American Basketball Association draft

The American Basketball Association draft was held from 1967 to 1975. Generally speaking, the ABA's drafts were considered a lot looser in terms of structure for teams to make their player choices when compared to the rivaling NBA. So much so, in fact, that in 1973, the ABA would host four different drafts that essentially held the same type of purpose at various different points of the year, while in 1974, the ABA would not only host a draft for college-based players, but also a draft for NBA players to be taken by ABA teams as well. In addition to that, according to former Washington Caps and Virginia Squires head coach Al Bianchi, the ABA would host their drafts on the drop of a hat and if a team wanted someone even after their draft was officially over and done with, they'd put him on their draft list anyway, which would later influence the rivaling NBA draft system during the 1970s decade. Due to the secretive nature of the league's early drafts alongside their looser structures, not much is known about the draft records of where certain players were selected in which round early on outside of who the #1 pick of each draft was. It wouldn't be until 1971 where the ABA would list out a proper ordering of rounds and teams in the draft systems they had, and even then, the ABA did not officially list out a proper draft list selection ordering of the 1972 draft for the first five rounds in particular, while the league showcased extra draft gimmicks in 1973 and 1974 alongside the actual ABA drafts done before having a simple draft similar to the NBA draft again (albeit with a bonus round added for two teams via outside circumstances) in 1975.

First overall picks

Year	Team	Player	Position	College
1967	Indiana Pacers	Jimmy Walker	Shooting Guard	Providence College Friars
1968	Houston Mavericks	Elvin Hayes	Power Forward/Center	University of Houston Cougars
1969	New York Nets	Lew Alcindor	Center	UCLA Bruins
1970	New York Nets	Bob Lanier	Center	St. Bonaventure University Bonnies
1971	Utah Stars	Jim McDaniels	Power Forward/Center	Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
1972	Virginia Squires	Bob McAdoo	Center/Power Forward	North Carolina Tar Heels
1973	San Diego Conquistadors	Dwight Lamar	Point Guard	University of Southwestern Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
1974	Virginia Squires	Tom McMillen	Power Forward/Center	University of Maryland Terrapins
1975	Denver Nuggets	Marvin Webster	Center	Morgan State University Bears

Notes

Drafts

1967 ABA draft

Main article: 1967 ABA draft

No known record of which player was taken in which round outside of Jimmy Walker as the #1 pick by the Indiana Pacers was kept throughout the ABA's inaugural draft history. The reason for this related to this draft being held in secret at the end of the league's three day long meetings held in Oakland, California on April 2, 1967. What is known, however, was that the Indiana Pacers won the first ever ABA draft lottery and would select the #1 pick in the process, with the second round being reversed in draft order, followed by a new draft lottery (alongside territorial picks in mind) for the third round, with the fourth round being reversed in order of what the third round would become, and then subsequent odd-numbered rounds being done in a newly randomized rounding order and subsequent even-numbered rounds resulting in the reversal of that previous round’s ordering in question. What's also confirmed was that 130 players were drafted during twelve rounds of the 1967 ABA draft. Likewise, the New Orleans Buccaneers would be the first team to complete a draft day trade with the Oakland Oaks, as well as select multi-athlete players in Bob Seagren and Ron Widby that year. This year also saw three of the ABA's teams participate under what would ultimately become tentative names during the drafting process, with the Denver Rockets (now Denver Nuggets) initially going by the name of the Denver Larks (and at one point, the Denver Lark Buntings was considered as an extension to the original team name in mind) after already moving the previously planned Kansas City, Missouri based ABA team out to Denver before the draft began before new ownership changed the team name to subsequently save their franchise and coincide with the business the owners ran alongside the team at the time, the New Jersey Americans (now Brooklyn Nets) initially going by the New Jersey Freighters (or even New York Freighters in reference to one of the team owner's businesses that he helped run in Manhattan at the time) before later deciding to first become the New York Americans and then the New Jersey Americans by the time their first season began after failing to utilize a proper long-term home in the New York City area at the time, and the Oakland Oaks would originally go by the Oakland Americans before a dispute with the New Jersey later turned New York franchise led to them considering the Oakland Jacks name (in honor of Jack London) before ultimately going with the Oakland Oaks partially as a homage to the Jacks (named after Jack London) before ultimately changing their name to the Oaks, which was kind of considered a homage to the previous incarnation of the team name held in the second version of the American Basketball League, but was really more considered a homage to the Pacific Coast League baseball team of the same name instead.

