The 1973 ABA draft was the seventh draft done by the American Basketball Association (ABA), a rivaling professional basketball league to the National Basketball Association (NBA) that they would eventually merge as a part of the NBA only a few years later despite official merger talks ultimately being dead during these later, more competitive years of the ABA's history. This draft would be the only draft in the league's history where they would experiment with the format by utilizing four different types of drafts from the months of January until May 1973, with the draft that had the most amount of rounds showcasing the least amount of success by comparison to the other drafts in question due to most of the players that were drafted there not even playing professionally at all after being selected in the final draft done in this period of time. The first draft done on January 15 that year was for the Special Circumstances Draft, which focused on players that the ABA saw were eligible for selection early either as college underclassmen or as an early (semi-)professional player of sorts in the case of George Gervin, with the ordering on that two round draft being done around the midway point of sorts for the 1972–73 ABA season and Mike Bantom being the #1 pick of the Denver Rockets (who still kept the team name of Rockets at the time despite no longer having Bill Ringsby owning the team and having it coincide with his "Ringsby Rocket Truck Lines" company) for that draft. It also became the final draft of sorts that the Dallas Chaparrals would participate in under that name, as following the conclusion of that aforementioned season, the team would move from Dallas to San Antonio to become the modern-day San Antonio Spurs going forward (though they did initially try and utilize the San Antonio Gunslingers name at first instead, which they might have used during this draft period in April and May).[9] Following that, the ABA did both the ten round Senior Draft and then the two round Undergraduate Draft on April 25 (starting them both one day after the rivaling NBA began their draft period, thus technically marking the first time the NBA draft started before an ABA draft did), with both Bo Lamar and Bill Walton of the San Diego Conquistadors being considered the official #1 picks of those respective drafts. Finally, on May 18, thirteen days after the NBA completed their general draft period (which was technically the first time the NBA completed a draft period of sorts ahead of the ABA as well), the ABA utilized a fifteen round Supplemental Draft that only eight of the ten ABA teams participated in altogether, which saw Larry Moore of the San Diego Conquistadors become the presumed #1 pick of that specific draft, though he was the only #1 pick from an ABA draft to not have a professional career altogether. The first three drafts would see players that had genuine success throughout both the ABA and NBA in their careers (though the drafts with the lowest overall number of picks saw the most success of the lot by comparison to the Senior Draft), but the last draft saw mostly failures there that never played professionally with scant few professional successes like Slick Watts and Harvey Catchings alongside brief professional careers like John Coughran, James Garvin, Billy Harris, and Wayne Pack (the latter two players being the only players from that last draft to even play in the ABA altogether) instead.
Due to the unique circumstances relating to this draft, it can be accurate to say that the ABA had four different #1 picks for the different drafts they utilized instead of just one standardized #1 pick like the NBA did for the 1973 NBA draft (which was also the former fourth round (presumed #30) ABA pick Doug Collins from Illinois State University from the 1972 ABA draft alongside the fourth pick of the Senior Draft for this year's ABA draft). For the #1 pick of the Special Circumstances Draft, Mike Bantom from St. Joseph's University was selected as the first pick of that draft by the Denver Rockets due to them having the worst record by that period of time (with him also being the 8th pick of the 1973 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns). Meanwhile, the #1 pick that's considered the consensus #1 pick of the 1973 ABA draft due to him being that for the ABA's senior draft was Bo Lamar of the newly created San Diego Conquistadors expansion franchise (who was drafted 44th in the 1973 NBA draft by comparison). For the undergraduate draft that came right after the senior draft, that particular draft's #1 pick (which officially is referred to as the 101st pick of that particular day's draft since the senior and undergraduate drafts were back to back with each other) was Bill Walton (who was previously selected by the Dallas Chaparrals in the fourth round as the presumed 33rd pick of the 1972 ABA draft) from UCLA by the San Diego Conquistadors. Finally, for the Supplemental Draft that came by in May, the presumed #1 pick of that specific draft was Larry Moore from the University of Texas in Arlington by the San Diego Conquistadors due to them being the holders of the #1 pick in the previous two drafts, though he not only wouldn't be drafted by the NBA, but none of the players selected in the first round from that specific draft would play professionally at all whatsoever (though Craig Littlepage from the University of Pennsylvania by the San Antonio Spurs would eventually be a college basketball head coach and later athletic director after being a long-time assistant coach following his draft selection). Meanwhile, Bo Lamar would be named a member of the All-ABA Rookie Team in his first season in the ABA before fizzling out of his professional basketball career, Mike Bantom would be a part of the All-NBA Rookie Team in his career before having a more sustainable professional basketball career by comparison to Bo Lamar, Doug Collins would later become a four-time NBA All-Star before coaching in the NBA later in his career, and Bill Walton ultimately would make it to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for his overall career.
