1971–72 The Floridians season

Final American Basketball Association team season August 2023 The Floridians ABA 1972 36 48 Eastern 4th Bob Bass James Edwin Doyle Miami Beach Convention CenterCurtis Hixon HallBayfront Arena Lost in Division Semifinals 1 The 1971–72 The Floridians season was the fourth and final season of American Basketball Association out in the state of Florida for the franchise, as well as the fifth and final season for the franchise as a whole when including their only season they played as the Minnesota Muskies. For this season, 34 home games were played in Miami, with the other home games being played in either Tampa or St. Petersburg, skipping out on Jacksonville and West Palm Beach this time around. The Floridians edged out the Carolina Cougars for the final playoff spot by one game, with their 116–115 overtime victory proving key to clinching the spot, as their record was 35–45 and the Cougars record was at 33–49, with the Floridians not only having two more games to play than the Cougars, but only needing to win once more to officially clinch, which they did four days later with a 118–107 win over the Memphis Pros. (If The Floridians had lost to Carolina, they would have had to play a one game playoff match to determine the final playoff spot instead had every other result remained the same by comparison.) The team's biggest winning streak all season was 4 games long, with their first half record being 19–23. They then went 17–25 in the second half of the season, with a season high six-game losing streak happening in that half. They finished eighth both in points scored at 112.8 per game and in points allowed at 114.3 per game. In the Eastern Division Semifinals, they were swept by the Virginia Squires, with Game 2 of that series match aired nationally on CBS. After their season ended, the team was ultimately disbanded due to attendance not improving within the state of Florida despite the owners trying everything they could have possibly thought of to appeal to the state. While the team was close to relocating to a different place a couple of times (notably out in Cincinnati, Ohio and then Omaha, Nebraska), they ultimately folded the franchise under the ABA's discretion before getting a deal to relocate the franchise become official on their ends.https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/FLO/1972_games.html 1971-72 the Floridians Schedule and Results Pro basketball would not return to the Miami area until 1988 with the Miami Heat, who have worn throwback jerseys of the team on occasion as part of "Hardwood Classics Nights", doing so for the first time during the 2005–06 season. Another NBA team would be added in the state of Florida a year after the Heat were added with the Orlando Magic being created, with a third team temporarily being included in the state with the Toronto Raptors having home games played in Tampa due to the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020–21 season. ABA Draft 1971 ABA draft This draft was the first ABA draft to have a properly recorded historical note of every round in their draft available. Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 2 15 Willie Long SF/PF USA United States New Mexico 4 36 Tom Owens PF/C USA United States South Carolina 5 47 Rich Rinaldi SG USA United States Saint Peter's College 6 58 Larry Holliday G USA United States Oregon 7 69 Greg Starrick G USA United States Southern Illinois 8 80 Tom Lee F USA United States Arizona 9 91 Jim Haderlein F USA United States Loyola University of Los Angeles 10 102 Doug Rex F USA United States UC Santa Barbara 11 113 Gerald Lockett F USA United States Arkansas AM&N College 12 123 Will Allen SF USA United States Miami (Florida) 13 133 Jackie Ridgle SG USA United States California 14 142 Pembrook Burrows C USA United States Jacksonville 15 151 Ken May F USA United States Dayton 16 160 Wayman Terrell PF/C USA United States Oklahoma