1968 ABA draft

Main article: 1968 ABA draft

No known record of which player was taken in which round outside of Elvin Hayes as the #1 pick by the Houston Mavericks was kept throughout the ABA's second ever draft. The reason why this would be the case was due to it being held in secret, with an evaluation draft being conducted on March 9 in Louisville, Kentucky, followed by two different drafts of similar nature occurring on April 27 & May 5 in Los Angeles and Minneapolis respectively. During this specific draft, the Anaheim Amigos would move to Los Angeles and become the Los Angeles Stars, with the Stars retaining all of the Amigos' draft rights and team history from the previous season once they entered the April portion of the 1968 ABA draft. This draft year also increased the number of rounds that was had for most teams, with the draft going up to 15 rounds for most teams, with some teams utilizing at least one additional round as well (with the Amigos turned Stars using two additional rounds in their case). As such, the number of selections increased from last year's draft to this year's draft going forward with about 167 total selections made.

1969 ABA draft

Main article: 1969 ABA draft

No known record of which player was taken in which round, outside of Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) as the #1 pick by the New York Nets and Neal Walk as the #2 pick by the Houston Mavericks (mirroring the selections made in the 1969 NBA draft by the former NBA expansion teams in the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns that year, respectively) under what was dubbed as "Operation Kingfish" at the time, was kept throughout the ABA's third ever draft. The reason why that would be the case was because the ABA would host the first five rounds secretly on February 15 in Bloomington, Minnesota, with the following five rounds after that being completed on April 15 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Additional rounds would be implemented later on for most teams similar to last year's draft, but a total of 10 official rounds with every team was completed that draft year, meaning a lesser amount of draft selections were made in this year's draft. Similar to last year's ABA draft, one ABA teams would relocate and rebrand themselves immediately in-between areas of the draft, with the previously mentioned Houston Mavericks moving to the state of North Carolina to play more as a regional franchise as the Carolina Cougars, with the Cougars retaining all of the Houston Mavericks' draft rights and team history from the previous two seasons, similar to the Los Angeles Stars retaining the history of the Anaheim Amigos after one season of play. Following the repeated failures of persuading talented star players like Lew Alcindor to choose the ABA over the rivaling NBA, George Mikan would effectively resign from his position as commissioner of the ABA, with other changes being made in the ABA during that period of time as well, including the undrafted signing of sophomore Spencer Haywood for the Denver Rockets, which later caused significant changes in the world of sports drafting thanks to the Haywood v. National Basketball Association Supreme Court case.

1970 ABA draft

Main article: 1970 ABA draft

No known record of which player was taken in which round outside of Bob Lanier as the #1 territorial pick of the New York Nets and Pete Maravich as the unofficial #1 pick of the Carolina Cougars was kept throughout the ABA's fourth ever draft. However, unlike the other early drafts in ABA history, the 1970 ABA draft did at least record the first three rounds' draft round ordering and draft prospect placements by comparison to the earlier drafts done during the 1960s decade, though the rest of the rounds did not specify the proper ordering of the other players in the other rounds by comparison. Despite that point, the ABA would hold this draft's first eight rounds at its earliest date yet on January 22 in Indianapolis, while the second half of the draft (which would go from rounds 9-17 this year) would be held on March 15 in New York. This draft would see the ABA become more successful in persuading young talents to join the ABA instead of the rivaling NBA, to the point where ABA-NBA merger talks were first planned to begin after this draft concluded, though these initial plans ultimately fell short of success by the following year. This post-draft period also saw the most amount of teams revamping themselves.to start their upcoming season, with over half of the ABA's teams either moving elsewhere and/or revamping their team names into something new entirely.

