1972–73 Kentucky Colonels season

ABA basketball team season August 2023 Kentucky Colonels ABA 1973 56 28 Eastern 2nd Joe Mullaney Freedom Hall ABA Finals(lost to the Pacers 3–4) WLKY 32 WHAS The 1972–73 Kentucky Colonels season was the sixth season of the Colonels out in the American Basketball Association. Despite finishing the season only one game short of leading the Eastern Division, being behind the revamped Carolina Cougars led by future Hall of Fame head coach Larry Brown, the Colonels would still manage to make it to the ABA Finals for the second time in three seasons after not just beating their stateside division rivals, the regional-based Virginia Squires, in five games, but also upset the Carolina Cougars in seven games, with them beating the regional-based Carolina squad on their home turf, which was played in Charlotte, North Carolina that night. Once they returned to the ABA Finals, the Colonels would see their stateside rivals, the defending champion Indiana Pacers, as opposed to having a rematch with the Utah Stars like it was back in 1971; while the Colonels would keep the series tight and have it go down to the wire, they ultimately lost to the defending champion Indiana Pacers in a tight seven-game series, making them the only ABA team to ever repeat as champions in the ABA. Following the season's end, the Colonels would fire head coach Joe Mullaney and replace him with former New Orleans Buccaneers/Memphis Pros and Dallas Chaparrals head coach Babe McCarthy in the hopes of overcoming their rivals to end up winning an ABA championship soon. ABA Draft 1972 ABA draft Weirdly enough, as of 2025, there has been no official draft records for the first five rounds of the 1972 ABA draft specifically, while every other round after that point has been properly recorded by basketball historians otherwise. Because of the strange dispersity of draft picks not being properly recorded this year after previously being fully recorded in the previous year's draft and the number of rounds potentially being off for even the players being selected this year, the recorded players selected in this year's draft will be marked with a ? for the pick number in particular in order to showcase the awkward display currently going on with the 1972 ABA draft year in particular (though what is known is that the Colonels would not draft within the first five rounds outside of them having the last pick of the first round in that draft (which officially became the #7 pick for the Colonels after being considered the #11 pick beforehand due to them having the best record in the ABA last season) due to the ABA having four different teams of theirs in the Memphis Pros, New York Nets, Virginia Squires, and Utah Stars all forfeiting their own first-round picks (originally at #2, #6, #9, & #10, respectively) due to them all obtaining a different player of interest some time after the 1971 ABA draft ended in a way that the ABA did not like seeing happen at all for various reasons). However, if any changes come up to where a proper, official recording of the 1972 ABA draft gets released displaying both pick numbers and round numbers for where certain players got selected, please provide the updated (potential) draft ordering with a source confirming the round and pick numbers included here. Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 7 Corky Calhoun SF USA United States Duke 6 53(?) Mike Gantt F USA United States St. Bonaventure 7 64(?) Bill Kennedy G USA United States Arizona State 8 75(?) Terry Benton F USA United States Wichita State 9 86(?) Ernest Pettis G USA United States Western Michigan 10 97(?) Cleveland Hill F USA United States Nicholls State 11 108(?) Andrew Pettes G USA United States Oklahoma 12 119(?) David Hall F USA United States Kansas State 13 130(?) Jerry Clack G USA United States Oklahoma State 14 141(?) Tom Parker F USA United States Kentucky 15 150(?) Jerry Dunn F USA United States Western Kentucky 16 159(?) Frank Lorthridge PF/C USA United States Pan American University Interestingly, none of the players selected by the Colonels in this draft would end up playing for the franchise whatsoever, with only Corky Calhoun actually having a known playing career that had him spend time in the rivaling NBA instead of with Kentucky in the ABA. ABA Dispersal Draft Months after the original ABA draft for this year concluded, the ABA held their first ever dispersal draft on July 13, 1972, after it was found out by the ABA itself that neither "The Floridians" nor the Pittsburgh Condors would be able to continue operations either in their original locations or elsewhere in the U.S.A. (or even Canada in the case of "The Floridians"). Unlike the main draft they did during the months of March and April, this draft would last for only six rounds as a one-day deal and would have the nine remaining inaugural ABA teams selecting players that were left over at the time from both "The Floridians" and Pittsburgh Condors franchises (including draft picks from both teams there) and obtain their player rights from there.https://www.thedraftreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2607:1972-aba-draft 1972 ABA Draft June 6, 2007 The