1972–73 Utah Stars season

ABA basketball team season August 2023 Utah Stars ABA 1973 yes 55 29 ABA 1st LaDell Andersen Salt Palace KUTV 2 KALL Lost in Division Finals The 1972–73 Utah Stars season was the third season of the Stars playing in the state of Utah and sixth overall season in the American Basketball Association when including their brief stints in nearby California as the Anaheim Amigos and Los Angeles Stars. They finished the season at first place in points scored at 115.6 per game, but third in points allowed at 110.0 per game. During the first half of the regular season, they were 26–16, with them getting both ten-game winning streak in that half and a five-game losing streak, both of which were team highs for that season. In the second half of the season, they went 29–13 with a much better balance in effort in mind by comparison to the first half of the season. This would lead to the Stars once again being the best team in the Western Division, though they would be two games behind the Carolina Cougars in terms of overall records in the ABA this season. In the 1973 ABA Playoffs, the Stars swept the newly created San Diego Conquistadors expansion team in the Western Division Semifinals, but they lost to the Indiana Pacers in their rematch of the previous two Western Division Finals matches (as well as the 1970 ABA Finals back when the Utah Stars were known as the Los Angeles Stars) in six games instead of in seven games like they had done last season.https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/UTS/1973.html 1972-73 Utah Stars Roster and Stats After the season ended, LaDell Andersen resigned from his duties as the team's head coach, being replaced by Joe Mullaney for the upcoming season. 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 (as well as certain round numbers, if necessary) 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 Stars were likely the last team to draft someone in this draft in the 20th round, as well as the fourth and final ABA team to forfeit their first round draft pick choice after the Memphis Pros, New York Nets, and Virginia Squires all forfeited what would have been their respective #2, #6, and #9 picks (with Utah forfeiting what would have been considered the #10 pick had none of the other teams forfeited their choices also) due to the Pros acquiring Larry Cannon from the Denver Rockets sometime after the 1971 ABA draft ended, the Nets acquiring Jim Chones (a junior college player previously drafted by the Squires in the 1971 ABA draft that got rescinded by the ABA not long afterward due to a perceived ABA-NBA merger occurring that year instead of by 1976) sometime after the 1971 ABA draft, the Squires acquiring superstar small forward Julius Erving sometime after the 1971 ABA draft, and the Stars acquiring star forward Jimmy Jones from the Pros sometime after the 1971 ABA draft ended). 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 2(?) 15(?) Chris Ford SG USA United States Villanova 3(?) 26(?) Travis Grant SF USA United States Kentucky State College 4(?) 35(?) Chuck Jura C USA United States Nebraska 5(?) 41(?) Bob Nash SF USA United States Hawaii 6 52(?) Tom Patterson SF/PF USA United States Ouachita Baptist 7 63(?) Eric McWilliams SF USA United States Long Beach State 8 74(?) Frank Russell SG USA United States Detroit 9 85(?) Mike Jackson PF USA United States Cal State Los Angeles 10 96(?) Kevin Porter PG USA United States Saint Francis College (Pennsylvania) 11 107(?) Willie Hart C USA United States Grambling College 12 118(?) Lloyd Neal PF/C USA United States Tennessee State 13 129(?) Simpson Degrate SG/SF USA United States Texas Christian 14 140(?) Mose Adolph G USA United States Cal State Los Angeles 15 149(?) Harvey Catchings PF/C USA United States Hardin–Simmons University 16 158(?) Richard Dixon G USA United States Loyola University of Los Angeles 17 167(?) Henry Steele C USA United States Northeast Louisiana University 18 173(?) Dwight Holiday SG USA United States Hawaii 19 177(?) George Price G USA United States Colorado State 20 179(?) George Bryant PG USA United States Eastern Kentucky Had the Utah Stars not forfeited their first round pick in this year's draft, they would have joined the Denver Rockets as the only other team to have used up all 20 rounds of their ABA draft picks this year, though they wouldn't still have had the most draft picks at hand this time around due to the Rockets previously trading with the Indiana Pacers some time before the 1972 ABA draft began. 