1975–76 Indiana Pacers season

ABA basketball team season (last in ABA) March 2026 August 2023 Indiana Pacers ABA 1976 39 45 3 5 Bobby Leonard Market Square Arena First Round(lost to Colonels 1–2) WTTV 4 WIBC The 1975–76 Indiana Pacers season was Indiana's ninth season and last in the American Basketball Association (ABA). One noteworthy thing involving the Pacers this season was that they were the team to have been forced to cancel a game against the recently rebranded San Diego Sails franchise after the Sails played in only 11 total games before closing up their franchise on a night where the Pacers were scheduled to play against them in San Diego. Despite later finishing the season with a losing record (which would be their first since the inaugural ABA season), the Pacers would be the fifth and final team to make it to the 1976 ABA Playoffs (being four games ahead of the Spirits of St. Louis despite them having a bunch of star players to their squad), which was the final playoffs ever done in ABA history. Once there, they would lose the quarterfinal round in what would become their final playoff series match against their original ABA rivals (the only other team that would stay put with their team name starting from the initial 1967-68 ABA season, as well as play in every ABA Playoff event, up until this point in time), the Kentucky Colonels 2–1. After that point, the Pacers would ultimately become the final ABA team out of what were considered the four strongest ABA teams in that point in time (the Denver Nuggets, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs) to survive the ABA-NBA merger and join the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the following season, with their ABA dynasty they had early on in the league playing a part in them surviving the merger from the ABA to the NBA. The next time the Pacers would make the playoffs would be in 1981, five years after their original establishment in the NBA, which would also be around the time where they would return to the Eastern Conference after first starting out in the Eastern Division back in the ABA's early days and then playing in the Western Division from 1970 until division play was abolished during the season following the rivaling Utah Stars' departure from the league, and then playing in the NBA's Western Conference from 1976 until 1980. However, they would be the last ABA team to reach the NBA playoffs by that point in time after both the Nuggets and Spurs debuted in the 1977 NBA playoffs following the ABA-NBA merger and the Nets (who would end up moving back to New Jersey following the 1976–77 NBA season, but keep the Nets name after first starting out their ABA tenure as the New Jersey Americans) made their playoff debut in 1979. ABA Draft 1975 ABA draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 7 Dan Roundfield PF USA United States Central Michigan 2 17 Charles Jordan SF USA United States Canisius College 2 18 Jim Lee PG USA United States Syracuse 3 27 Ken Tyler PG USA United States Gonzaga 4 37 Brian Hammel G USA United States Bentley College 5 47 John Ramsay F USA United States Seton Hall 6 57 Mike Flynn PG/SG USA United StatesMAR Morocco Kentucky 7 67 Cliff Pratt G USA United States Shaw University 8 77 Bill Andreas SF USA United States Ohio State Roster Indiana Pacers 1975–76 #2C3294 #FFFFFF #FCC624 #2C3294 22 Nate Barnett PG 6 3 175 Akron 10 Don Buse PG 6 4 190 Evansville 41 Len Elmore C 6 9 220 Maryland 44 Mike Flynn basketball SG 6 2 180 Kentucky 5 Travis Grant SF 6 7 215 Kentucky State 20 Darnell Hillman C 6 9 215 San Jose State 34 Charles Jordan basketball SF 6 8 220 Canisius 11 Billy Keller SG 5 10 177 Purdue 25 Billy Knight SF 6 6 195 Pittsburgh 1 Bo Lamar SG 6 1 180 Louisiana-Lafayette 24 Bob Netolicky PF 6 9 220 Drake 24 Dave Robisch C 6 10 235 Kansas 32 Dan Roundfield PF 6 8 205 Central Michigan Slick Leonard Jerry Oliver Season standings + Team W L PCT. GB Denver Nuggets * 60 24 .714 — New York Nets * 55 29 .655 5 San Antonio Spurs * 50 34 .595 10 Kentucky Colonels * 46 38 .548 14 Indiana Pacers * 39 45 .464 21 Spirits of St. Louis 35 49 .417 25 Virginia Squires † 15 68 .181 44 San Diego Sails † 3 8 .273 — Utah Stars † 4 12 .250 — Baltimore Claws † 0 0 .000 — Asterisk (*) denotes playoff team † did not survive the end of the season.Bold – ABA champions1975-76 ABA Season Summary - Basketball-Reference.com Player stats Regular season PlayerGPMPGRPGAPGSPGBPGPPGDon Buse8440.23.88.24.10.412.5Billy Knight7039.610.13.71.30.328.1Len Elmore7634.110.81.61.82.314.6Dave Robisch7631.88.81.90.90.613.4Billy Keller7829.62.93.90.80.114.2Darnell Hillman7429.39.12.01.11.113.4Bo Lamar3525.92.83.91.00.015.6Travis Grant3416.73.00.90.30.49.6Mike Flynn6716.42.02.00.70.16.3Tom Owens1615.24.30.60.10.76.5Bob Netolicky413.33.00.00.00.34.8Charles Jordan7112.03.00.70.50.25.2Dan Roundfield6711.43.90.50.50.65.1Ed Manning1211.23.11.20.30.25.0Nathaniel Barnett126.10.70.70.30.12.3 ABA Playoffs 1976 ABA Playoffs Indiana Pacers 1976 yes #0032A0 #FEDD00 Indiana Pacers ABA Quarterfinals yes no yes #FEDD00 #0032A0 1 0 0 2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 1 |April 8 | @ Kentucky | L 109–120 | Billy Knight (43) | Darnell Hillman (13) | Darnell Hillman (5) | Freedom Hall3,288 | 0–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 2 | April 10 | Kentucky | W 109–95 | Billy Knight (28) | Billy Knight & Darnell Hillman (11) | Don Buse (12) | Market Square Arena5,850 | 1–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 3 | April 12 | @ Kentucky | L 99–100 | Billy Knight (30) | Billy Knight & Dave Robisch (9) | Don Buse (9) | Freedom Hall5,267 | 1–2 |- INA 1976 yes Pacers lose series, 1–2http://www.remembertheaba.com/PlayoffPages/1976Playoffs.html 1975-76 ABA Regular Season Standings Remembertheaba.com 2016-07-03 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20101129194323/http://remembertheaba.com/PlayoffPages/1976Playoffs.html 2010-11-29 Awards, records, and honors Don Buse led the ABA in minutes played (3380), steals (346), assists (689), minutes per game average (40.2), assists per game (8.2), and steals per game (4.1) Bill Keller led ABA in 3-point field goal attempted (349) and made (123). Billy Knight was the ABA's second leading scorer (28.1) ABA All-Stars Don Buse Billy Knight1975-76 ABA Season Summary References External links RememberTheABA.com 1975-76 regular season and playoff results Indiana Category:Indiana Pacers seasons Indiana Pacers Indiana Pacers