From the Special Circumstances Draft, three players from that specific draft would be a part of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Freshman #8 pick Robert Parish from Centenary College, former Eastern Michigan University sophomore (and at the time original Continental Basketball Association's Pontiac Chaparrals (no relation to the Dallas Chaparrals franchise that later became the San Antonio Spurs)) #10 pick George Gervin, and junior #11 pick Bobby Jones from the University of North Carolina would all make it to the Hall of Fame, with Gervin and Jones both playing in the ABA during their careers. For the Senior Draft, only #40 pick Krešimir Ćosić from Brigham Young University and #51 pick George Karl from the University of North Carolina would end up making it to the Hall of Fame themselves, with the former primarily making it due to his international playing career and the latter primarily making it for his coaching career more than anything else. The other interesting notable player from the senior draft was #58 pick Dave Winfield, who was the only player to get drafted in all four of the ABA, NBA, NFL, and MLB, with Winfield choosing to play in the MLB's San Diego Padres and later go into the Baseball Hall of Fame for his efforts with that league. Finally, the Undergraduate Draft would not just see the aforementioned #101 pick in junior Bill Walton from UCLA, but also sophomore #102 pick David Thompson from North Carolina State University make it to the Hall of Fame for their professional careers at hand. Finally, the Supplemental Draft would see nobody from this specific draft make it to the Hall of Fame (with this particular draft seeing scant few successes playing either in the ABA or NBA altogether), though the last pick from that draft in junior Harvey Catchings from Hardin–Simmons University (who was also drafted by the Utah Stars in the previous year's draft) would be the father of Hall of Fame WNBA star player Tamika Catchings. A few of the Hall of Famers from this year's draft would also play in the ABA All-Star Game at least once as well.
Of the 92 overall ABA All-Stars, only eight total players would make it to at least one ABA All-Star Game during the league's final seasons of existence, with two of them making it to all three of the league's final All-Star Games (none of them being from the Supplemental Draft). From the Special Circumstances Draft, four players from this specific draft would be in the ABA All-Star Game, with #2 pick Mike Green being an All-Star in 1975 after being a member of the ABA All-Rookie Team in 1974, #4 pick Larry Kenon being one of two three-time ABA All-Stars from this draft alongside an ABA All-Rookie Team member and champion in 1974, #10 pick George Gervin being the other three-time ABA All-Star from this draft that was a late ABA All-Rookie Team member for 1973 due to his prior semi-professional status at the original Continental Basketball Association making him eligible for early ABA play and a two-time All-ABA Second Team member in the league's final two seasons of play for a worthwhile ABA All-Time Team spot and a later number retirement for the San Antonio Spurs, and #11 pick Bobby Jones being an ABA All-Star and an All-ABA Second Team member in the league's final season of play after being named a member of the ABA All-Rookie Team in 1975 due to him joining the ABA during the following season instead, as well as one of seven ABA players to join the ABA All-Defensive Team only two times throughout one's playing career there. For the Senior Draft, only #25 pick Caldwell Jones would play well enough to make it to the ABA All-Star Game out of everyone that was from that specific draft, with him making it in 1975 due in part to leading the league in blocks for two straight seasons in a row in both 1974 and 1975. Finally, with regards to the Undergraduate Draft that came right after the Senior Draft, that draft saw three players selected that would be ABA All-Stars, with the technical #102 pick David Thompson being a part of the ABA All-Time Team despite only one season of play in the ABA's final season of existence with him earning not just the final year's All-Star Game spot, but also the final ABA All-Star Game MVP Award; the final ABA Rookie of the Year Award alongside one of the final ABA All-Rookie Team spots, and even one of the final All-ABA Second Team spots in his only season of play with the ABA; the technical #106 pick Marvin