1971 ABA draft

Main article: 1971 ABA draft

This draft would be the first ABA draft to have a known record of who got selected where in the ABA beyond just the fact that Jim McDaniels was the #1 pick this year by the Utah Stars from a prior trade with the Texas Chaparrals (though he wouldn't play for either team during his ABA career, despite being named an ABA All-Star in his rookie season) in their only season under that name. Not only that, the ABA would host the most rounds ever by this point in time with a grand total of 20 rounds officially being set this year. The first three rounds would be completed on January 22-23 at Greensboro, North Carolina, while the rest of the rounds starting from the fourth round onward would be completed on March 15 in New York. This draft was also notable for not just having the biggest successes in league history (having more Hall of Fame worthy players coming out of the draft period than the NBA did during this particular year, with the NBA's notable Hall of Famers from the 1971 NBA draft year previously playing for the ABA first, as well as two major successful undrafted underclassmen in George McGinnis and Julius Erving), but also for having the last selection of this particular draft be a prank selection by the Indiana Pacers with them selecting a guy named "Slick Pinkham", which was a gag name that was also a portmanteau of their (at the time) head coach Bobby "Slick" Leonard and team owner Dick Tinkham, the latter of whom actually did attend DePauw University. The ABA would also host a "Special Circumstances" Draft later in the year on September 10 in Memphis, Tennessee (the final draft event the ABA ever held in a place that wouldn't be in New York for the rest of its existence) as a response to the (at the time) recently implemented "NBA Hardship Draft" that the NBA was forced to utilize following the results of the Haywood v. National Basketball Association 1971 Supreme Court case, but only three players from that draft would be selected there: Duquesne University's Mickey Davis for the Denver Rockets, the University of California, Berkeley's Phil Chenier for the Carolina Cougars, and North Carolina State University's Ed Leftwich for the New York Nets. During the time between the regular ABA draft and the "Special Circumstances" Draft that the ABA held, the previously mentioned Texas Chaparrals would return to playing solely in their original hometown in Dallas properly to become the Dallas Chaparrals once again as opposed to playing all throughout the state of Texas as a regional franchise similar to that of teams like the aforementioned Carolina Cougars and Virginia Squires, marking this season as the most stable ABA season in terms of teams moving around and changing their team names yet.

1972 ABA draft

Main article: 1972 ABA draft

For this year, this specific draft does not include six rounds of a dispersal draft involving two ABA teams that went defunct after this draft concluded or an expansion draft of a newly created ABA team after this draft was concluded. Like the previous year's ABA draft, this year's ABA draft would also last for 20 rounds (though the amount of selections made would decrease partially due to teams forfeiting a good chunk of their top selections in the first five rounds for various reasons, some of which related to conditions involving the originally planned ABA-NBA merger that ultimately didn't occur in the end), though as of 2025, records of the first five rounds for this specific draft year in particular (which began on March 2 that year, with the rest of the rounds being completed on April 12, 1972) have been seen as inconsistent (outside of arguably the first round) when compared to other records of ABA drafts that have been recorded properly (or at least as properly as they have been able to do so). This year's draft would also be the first ABA draft to see college underclassmen get selected by the first five rounds of the draft as an option for each team there after finding notable successes with college underclassmen that went undrafted in the last three draft classes, with their most notable selection in mind being the #1 pick of this year's draft, Bob McAdoo by the Virginia Squires by a trade that was previously done by the Pittsburgh Condors earlier in the season (though McAdoo would never play in the ABA akin to most #1 picks in the ABA draft). This led to the NCAA and numerous college basketball coaches strongly criticizing the ABA for first implementing it, though their implementation eventually helped pave the way for other leagues to implement similar systems for college underclassmen as well, including for the rivaling NBA draft system in later years. Months after this draft concluded, both "The Floridians" and the aforementioned Pittsburgh Condors franchises would fold operations entirely,ref>Bradley, Robert. "Minnesota Muskies/Miami Floridians/The Floridians Year-to-Year Notes". Remember the ABA. Archived from the original on April 13, 2024. Retrieved December 23, 2024.</ref> leading to the remaining nine teams (including the recently rebranded Memphis Tams from the Memphis Pros) utilizing the first ever dispersal draft in ABA history before allowing the creation of the San Diego Conquistadors for the league's first and only expansion draft on August 10.