Baptist 17 168 Bill Drozdiak F USA United States Oregon 18 175 Eddie Myers C USA United States Arizona 19 182 Steve Sims SG USA United States Pepperdine 20 187 Pat Biber F USA United States Tampa This draft would inadvertently be the penultimate draft that "The Floridians" would ever participate in as a franchise. The final draft they'd participate in would be done months before the 1972 ABA Dispersal Draft involving this franchise and the Pittsburgh Condors. During this specific draft, "The Floridians" would trade their first round pick to the Denver Rockets and their third round pick to a currently unknown team (though it could potentially have been the Kentucky Colonels due to them having a third round pick at the spot that "The Floridians" would have had it in, meaning "The Floridians" would be the only team to not have a third round pick in the 1971 ABA draft); outside of trading away those selections, "The Floridians" would use every single round of this draft otherwise. Roster The Floridians 1971–72 #000000 #FF8C00 #FF0090 #000000 Will Allen urban farmer PF 6 6 230 February 8, 1949 Miami (FL) 21 Mack Calvin PG 6 0 165 July 27, 1947 USC Rick Fisher basketball PF 6 5 215 October 27, 1948 Colorado State 15 Ron Franz SF 6 7 205 October 20, 1945 Kansas 51 Carl Fuller C 6 9 225 January 10, 1946 Bethune-Cookman College 41 Ira Harge C 6 9 225 March 14, 1941 New Mexico 15 Warren Jabali SG 6 2 200 August 29, 1946 Wichita State 32 Larry Jones basketball SG 6 2 180 September 22, 1942 Toledo 43 Manny Leaks C 6 8 225 November 27, 1945 Niagara University 30 Willie Long PF 6 8 225 March 1, 1950 New Mexico 43 Walt Piatkowski PF 6 8 220 June 11, 1945 Bowling Green 51 Craig Raymond C 6 11 235 April 5, 1945 BYU 31 Sam Robinson basketball SF 6 7 190 January 1, 1948 Cal State Long Beach 44 George Tinsley SF 6 5 205 September 19, 1946 Kentucky Wesleyan College 12 Al Tucker PF 6 8 190 February 24, 1943 Oklahoma Baptist University 17 Josiah Dowling SF 6 7 184 May 20, 1945 Hampton University 20 Lonnie Wright SG 6 2 205 January 23, 1945 Colorado State Bob Bass https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/FLO/1972.html Final standings Eastern Division + Team W L % GB Kentucky Colonels 68 16 .810 - Virginia Squires 45 39 .536 23 New York Nets 44 40 .524 24 The Floridians 36 48 .429 32 Carolina Cougars 35 49 .417 33 Pittsburgh Condors 25 59 .298 43 ABA Playoffs The Floridians 1972 yes #000000 #FF0090 The Floridians ABA Eastern Division Semifinals yes no yes #FF0090 #FFFFFF 0 2 0 2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 1 |March 31 | @ Virginia | L 107–114 | Long, Jabali (22) | Long, Jabali (17) | Warren Jabali (7) | Norfolk Scope3,770 | 0–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 2 | April 1 | @ Virginia | L 100–125 | Willie Long (22) | Warren Jabali (13) | Long, Tucker, Calvin (3) | Hampton Coliseum2,921 | 0–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 3 | April 4 | Virginia | L 113–118 | Mack Calvin (27) | Jabali, Raymond (12) | Jabali, Calvin (8) | Miami-Dade Junior College North2,965 | 0–3 |- |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 4 | April 6 | Virginia | L 106–115 | Mack Calvin (23) | Ron Franz (11) | Mack Calvin (10) | Miami-Dade Junior College North3,117 | 0–4 |- FLO 1972 yes Awards and honors 1972 ABA All-Star Game selections (game played on January 29, 1972) Mack Calvin Warren Jabali ABA Dispersal Draft On June 13, 1972, months after participating in and completing the 1972 ABA draft, it was announced by ABA commissioner Jack Dolph that both The Floridians and Pittsburgh Condors franchises would go defunct for the 1972–73 ABA season due to neither team finding a viable location to help ensure their survival beyond the season, especially due to rumblings regarding a future NBA-ABA merger looking to not include either team alongside the Memphis Pros (who would soon afterward rebrand themselves into the Memphis Tams in an attempt