1974–75 Utah Stars season

August 2023 Utah Stars ABA 1975 38 46 ABA 4th Bucky Buckwalter (24-32)Tom Nissalke (14-14) Salt Palace KALL Lost in ABA Semifinals The 1974–75 Utah Stars season was the fifth season of the franchise in Utah (and eighth overall season when including their few seasons out in nearby California as the Anaheim Amigos and Los Angeles Stars) in the American Basketball Association (ABA). Despite declining from the previous season for the 3rd straight year, the Stars went into the playoffs once again, finishing seven games over San Diego for 4th place. In the Semifinals, they lost to the Denver Nuggets in 6 games. As it turned out, this was their final playoff appearance, as the team folded midway through the next season.https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/UTS/1975.html 1974-75 Utah Stars Roster and Stats Unbeknownst to fans of the Stars at the time, part of the reason as to why the hit franchise would suddenly fold with little to no warning to fans near the end of the 1975 year would relate to Stars owner Bill Daniels focusing primarily on becoming the governor of nearby Colorado during the 1974 year, losing his spot for the Republican National Committee to Governor John Vanderhoof, who in turn would lose his following election to Democrat candidate Richard Lamm.https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/08/archives/tams-send-neumann-to-stars.html Tams Send Neumann To Stars New York Times 1974-01-08Political Reports:Colorado http://www.riponsociety.org/riponforum/1974-07_VolX_No14.pdf Ripon Society 1974-09-15 While Daniels would try to help save the Stars by selling the franchise to multiple different incumbent owners, to the point of even attempting a merger with the Spirits of St. Louis as a last resort measure to save the Utah franchise specifically since the Spirits were also dealing with serious financial troubles near the end of 1975 and would have likely folded operations had the merger gone through as the Stars had planned for their ends, every attempt would ultimately go in vain for Daniels and the franchise by December 1975. Before the season officially began, the Stars drafted a 19-year old Moses Malone straight out of Petersburg High School in Petersburg, Virginia as the 22nd pick from the third round of the 1974 ABA draft (with them acquiring the pick by a trade with the Virginia Squires through a 1973 deal involving Cincy Powellhttps://www.prosportstransactions.com/basketball/DraftTrades/Years/1974-aba-college.htm 1974 ABA Draft Pick Transactions Pro Sports Transactions December 23, 2024) and later signing him to a four-year contract worth $565,000 (with additional bonuses in mind) after dealing with months-long disputes regarding his professional/collegiate status at the time since he was initially slated to go to the University of Maryland at the time. However, the ABA allowed the Stars to select Malone in spite of initial concerns due to the league noticing his poor home life at the time and expressing genuine concern for his status as a player since he only barely was considered eligible for attending the University of Maryland at the time and his family had received envelopes involving hundreds of dollars for universities to persuade Malone to attend their college or university specifically (which would have raised concerns within the NCAA had Malone stayed in the collegiate system). Malone would later end up becoming the second-leading scorer in ABA/NBA history when combining overall scoring totals in both leagues played behind only Julius Erving and earn his spot in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, as well as result in both the ABA and the NBA allowing high school seniors to enter the following year's respective drafts not long afterward. ABA Draft 1974 ABA draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality School 1 10 Joe C. Meriweather PF/C USA United States Southern Illinois 2 20 Len Kosmalski C USA United States Tennessee 3 22 Moses Malone C USA United States Petersburg High School (Petersburg, Virginia) 3 25 Aaron Jones PF USA United States Duquesne 3 27 Tom Barker PF/C USA United States College of Southern Idaho 4 38 Sam McCants G USA United States Oral Roberts 5 48 Steve Brooks C USA United States Arkansas State 7 68 Ron Lee PG USA United States Oregon 8 78 Ed Palubinskas G AUS Australia LSU 9 88 Glenn Hansen SG USA United States LSU 10 98 Mike Westra F USA United States USC Moses Malone would become the first basketball player to not only be selected directly out of high school since Reggie Harding back in 1962 for the NBA, but he'd also become the first high school senior to play directly into a professional basketball league in a modern era of play after the NBA previously forbade the idea back when they were called the Basketball Association of America. This draft listing does not include selections made from the "ABA Draft of NBA Players" done immediately afterward. ABA Draft of NBA Players Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College NBA Team 1 8 Bob Christian C USA United States Grambling College Phoenix Suns 2 18 Geoff Petrie PG/SG USA United States Princeton Portland Trail Blazers 3 28 Howard Porter PF/C USA United States Villanova Chicago Bulls 4 38 Rudy Tomjanovich PF USA United States Michigan Houston Rockets 5 48 Bob McAdoo C USA United States North Carolina Buffalo Braves The "ABA Draft of NBA Players" that was done on April 17, 1974 happened immediately after the actual ABA Draft done for this season was concluded on that day. None of the five players drafted by the Stars would report to the team this season, with Bob Christian (who previously played in a couple of games for the Dallas Chaparrals and New York Nets (now San Antonio Spurs and Brooklyn Nets respectively) earlier in his career while first being in the ABA) notably retiring from playing professional basketball altogether this season. Following this draft's conclusion, Rudy Tomjanovich and Bob McAdoo would both end up becoming future members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, though Tomjanovich would primarily enter more for his work as a head coach with the Houston Rockets in particular. Roster Utah Stars 1974–75 #003EA4 #FFFFFF #D50134 #FFFFFF 24 Ron Boone SG 6 2 200 September 6, 1946 Idaho State University 35 Roger Brown basketball, born 1942 SF 6 5 205 May 22, 1942 George W. Wingate High School 32 Randy Denton C 6 10 240 February 18, 1949 Duke 34 Clyde Dickey SG 6 3 185 December 14, 1951 Boise State 33 Jim Eakins PF 6 11 215 May 24, 1946 BYU 25 Gerald Govan C 6 10 220 January 2, 1942 Saint Mary of the Plains College 11 Wali Jones SG 6 2 180 February 14, 1942 Villanova 22 Moses Malone C March 23, 1955 260 6 10 Petersburg High 30 Roy McPipe SG May 5, 1950 205 6 3 Montana State University Billings 44 Larry Miller SG 6 4 basketball player 190 April 4, 1946 UNC 15 John Roche basketball PG 6 3 170 1949-09-26 South Carolina 10 Bruce Seals SF 6 8 210 June 18, 1953 Xavier University of Louisiana 20 Al Smith basketball PG 6 1 185 January 15, 1947 Bradley University 44 Hank Williams basketball 210 SF 6 5 April 28, 1952 Jacksonville Joe Mullaney https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/UTS/1975.html <noinclude> Final standings Western Division + Team W L PCT. GB Denver Nuggets* 65 19 .774 - San Antonio Spurs* 5133.607 14 Indiana Pacers* 45 39 .536 20 Utah Stars* 38 46 .452 27 San Diego Conquistadors 31 53 .369 34 Asterisk denotes playoff berth ABA Playoffs ABA Western Division Semifinals Game Date Location Score Record Attendance 1 April 6 Denver 107–122 0–1 7,200 2 April 7 Denver 120–126 0–2 7,298 3 April 9 Utah 122–108 1–2 5,694 4 April 11 Utah 132–110 2–2 9,106 5 April 12 Denver 119–130 2–3 7,498 6 April 14 Utah 113–115 2–4 8,448 Stars lose series, 4–2 This would end up becoming the final ABA Playoff series that the Stars would end up playing in. References External links RememberTheABA.com 1974–75 regular season and playoff results Utah Stars page Utah Stars Category:Utah Stars seasons Utah Stars, 1974-75 Utah Stars, 1974-75