1973 ABA draft

Main article: 1973 ABA draft

For this year's draft, they would forgo the regular draft format that was held in the previous two years (at least) and instead hold a special circumstances draft, a senior draft, an undergraduate draft, and a supplementary draft that would go from January to May of that year. More specifically, the special circumstances draft would be held on January 15 (with the Denver Rockets having the #1 pick from that specific draft due to them having the worst record in the ABA during that period of time), while both the senior draft and undergraduate draft were both held back-to-back on April 25 (one day after the 1973 NBA draft started) and the only supplementary draft the ABA ever did was held on May 18 (thirteen days after the 1973 NBA draft concluded), with the San Diego Conquistadors expansion franchise acquiring the #1 picks in the other drafts (or at least, likely acquired the #1 pick in the supplementary draft alongside the other drafts) due to them having the worst record in the ABA by the end of their inaugural season. For each draft, Mike Bantom of St. Joseph's University by the Denver Rockets, Bo Lamar of the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette), Bill Walton of UCLA, and Larry Moore of the University of Texas in Arlington by the San Diego Conquistadors for the rest of the guys were all considered the #1 picks of each respective draft that year, with Lamar being considered the official #1 pick of the 1973 ABA draft by historic draft pundits and Walton officially considered the #101 pick of the draft day he was selected in by comparison. The special circumstances draft would be notable for not just the selection of George Gervin (who got drafted by the Virginia Squires from the unrelated Pontiac Chaparrals team in the originally named Continental Basketball Association after being expelled from Eastern Michigan University in his sophomore year), but also for it being the last ever draft that the Dallas Chaparrals franchise would officially participate in. Once the 1972–73 regular season period for the ABA ended, the Chaparrals would move from Dallas to San Antonio to initially become the San Antonio Gunslingers for at least the April drafts, if not the May draft as well, before ultimately becoming the San Antonio Spurs for good by the start of the 1973–74 ABA season (and remaining that way to this day, to the point where records have the team retroactively being listed as the Spurs when drafting under their San Antonio name for 1973), tying the league's record of stability for least amount of teams to move around or relocate/rebrand themselves from one season to the next.

1974 ABA draft

Main article: 1974 ABA draft

In addition to 10 rounds of the regular ABA draft of college players that had 100 players selected, there would also be an ABA draft of NBA players done during that same year. This would be in major contrast to the previous year's draft where they went with four different draft systems that lasted for a grand total of 29 draft rounds that led to them selecting a grand total of 212 players there. The first two rounds would be done on March 6 that year, while the rest of the draft, including the ABA draft of NBA players that came immediately after the ABA draft proper concluded, occurred on April 17. While this draft period would see some major blows being dealt to the ABA between the quality of their #1 selection and where he would head off to, the fact that all of their top three selections would decline playing in the ABA for varying reasons (mostly playing for the rivaling NBA instead), and that none of the players they selected in the ABA draft of NBA players would actually play for the ABA teams that drafted them properly, this draft would also see a major success story in Petersburg High School senior student Moses Malone being the first player in the modern-day era to be drafted directly out of high school. Malone's success in both the ABA and the NBA later on after the 1976 ABA-NBA merger would influence both the ABA and NBA to draft high schoolers once again the following year, with the NBA later allowing for high schoolers to enter the NBA draft system once again during the late 1990s and early 2000s. This would also be the last draft that the Denver Rockets would participate in under that name, as by August 7 of that year, the team would officially rebrand themselves as the Denver Nuggets (partially to honor the original Denver Nuggets franchise that played in both the National Basketball League and National Basketball Association from 1948 until leaving the NBA to form a new, short-lived rivaling league with three other teams in 1950 and partially to avoid any potential troubles that a shared team name with the Houston Rockets of the NBA could bring later on after they previously used the Rockets name to promote a business that their original team owners had coincided with) to start out the 1974–75 ABA season. This would ultimately become the last ABA team to change their team name that also survived the ABA-NBA merger.

