1973–74 San Antonio Spurs season

ABA basketball team season March 2026 August 2023 January 2013 San Antonio Spurs ABA 1974 45 39 Western 3 3 Tom Nissalke HemisFair Arena Jack Ankerson Angelo DrossosJohn SchaeferRed McCombs West Division semifinals(lost to Pacers 3–4) SAS Dallas Chaparrals WOAI-TV KKYX The 1973–74 San Antonio Spurs season was the first season for the newly named San Antonio Spurs, who had spent the past six seasons as the Dallas Chaparrals (and in one season's case, the Texas Chaparrals) in the American Basketball Association. The team initially went by the San Antonio Gunslingers before the season began, but decided to change their name to the Spurs some time before the season officially began either by results of a "Name That Team" contest or by the recommendation of one of the team's new co-owners as a nod to the birth town of Spur, Texas. In any case, the Spurs made their debut on October 10, 1973, against the San Diego Conquistadors in San Antonio, losing 121–106.San Antonio Spurs (1973–Present) Afterwards, the Spurs would win just 6 of their next 13 games, with one of their first wins also resulting in the lowest number of points scored by one team in ABA history with 66 total points scored by the three-time ABA champion Indiana Pacers in a 92–66 win for the Spurs.Hollander Zander Special NBA 35th Anniversary Edition: The NBA's Official Encyclopedia of Pro Basketball 1981 NAL Books/The New American Library, Inc. 0-453-00407-5, p. 302 By the end of November, they would be back to .500. During this season, the Spurs owners would be able to buyout the previous Dallas Chaparrals owners and permanently own the team after previously being under a lease agreement with them back when they first owned the relocated franchise, which helped secure greater success with a newfound fanbase there. Also during the season, the Spurs would improve their standings with the city of San Antonio even more not just with them promoting both Coca-Cola and Pepsi products in their stadium when most arena venues would usually have one or the other involved, but also by acquiring stars Swen Nater (who would later win the ABA's Rookie of the Year Award this season despite not being drafted in the 1973 ABA draft period and instead previously being drafted in the 1972 ABA draft and later having his draft rights acquired by the Virginia Squires from "The Floridians", but staying in UCLA for his senior year) and George Gervin from the Squires in exchange for cash considerations that would help the Squires survive in the short-term. By February the Spurs were at 34–33, but they would win 11 of their next 16 games to finish the season 3rd in the five team Western Conference, going to the playoffs. In the 1974 ABA Playoffs, the Spurs lost in the first round 4–3 to the Indiana Pacers. ABA Draft 1973 ABA draft Interestingly, this year's ABA draft would involve four different types of drafts throughout the early 1973 year: a "Special Circumstances Draft" on January 15, a "Senior Draft" on April 25, a "Undergraduate Draft" also on April 25, and a "Supplemental Draft" on May 18. However, unlike every other ABA team at hand, this team would actually do the "Special Circumstances Draft" while using their old Dallas Chaparrals name since they were still called that back on January 15, 1973, while with every other draft after that, the team would make these selections either under the initially planned San Antonio Gunslingers name or the eventual San Antonio Spurs name they would use by the end of the season, if not the initially planned San Antonio Gunslingers name for the rest of these drafts before later becoming the San Antonio Spurs after the draft periods ended. Regardless of the timeline of San Antonio's selections, the new San Antonio franchise would have all of the Chaparrals' past history and draft picks, including those of the "Special Circumstances Draft" back in January 1973. As such, the following Dallas Chaparrals/San Antonio Gunslingers(/Spurs) draft picks were retroactively made by the Spurs properly this year. ABA Special Circumstances Draft Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 1 6 Kevin Kunnert C United States United States Iowa 2 17 John Brown SF United States United StatesFRG West Germany St. John's The selections of center Kevin Kunnert and small forward John Brown can be considered the last two official selections ever made by the Dallas Chaparrals franchise since those two particular picks were made back when the franchise was still going by the Dallas Chaparrals name at the time. Going from this point onward, all other selections made throughout the later drafts done this year will officially be considered San Antonio Spurs draft picks (even if they were all initially considered San Antonio Gunslingers draft picks at the time of these respective drafts first starting), with the selections of Kunnert and Brown being transferred from the Dallas Chaparrals to the new San Antonio franchise following the conclusion of the previous season, starting with their purchase from San Antonio's Professional Sports, Inc. group with the unique loan-lease plan they first had, which gave the Chaparrals the right to revive their franchise back in Dallas had the Spurs not figured things out as well as they did in their first year of ownership in the ABA. ABA Senior Draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 3 Mike D'Antoni PG United States United StatesItaly Italy Marshall 2 12 Kevin Joyce PG/SG United States United States South Carolina 3 22 Tom Kozelko PF United States United States Toledo 5 42 Luke Witte C United States United States Ohio State 6 52 Gary Melchionni PG United States United States Duke 7 62 Rich Fuqua SG United States United States Oral Roberts 8 72 Henry Wilmore SG/SF United States United States Michigan 9 82 Mark Sibley PG United States United States Northwestern 10 92 Lawrence Lilly C United States United States Alabama State The "Senior Draft" done in April is often considered the official, main draft period of the 1973 ABA draft by basketball historians. Also, when speaking retroactively