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. The Stars would also be the only team to draft players in five out of six rounds instead of either all six rounds or in a lesser amount of rounds like most other ABA teams did. In any case, the following players were either Floridians or Condors players that the Stars acquired during this dispersal draft. Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College ABA Team 1 10 Larry Jones PG/SG USA United States Toledo The Floridians 2 19 Chic Downing F USA United States Benedictine College Pittsburgh Condors 3 27 Wil Robinson SG USA United States West Virginia Pittsburgh Condors 4 35 Henry Seawright G USA United States Manhattan College Pittsburgh Condors 5 40 Billy Pleas SF USA United States Detroit Pittsburgh Condors Interestingly, the Stars would join the Dallas Chaparrals as the only other team to have the majority of their selections in the dispersal draft come from the Pittsburgh Condors franchise instead of "The Floridians" franchise like most other ABA teams in this draft did. Despite that notion, Utah would still decide to use their first round pick of that draft on a player from "The Floridians" franchise with the selection of Larry Jones, who would briefly play for Utah before being traded to Dallas later in the season (albeit in 1972 still). As for the Condors players the Stars decided to select in this draft, all of these players would actually be recent draft picks that the Condors franchise made at the time before later folding operations entirely, including Wil Robinson, who would not play for the Stars this season, but later played in the ABA for the Memphis Tams the following season after this one instead. Roster Utah Stars 1972–73 #003EA4 #FFFFFF #D50134 #FFFFFF 44 John Beasley basketball PF 6 9 225 February 5, 1944 Texas A&M 31 Zelmo Beaty C 6 9 225 October 25, 1939 Prairie View A&M University 24 Ron Boone SG 6 2 200 September 6, 1946 Idaho State University 40 Glen Combs SG 6 2 185 October 30, 1946 Virginia Tech 25 Gerald Govan C 6 10 220 January 2, 1942 Saint Mary of the Plains College 33 Ira Harge C 6 9 225 March 14, 1941 New Mexico 21 Mike Jackson basketball PF 6 7 215 July 31, 1949 California State University, Los Angeles 15 Jimmy Jones basketball PG 6 4 188 January 1, 1945 Grambling State University 32 Larry Jones basketball PG 6 2 180 September 22, 1942 University of Toledo 14 Roderick McDonald basketball SF 6 6 205 April 9, 1945 Whitworth 35 Cincy Powell SF 6 7 220 February 25, 1942 University of Portland 12 Bob Warren SG 6 5 basketball 190 July 17, 1946 Vanderbilt 32 Charlie Williams basketball PG 6 0 165 September 5, 1943 Seattle University 42 Willie Wise SF 6 5 210 March 3, 1947 Drake University LaDell Andersen Larry Creger https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/UTS/1973.html <noinclude> Final standings Western Division + Team W L % GB Utah Stars 55 29 .655 - Indiana Pacers 51 33 .607 4 Denver Rockets 47 37 .560 8 San Diego Conquistadors 30 54 .357 25 Dallas Chaparrals 28 56 .333 27 ABA Playoffs ABA Western Division Semifinals vs. San Diego Conquistadorshttp://www.remembertheaba.com/PlayoffPages/1973Playoffs.html 1972-73 ABA Regular Season Standings Remembertheaba.com 2016-07-25 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20101129165745/http://remembertheaba.com/PlayoffPages/1973Playoffs.html 2010-11-29 Game Date Location Score Record Attendance 1 April 2 Utah 114–99 1–0 7,268 2 April 4 Utah 119–105 2–0 7,271 3 April 7 San Diego 97–96 3–0 1,729 4 April 8 San Diego 120–98 4–0 1,394 Stars win series, 4–0 ABA Western Division Finals vs. Indiana Pacers Game Date Location Score Record Attendance 1 April 12 Utah 124–107 1–0 7,712 2 April 14 Utah 110–116 1–1 12,233 3 April 16 Indiana 108–118 1–2 9,353 4 April 18 Indiana 104–103 2–2 10,079 5 April 19 Utah 102–104 2–3 12,453 6 April 21 Indiana 98–107 2–4 9,529 Stars lose series, 4–2 Awards and honors 1973 ABA All-Star Game selections (game played on February 6, 1973) Willie Wise Zelmo Beaty Jimmy Jones All-ABA Second Team selection: Jimmy Jones References External links RememberTheABA.com 1972–73 regular season and playoff results Utah Stars page Category:Utah Stars seasons Utah Stars Utah Stars, 1972-73 Utah Stars, 1972-73