Draft Review Dec 23, 2024 Any players from either franchise that wouldn't be selected during this draft would be placed on waivers and enter free agency afterward.Bradley Robert D. The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts 2013 Scarecrow Press 9780810890695, pg. 426 Interestingly, only 42 total players were selected by the nine remaining ABA teams at the time of the dispersal draft, meaning everyone else that was available from both teams was considered a free agent to the ABA not long afterward. Not only that, but the Colonels would end up picking behind the New York Nets and Indiana Pacers with regards to select players from this particular draft despite them having the best record in ABA history last season since they didn't end up making it to the ABA Finals championship round this past season. With that being said, the following players were either Floridians or Condors players that the Colonels acquired during this dispersal draft. Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality University ABA Team 1 11 Walt Szczerbiak SF USA United StatesFRG West Germany George Washington Pittsburgh Condors 2 20 Ernie Fleming F USA United States Jacksonville The Floridians 3 28 Lonnie Wright PG/SG USA United States Colorado State The Floridians 4 36 Greg Flaker G USA United States Missouri The Floridians Interestingly, none of the four players that the Colonels selected in this draft would play for them in Kentucky at all either. The first-round pick, the West German-born American Walt Szczerbiak (who was born in West Germany in a Ukrainian refugee camp), would end up playing for the Eastern Basketball Association and then play overseas basketball for the rest of his career once the Pittsburgh Condors folded operations after his rookie season ended. Every other selection Kentucky made would involve players that were on "The Floridians" franchise at the time of the dispersal draft, though the only notable player there that had some semblance of a professional basketball career would be former American Football League and Denver Broncos player Lonnie Wright, who decided to retire from playing basketball entirely after "The Floridians" folded operations and the dispersal draft concluded. Neither Ernie Fleming nor Greg Flaker would end up playing professional basketball once the dispersal draft concluded. Roster Kentucky Colonels 1972–73 #012F6B #FFFFFF #012F6B #FFFFFF 42 Bill Chamberlain SF 6 6 188 December 16, 1949 UNC 10 Louie Dampier PG 6 0 170 November 20, 1944 Kentucky 32 Mike Gale PG 6 4 185 July 18, 1950 Elizabeth City State University 53 Artis Gilmore C 7 2 240 September 21, 1949 Jacksonville 44 Dan Issel C 6 9 235 October 25, 1948 Kentucky 4 Wendell Ladner SF 6 5 220 October 6, 1948 Southern Miss 30 Rick Mount SG 6 3 175 January 5, 1947 Purdue 3 Jim O'Brien basketball, born 1950 PG 6 1 170 April 9, 1950 Boston College 15 Pierre Russell SG 6 4 190 December 13, 1949 Kansas 2 Walt Simon SF 6 6 200 December 1, 1939 Benedict College 8 Ron Thomas basketball PF 6 6 215 November 19, 1950 Louisville 24 Claude Virden SF 6 6 195 November 25, 1947 Murray State Joe Mullaney https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/KEN/1973.html<noinclude> Final standings Eastern Division + Team W L % GB Carolina Cougars 57 27 .679 - Kentucky Colonels 56 28 .667 1 Virginia Squires 42 42 .500 15 New York Nets 30 54 .357 27 Memphis Tams 24 60 .286 33 ABA Playoffs ABA Eastern Division Semifinalshttp://www.remembertheaba.com/PlayoffPages/1973Playoffs.html 1972-73 ABA Regular Season Standings Remembertheaba.com 2016-07-02 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20101129165745/http://remembertheaba.com/PlayoffPages/1973Playoffs.html 2010-11-29 Game Date Location Score Record Attendance 1 March 30 Kentucky 129–101 1–0 4,692 2 April 1 Kentucky 94–109 1–1 5,139 3 April 3 Virginia 115–113 2–1 9,621 4 April 6 Virginia 108–90 3–1 8,644 5 April 7 Kentucky 114–93 4–1 16,887 Colonels win series, 4–1 ABA Eastern Division Finals Game Date Location Score Record Attendance 1 April 11 Carolina 113–103 1–0 9,165 2 April 14 Carolina 105–125 1–1 5,103 3 April 16 Kentucky 108–94 2–1 10,422 4 April 18 Kentucky 91–102 2–2 16,238 5 April 20 Carolina 107–112 2–3 11,988 6 April 21 Kentucky 119–100 3–3 16,892 7 April 24 Carolina 107–96 4–3 10,231 Colonels win series, 4–3 ABA Finals Game Date Location Score Record Attendance 1 April 28 Kentucky 107–111 (OT) 0–1 12,119 2 April 30 Kentucky 114–102 1–1 13,408 3 May 3 Indiana 92–88 2–1 10,079 4 May 5 Indiana 86–90 2–2 9,498 5 May 8 Kentucky 86–89 2–3 16,779 6 May 10 Indiana 109–93 3–3 10,079 7 May 12 Kentucky 81–88 3–4 16,597 Colonels lose series, 4–3 Awards and honors 1973 ABA All-Star Game selections (game played on February 6, 1973) Dan Issel Louie Dampier Artis Gilmore All ABA-First Team selections Artis Gilmore All ABA-Second Team selections Dan Issel References 2 Colonels on Basketball Reference External links RememberTheABA.com 1972–73 regular season and playoff results RememberTheABA.com Kentucky Colonels page Category:Kentucky Colonels seasons Kentucky Kentucky Colonels, 1972-73 Kentucky Colonels, 1972-73 Category:1972 in Louisville, Kentucky Category:1973 in Louisville, Kentucky