with the Spurs, even though these selections made starting with the "Senior Draft" onward may have been made under the San Antonio Gunslingers name, all of these selections are still considered picks made by the San Antonio Spurs properly, if only retroactively speaking. Notably, the team's first ever draft pick while being located in San Antonio properly, Italian-American point guard Mike D'Antoni, would end up being named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors in 2008 and was named a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame (as a contributor) in 2026 after leaving the Spurs once they entered the NBA by helping the Italian team he ended up playing for, the Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano, to many different Italian and European championships throughout the rest of his European playing career before retiring from play by 1990 in order to start his coaching career with them. ABA Undergraduate Draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 11 (1) 103 (3) Dwight Jones PF/C United States United States Houston 12 (2) 112 (12) Tom Henderson PG United States United States Hawaii The "Undergraduate Draft" is considered a continuation of the "Senior Draft" that was done earlier that same day, hence the numbering of the rounds and draft picks here. ABA Supplemental Draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 3 Craig Littlepage C United States United States Pennsylvania 2 10 John Coughran SF/PF United States United States California 3 18 Bob Fullarton C United States United States Xavier University (Ohio) 4 26 Bill Kilgore C United States United States Michigan State 5 33 Ronnie Hogue G United States United States Georgia 6 39 John Laing C United States United States Augustana College (Illinois) 7 46 Jeff Overhouse F United States United States Texas A&M 8 52 Tim Dominey G United States United States Valdosta State 9 58 Billy Harris SG United States United States Northern Illinois 10 62 Bob Bodell G United States United States Maryland 11 65 Leon Howard F United States United States Wisconsin 12 68 Mark Jellison G United States United States Northeastern None of the twelve players selected in the "Supplemental Draft" would ever play for the Spurs once the team officially changed their team name from the Gunslingers to the Spurs following this draft's conclusion in May, though the San Antonio franchise would see the most number of players gain successful play either in the ABA or NBA not long afterward. While their first pick in that draft, Craig Littlepage, would be like every other first round pick in this particular draft and not play professionally either in the ABA or NBA, Littlepage would see himself be a head coach for college basketball teams for the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University before becoming an athletic director for the University of Virginia. Then, with their second pick in that draft, John Coughran, he would eventually play for a season in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors long after the NBA-ABA merger came and went after previously playing for a YMCA team and some overseas professional basketball teams before that point. Finally, after many different duds, the last player selected to see some sort of success as a professional basketball player, ninth round pick Billy Harris, would end up playing one season for the San Diego Conquistadors after not playing for either the Spurs or the Chicago Bulls during his draft year.http://www.databasebasketball.com/draft/draftyear.htm?yr=1972&lg=A 1972 ABA Draft on Basketballreference.com 2009-05-07 usurped https://web.archive.org/web/20100117183257/http://databasebasketball.com/draft/draftyear.htm?yr=1972&lg=A 2010-01-17 Roster San Antonio Spurs 1973–74 #000000 #CDD6DB #CDD6DB #000000 10 Bird Averitt SG 6 1 170 July 22, 1952 Pepperdine 42 Roger Brown basketball, born 1950 C 6 11 Kansas 225 February 23, 1950 40 Jerry Chambers SF 6 5 Utah 185 July 18, 1943 25 Coby Dietrick PF 6 10 San Jose State 220 July 23, 1948 44 George Gervin SF 6 7 Eastern Michigan 180 April 27, 1952 11 Joe Hamilton basketball PG 5 10 North Texas State 160 July 5, 1948 54 Simmie Hill SF 6 7 West Texas A&M 233 November 14, 1946 33 Rich Jones basketball PF 6 6 Memphis 220 December 27, 1946 22 George Karl PG 6 2 University of North Carolina 190 May 12, 1951 50 Goo Kennedy SF 6 5 Texas Christian University 205 August 23, 1949 31 Swen Nater C 6 11 UCLA 240 January 14, 1950 24 Bob Netolicky PF 6 9 Drake University 220 August 2, 1942 13 James Silas PG 6 1 Stephen F. Austin State 180 February 11, 1949 21 Skeeter Swift SG 6 3 East Tennessee State 204 June 19, 1946 30 Chuck Terry SF 6 6 California State University, Long Beach 215 September 27, 1950 21 Bob Warren basketball SG 6 5 Vanderbilt 190 July 17, 1946 Tom Nissalke Regular season ABA Schedule Game Date Opponent Result Spurs Opponents Record 1 2 1973–74 San Antonio Games – Basketball-Reference.com Season standings + 1973–74 ABA Western Standings Western Division W L PCT. GB Utah Stars 51 33 .607 – Indiana Pacers 46 38 .548 5 San Antonio Spurs 45 39 .536 6 San Diego Conquistadors 37 47 .440 14 Denver Rockets 37 47 .440 14https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/ABA_1973.html 1972-73 ABA Season Summary ABA Playoffs ABA Western Division Semifinalshttp://www.remembertheaba.com/PlayoffPages/1974Playoffs.html Remember the ABA: 1973-74 Regular Season Standings and Playoff Results Game Date Location Score Record Attendance 1 March 30 Indiana 113–109 1–0 7,438 2 April 1 Indiana 101–128 1–1 6,988 3 April 3 San Antonio 115–96 2–1 10,693 4 April 4 San Antonio 89–91 2–2 12,079 5 April 6 Indiana 100–105 2–3 10,079 6 April 10 San Antonio 102–86 3–3 12,304 7 April 12 Indiana 79–86 3–4 10,079 Spurs lose series, 4–3 References 30em Spurs on Basketball Reference External links RememberTheABA.com 1973–74 regular season and playoff results RememberTheABA.com San Antonio Spurs page RememberTheABA.com 1973–74 game by game results San Antonio Category:San Antonio Spurs seasons Category:1973 in sports in Texas Category:1974 in sports in Texas