Barnes also being a part of the ABA All-Time Team in only two seasons of play with two ABA All-Star Game appearances alongside him winning the ABA's Rookie of the Year Award in 1975 and appearing in both the ABA All-Rookie Team and All-ABA Second Team in that same first year of ABA play; and the technical #110 pick Maurice Lucas was the fourth overall player from this year's draft (third player from this specific draft in question) to also be named a member of the ABA All-Time Team while playing in only two seasons despite having only one ABA All-Star appearance in the league's final season of play (being named as such by replacing one of three players representing the Denver Nuggets, the modern-day rendition of the Denver Rockets that year, with most of his notable achievements as a player coming from after the ABA-NBA merger). Due in part to the high amount of drafted players the ABA had this season combined with the overall amount of seasons the ABA had left to actually play, there would actually be no undrafted ABA All-Stars for the first time ever (at least, if you exclude Swen Nater as a previously drafted player that returned to college for his senior year, especially since he already had his player rights acquired by the Virginia Squires at the time).
Historic draft notes
After mostly taking on the linear NBA draft stylized formatting for their previous two drafts, partially due to anticipation from the ABA thinking they were going to have the ABA-NBA merger planned out and settled on earlier than it actually was, the ABA decided to experiment with their formatting once again for the 1973 draft. With their experimentation, they allowed themselves to work with the return of the "Special Circumstances Draft" under a more improved model from what they first tried back in 1971 (allowing themselves to draft college underclassmen or the equivalent of such players early in the season instead of months before starting their upcoming season), which allowed for the Virginia Squires to sign George Gervin onto their team during their 1972–73 season after that draft ended in January due to his semi-professional status at the time. It also allowed the ABA to separate the seniors and the rest of the college underclassmen in their bigger draft night later in April, which gave them more of an opportunity to lure away underclassmen that wanted to play professional basketball early in their careers instead. Finally, the "Supplemental Draft" that was done in May was done with a purpose of likely finding more underrated basketball gems that were overlooked by the NBA elsewhere, though with scant few exceptions in mind for the eight out of ten ABA teams that participated in said draft during that month, that particular draft was overall deemed a failure by comparison to the other drafts done that year. If one were to combine the total rounds from all four of those drafts into one whole draft properly, this year's draft would have officially lasted for a massive 29 total rounds with the most number of players drafted by the ABA for a grand total of 212 players selected for officially recorded data. However, to simplify the process a bit in this case, this year's draft coverage will have the four drafts separated as they originally were presented at the time. Outside of the Dallas Chaparrals moving to San Antonio in order to essentially become the modern-day San Antonio Spurs that currently exist in the NBA to this day (after briefly flirting with the idea of using the San Antonio Gunslingers name early on) following the end of the regular season months after the special circumstances draft ended,[9] no other team movement changes occurred following the conclusions of the rest of these draft events, (though the Memphis Tams were dangerously close to either relocating elsewhere themselves or otherwise folding operations entirely similar to "The Floridians" and the Pittsburgh Condors did the previous year in the ABA during the offseason period) thus tying 1971 as the most stable draft year period for the ABA's teams due to no one outside of the Chaparrals franchise moving or changing team names once again.
Denotes player who has never appeared in either an ABA or NBA regular season or playoff game
Drafts
Unlike the other draft years done by the ABA, this year's draft in particular would be done in four separate areas of interest. As such, each specific draft for this year will have its own section to work with instead.