1975 ABA draft

Main article: 1975 ABA draft

For the final draft year of the ABA, this draft would officially last for eight rounds, with the Denver Nuggets having a bonus choice taken at the start of the draft due to the Spirits of St. Louis acquiring Marvin Barnes from them back when the Denver franchise was still known as the Rockets. (The Spirits of St. Louis would also acquire a bonus pick as well, funnily enough, due to them losing the player rights to Billy Cunningham to the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA by a court case back when they went by the Carolina Cougars, though unlike the Nuggets, the Spirits ultimately decided not to use their bonus pick by comparison, likely for financial reasons.) Unlike their previous drafts, this draft would not only be one day long, but it would also take place after the 1975 NBA draft came and went on June 16 that year, with it having the least amount of draft picks selectable with 81 official picks made. The final ABA All-Stars ever selected from this draft (#1 pick David Thompson and #30 pick Monte Towe) were both Nuggets players due to the 1976 ABA All-Star Game essentially being the Denver Nuggets (who incidentally agreed to host what ultimately became the final ABA All-Star Game back when the 1975–76 ABA season looked to have the usual ten competing teams at the time and then nine healthy-looking teams once it actually began) against the rest of the league's All-Stars that were on display that season. After the draft period ended, the Memphis Sounds moved out to Baltimore, Maryland to initially become the Baltimore Hustlers before controversy with the name by both fans and the league alike caused them to shift the name out into the Baltimore Claws, while the San Diego Conquistadors decided to rebrand themselves out into the San Diego Sails before starting what would ultimately become the final ABA season.

Before the upcoming season began, though, the Baltimore Claws would officially fold operations on October 20, 1975 (just five days before the start of the regular season) after failing to meet the ABA's own ultimatum of $500,000 to meet a performance bond after showing poor results against the Virginia Squires and the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA in the preseason. By that time, the ABA would hold a second, more impromptu dispersal draft for the remaining nine teams to utilize for their rosters to select a Claws player on their roster for a spot, if they wanted to do so later that day. Over two weeks later, following the Claws' demise as a franchise, the recently rebranded Sails franchise would suddenly fold operations themselves after only eleven games played (winning only three total games under that name) on November 11 after hearing rumors that the Sails franchise wouldn't get involved in an upcoming ABA-NBA merger due to the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, Jack Kent Cooke, not wanting any local competition during that time. As a result, a second dispersal draft from the ABA would be held on November 12, with only a select few Sails players being picked up from the now eight remaining ABA franchises this time around. Following that, after rumors of the Utah Stars and Spirits of St. Louis trying to merge their franchises together in order to save themselves as one franchise, the Utah Stars would confirm that they would fold operations on December 2 (and subsequently lead to the ABA getting rid of divisional play entirely going forward) after playing in sixteen games that season (winning only four games in the process). However, instead of having a third straight dispersal draft, the Spirits of St. Louis would agree to acquire four of the Stars' best players in order to help save their own franchise for the season, with the Virginia Squires also acquiring Jim Eakins from the Stars as well. Despite constant threats of the ABA ending the season with only six available teams in the season, they would end their final regular season period with seven teams completing their regular seasons properly, though they would still end up with only six teams by the end of the 1976 ABA Playoffs due to the Virginia Squires failing to meet a $75,000 assessment and an extra $120,000 in back pay for its players. As a result, the Squires' ownership group would not be involved in the eventual NBA-ABA merger talks of June 1976 like the rest of the ABA teams that survived up until at least the merger period (including the Kentucky Colonels and aforementioned Spirits of St. Louis who initially sought to move to Utah to become the Utah Rockies had their franchise continued onward) and none of the Squires' players would be involved in a dispersal draft done by either the ABA or the NBA in 1976 (though most of the now former Squires players that season would later play in the NBA anyway).

Further reading

• Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810890695.

External links

• NBA Draft History, ABA Draft History, First Round Picks on databaseBasketball.com