to regain sustainability in the ABA) due to them all being considered the weakest links of the ABA at the time.https://newspaperarchive.com/findlay-republican-courier-jun-12-1972-p-15/https://newspaperarchive.com/abilene-reporter-news-jun-14-1972-p-48/ For The Floridians franchise, they would fold operations in what was considered to be a tax write-off by the ABA after failing to secure a relocation deal to Cincinnati and various plans involving cities like Montreal (which would have being outside of the United States of America region for the ABA), Albuquerque, San Diego (who ironically would host their own ABA franchise later that year in the San Diego Conquistadors expansion franchise), and Omaha (who was slated to be sold to Peter Swanson of Swanson Foods had the ABA allowed for the initial sale to go through) ultimately fell through for varying reasons. In the final ABA draft The Floridians ever participated in, they selected Dwight Davis from the University of Houston, Mike Stewart from Santa Clara University, Scott English from the University of Texas at El Paso, Greg Starrick from Southern Illinois University (once again), Charlie Thorpe from Belhaven College, Dutch-born center Swen Nater from UCLA, Ron Thomas from the University of Louisville, Ernie Fleming from Jacksonville University, Sam Cash from UC Riverside, Tracy Tripucka from Lafayette College, Jerry Brucks from the University of Wyoming, Bobby Jack from the University of Oklahoma, Greg Flaker from the University of Missouri, Ray Golson from West Texas State University, Willie Cherry from the University of Denver, Arnie Berman from Brown University, Fred DeVaughn from Westmont College, and Bob Zender from Kansas State University with their final draft picks. The ABA would host its first ever dispersal draft a month later on July 13 involving former Floridians and Condors players, with every remaining ABA team at that point in time taking at least one player that was on The Floridians at the time of the draft. The following Floridians players or drafted players would be selected in this order by the rest of the ABA teams in this draft period.Bradley Robert D. The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts 2013 Scarecrow Press 9780810890695, pg. 426https://www.thedraftreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2607:1972-aba-draft 1972 ABA Draft June 6, 2007 The Draft Review April 27, 2025 Round 1, Pick 2: Warren Jabali (Denver Rockets) Round 1, Pick 6: Mack Calvin (Carolina Cougars) Round 1, Pick 7: Willie Long (Denver Rockets) Round 1, Pick 8: Ron Franz (Memphis Tams) Round 1, Pick 9: Swen Nater (Virginia Squires) Round 1, Pick 10: Larry Jones (Utah Stars) Round 1, Pick 13: Dwight Davis (Indiana Pacers) Round 2, Pick 2 (#15): Scott English (Denver Rockets) Round 2, Pick 3 (#16): Mike Stewart (Carolina Cougars) Round 2, Pick 7 (#20): Ernie Fleming (Kentucky Colonels) Round 2, Pick 8 (#21): Dwight Jones (Indiana Pacers) Round 3, Pick 1 (#22): Sam Cash (Memphis Tams) Round 3, Pick 2 (#23): Al Tucker (Denver Rockets) Round 3, Pick 4 (#25): Jerry Brucks (Dallas Chaparrals) Round 3, Pick 5 (#26): Craig Raymond (Virginia Squires) Round 3, Pick 7 (#28): Lonnie Wright (Kentucky Colonels) Round 3, Pick 8 (#29): George Tinsley (New York Nets) Round 3, Pick 9 (#30): Tracy Tripucka (Indiana Pacers) Round 4, Pick 1 (#31): Ron Thomas (Memphis Tams) Round 4, Pick 2 (#32): Greg Starrick (Carolina Cougars) Round 4, Pick 3 (#33): Bobby Jack (Dallas Chaparrals) Round 4, Pick 6 (#36): Greg Flaker (Kentucky Colonels) Round 5, Pick 2 (#39): Greg Lowery (Virginia Squires) Round 6, Pick 1 (#41): Ray Golson (Memphis Tams) Round 6, Pick 2 (#42): Al Davis (Virginia Squires) References 2 External links Floridians on Basketball Reference RememberTheABA.com 1971-72 regular season and playoff results The Floridians page Category:Miami Floridians seasons The Floridians The Floridians, 1971-72 The Floridians, 1971-72