draft not long afterward, which everyone that made it did outside of the Nuggets).
On October 20, 1975, four days after being given an ultimatum by the ABA regarding survival and less than a week before starting what became the ABA's final regular season, the Baltimore Claws were forcibly closed by the ABA itself after poor performances against the Virginia Squires and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. The ABA would create an impromptu dispersal draft involving the Claws' players that remained on the roster the following day afterward, with the now nine remaining ABA teams looking over and potentially choosing who to take for their own rosters. Not every team would choose a player from the Claws, however, as three of the ABA's teams declined entry in this draft altogether in the Kentucky Colonels, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs. In fact, one Claws player in George Carter would join his new ABA team in the Utah Stars only after the ABA dispersal draft involving the Claws ended. Still, the following Claws players would end up being selected in the first dispersal draft of the year.
Over two weeks later following the Claws' end as a franchise, the recently rebranded San Diego Sails would also meet their unexpected end on November 11, 1975 after playing 11 games in the regular season. For the San Diego franchise, their demise would come not just from a poor start to the season following their rebranding from the Conquistadors to the Sails, but also hearing that the franchise would be shut out of the upcoming NBA–ABA merger early on due to the insistence of then-Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke not wanting any competition for a share of his team's fan base with another team in the southern California region. Unlike the previous dispersal draft during this year, only two of the now eight remaining ABA teams would officially utilize the dispersal draft for the Sails' players this time around: the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs, though a couple of the Sails' players would go to some other ABA teams after the dispersal draft concluded. Not only that, but Caldwell Jones would also be held out of the dispersal draft himself due to him having signed a future contract with the Philadelphia 76ers of the rivaling NBA, with whom he had been drafted with a few years prior.[62] Still, the following Sails players would be selected in the second dispersal draft of the year for the ABA.
The third and final team to fold operations during the 1975 year was the Utah Stars, who had completed 16 games before folding operations on December 2, 1975 due to the team's owner going broke by this time. Initially, the owners of the Spirits of St. Louis franchise actually wanted to do a merger with the Utah Stars to help save both of their franchises at the same time (though likely at the price of ending one of these teams in the process, similar to the Minnesota North Stars and Cleveland Barons merger in the NHL only saving the Minnesota North Stars (now Dallas Stars) franchise as opposed to the temporary mergers of the Steagles and Card-Pitt that the Pittsburgh Steelers did in the NFL back in World War II saving every franchise involved in the end), but ultimately reneged on the merger literally the day before the Stars folded operations entirely.[86] Unlike the other two teams that folded during the 1975 year, however, the ABA did not really hold a dispersal draft for the now-former Stars players for the now seven remaining ABA teams left over. Instead, remembering that the Spirits of St. Louis franchise had discussed the idea of merging with the Utah Stars prior to the team folding, the ABA allowed the Spirits to acquire four of their best players in future Hall of Famer Moses Malone, Ron Boone, Randy Denton, and Steve Green instead in hopes of helping their franchise out of the rest of the season, as well as giving former Stars team owner Bill Daniels a 10% minority stake interest in the Spirits of St. Louis franchise. Incidentally, another franchise that looked for help to survive during the season, the Virginia Squires, also bought one of the former Stars players that was available during that time in Jim Eakins in hopes of somehow surviving the rest of the season themselves, which they did to the extent of completing the regular season, but not making it to the NBA–ABA merger meetings properly. As a result, none of the Squires' players from that final season would be utilized in a dispersal draft either by the ABA or the NBA in 1976.
^Nationality indicates the player's national team or representative nationality. If a player has not competed at the international level, then the nationality indicates the national team which the player is eligible to represent according to FIBA rules.
References
^Pluto, Terry, Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association (Simon & Schuster, 1990), ISBN978-1-4165-4061-8, p. 33
^Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pg. 106
^Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pp. 106-107
^Pluto, Terry, Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association (Simon & Schuster, 1990), ISBN978-1-4165-4061-8, pp. 55-56
^Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pg. 118
^Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pg. 134
^Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pg. 165
^"Billy Barnes". Southern Arkansas University Athletics. Retrieved Dec 23, 2024.
^"Pat Biber". University of Tampa Athletics. Retrieved Dec 23, 2024.
^"Allan Dalton". The Draft Review. December 26, 2016. Retrieved Dec 23, 2024.
^Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pg. 182
^"1972 NBA Draft". DatabaseBasketball.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2014. Retrieved Dec 23, 2024.
^ abcBradley, Robert; Grasso, John. "ABA Player Drafts". APBR.org. Retrieved Dec 23, 2024.
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^"1972 ABA Draft". The Draft Review. June 6, 2007. Retrieved Dec 23, 2024.
^ abBradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pg. 426
^"1973 ABA Draft". DatabaseBasketball.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2014. Retrieved Dec 23, 2024.
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