1973 ABA special circumstances draft
This specific draft would technically be considered the last draft event that the Dallas Chaparrals would participate in under that name,[9] as well as become the first official draft that the San Diego Conquistadors would participate in outside of the previous year's expansion draft.[10] Following the end of the 1972–73 ABA season, the Chaparrals franchise would move to San Antonio, Texas to initially be called the San Antonio Gunslingers before later entering the upcoming season onward as the San Antonio Spurs properly. As such, the San Antonio franchise would claim all of the Chaparrals franchise's assets, including franchise history and draft rights from not just this draft, but also the other drafts held later in the year. That being said, every player selected in this particular draft except for George Gervin were selected as players that the ABA had deemed necessary to be drafted early via special circumstances coming out of college or university, regardless of whether they were already close toward graduating from said college or university before this special draft began or not. In the case of George Gervin, he had actually left his college he was going to during his sophomore year in order to play minor league basketball of sorts in the originally named Continental Basketball Association for the unrelated named Pontiac Chaparrals in Pontiac, Michigan before that league was about to go defunct a year later and that league's named would be hijacked by the Eastern Basketball Association a few years after that to become that new name for the rest of its life cycle.
For these next three draft events, the San Antonio Spurs were potentially drafting under their initial team name of the San Antonio Gunslingers at the time. They would only change their team name to the Spurs some time before the 1973–74 ABA season officially began either due to a "Name That Team" contest (though it's unknown when that contest in 1973 was officially done during that time) or by the insistence of Red McCombs, one of the new team owners, naming it after his birth place of Spur, Texas. This means this year's senior draft may or may not be the official draft debut period of the San Antonio Spurs franchise (though it retroactively is considered that officially). As for this particular draft, the focus involved would have teams draft only senior eligible players from colleges and universities for teams to potentially sign onto their teams over the rivaling NBA's teams. Ironically, a few of these players selected in this wouldn't technically be considered proper seniors for one reason or another.
The ABA undergraduate draft would be considered a continuation of the official ABA draft (known for this year as the ABA senior draft properly), with ABA teams selecting undergraduate prospects from various colleges and universities early on that weren't previously selected in the prior "special circumstances draft" in the hopes that they would play for them in the ABA, similar to what they had done with some prospects in the past or with what's currently going on in the present day with some players in more modern NBA drafts. As such, this draft's round and pick orders will be listed with the official round and pick numbers as it normally would be, followed by what the ABA considered the official round and pick numbers in parentheses due to the loose structure at hand for this year's ABA draft and only this year's ABA draft.
Bill Walton was the first pick of the 1973 ABA undergraduate draft (101st overall draft pick) by the San Diego Conquistadors.David Thompson was the second pick in the 1973 ABA undergraduate draft (102nd overall draft pick) by the Memphis Tams.Maurice Lucas was the tenth pick in the 1973 ABA undergraduate draft (110th overall draft pick) by the Carolina Cougars.
Interestingly, the only two teams to decline participation in entering the supplemental draft for the ABA this year entirely were the Indiana Pacers and New York Nets. All the other teams involved in this draft would use multiple selections within multiple rounds in order to take whoever was available within this particular draft. Unlike the other drafts at hand for the ABA, however, this particular draft would see scant few successes, with most of these players never even playing professionally altogether, while the few that did mostly had success playing professionally in the rivaling NBA instead. The best successes in terms of players that were drafted there were Slick Watts, Wayne Pack, Billy Harris (the only two players to actually go and play in the ABA from this specific draft), and Harvey Catchings, the very last pick of this entire ABA draft period.
These players were officially considered draft eligible for the 1973 ABA draft and went undrafted in all four of the league's special circumstances, senior, undergraduate, and supplementary drafts throughout this year, yet still played at least one regular season or playoff game for the ABA before the ABA-NBA merger commenced three years later.
1 2 Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pp. 198-199
1 2 Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pp. 207-211
1 2 Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pp. 211-212
1 2 Bradley, Robert D. (2013). The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810890695., pp. 212-215
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