Sports74 Gold: Basketball Early in '74-75

With this look back at late 1974 in both the college and professional games, Sports74 Gold concludes as the original Sports74 series did.

PRO BASKETBALL

Bill Walton is the No. 1 pick in the '74 NBA Draft, and he goes to the Portland Trail Blazers. In his first season, he gets 441 rebounds in 35 games.

The NBA's New Orleans Jazz plays its first season, but first, LSU alumnus Pete Maravich is traded from the Atlanta Hawks May 3, 1974. The Jazz plays at Municipal Auditorium (capacity 7,853) until the Louisiana Superdome (47,284) opens in '75.

Three arenas that open are Richfield Coliseum in northern Ohio (home of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and the WHA's Cleveland Crusaders), Market Square Arena in Indianapolis (ABA Indiana Pacers and WHA Indianapolis Racers), and Kemper Arena in Kansas City (NBA Kansas City-Omaha Kings and NHL Kansas City Scouts).

The Capital Bullets change their name to the Washington Bullets.

Among the NBA-ABA exhibitions in the preseason is Sept. 28, when the New York Nets defeat the Bullets 101-98 in overtime at the Capital Centre. Something had gone wrong in handling luggage, so Julius Erving and four other Nets players have to wear Bullets road uniforms.

The two leagues discuss merging, but one difference between the leagues' team owners is that the NBA's want to keep the option clause in place and the ABA's want it gone. The ABA sues the NBA for a total of $600 million. Oscar Robertson himself had filed a suit in 1970. The option clause will be dropped in the '76 offseason.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar plays what will prove to be his final season with the Milwaukee Bucks.

This season, Rick Barry of the Golden State Warriors makes his 4000th free throw between ABA and NBA games.

Lenny Wilkens, having coached the Seattle SuperSonics for three years before, is back to coaching after two years of playing for Bill Fitch on the Cavs. He begins his stint as head coach of the Trail Blazers.

Moses Malone, who had briefly been enrolled at the University of Maryland, leaves and signs with the ABA's Utah Stars in August, having been drafted by that team in the third round.

The Buffalo Braves play six more games at the cold Maple Leaf Gardens in '74-75. A Toronto franchise is approved for '75-76, but it will not be formed, reportedly because investors don't have enough faith in the stability of sports at this time.

This is, after all, a season in which, according to ABA president John Y. Brown, the leagues lose $16 million. "There's no way professional basketball can survive if 25 of the 28 teams in both leagues lose substantial amounts of money every year," he will say.

In October, the New York Knickerbockers gain the NBA rights to Pacers power forward George McGinnis from the Philadelphia 76ers, who had drafted him in 1973. When McGinnis instead signs a new contract with the Pacers, the Knicks lose those rights, and what follows in '75 will be a dispute between the two NBA teams over McGinnis.

The season opener for both the Cavaliers and the home Trail Blazers goes to quadruple overtime. Each team scores exactly eight points in the additional periods of this Oct. 18 game, except for the Blazers in the fourth OT, who score ten to win it 131-129.

In a game against the Hawks at the Omni Coliseum, Elmore Smith of the Los Angeles Lakers has three chances to make two free throws Dec. 28. All of the shots are air balls.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

In his final year at N.C. State, David Thompson averages 29.9 points per game and gets 229 rebounds (8.2 per game). The Atlanta Hawks will use their No. 1 overall pick in the '75 NBA Draft on him, and so will the ABA's Virginia Squires in their own league's draft, but he will go to the Denver Nuggets (who had been the Denver Rockets until after the '73-74 season) after they trade with the Squires.

This season is the last for UCLA coach John Wooden. By March, it will be the Bruins' last NCAA tournament appearance under Wooden and the program's tenth championship season.

Pat Head (later Summitt) begins her long coaching career with the Tennessee Lady Vols soon after graduating from the University of Tennessee-Martin.

Bob McCurdy of 16-12 Southern Conference member Richmond leads Division I with 32.9 points per game.

This season will be followed by the first Division III tournament.

Larry Bird, fresh out of Springs Valley High School in French Lick, Ind., initially goes to Indiana University but quickly transfers to Indiana State.

Butch Morgan, coach at the College of St. Joseph the Provider (in Rutland, Vt.), reads a poem called "Don't Quit" to the players and has them discuss it prior to the Dec. 11 game against Castleton State College. The process takes so long that the team gets five technical fouls for being late to the court, and the other team makes three of the five shots. Final score: Castleton 79, St. Joseph 78. Later, Morgan will recall that he thought his team would lose by much more.

NOTE: Over the course of this three-week interval, I received a new smartphone with a larger screen (about 5 1/2 inches), so I tested this post Oct. 1 to see how it would look on the five-inch screen of the phone I had for four years.

Sports74 Gold: Pro Basketball in '73-74

The NBA and ABA were near the peak of their rivalry. Dribble onward and take in this funky time.

In a seven-game NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics defeat the Milwaukee Bucks in all the odd-numbered games to win their first title since 1969. John Havlicek, now a member of the Celtics for seven of their championship seasons, is the MVP of the playoffs.

The New York Nets, a young team with the inexperienced Kevin Loughery as head coach, are ABA champions after a five-game final against the Utah Stars.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Bucks is the NBA's MVP for the third time. He averages 30.0 points per game and 14.5 rebounds per game.

Julius Erving, brought to the Nets from the Virginia Squires before the season, wins his first ABA MVP award and his second scoring title for the league (with 27.4 PPG).

The former Baltimore Bullets play their first season at the new Capital Centre in Prince George's County, Md. They are called the Capital Bullets for one season, and they win their division.

The 1973-74 season is the first in which the NBA keeps track of blocks and steals. The inaugural official NBA leaders in those stats are Elmore Smith of the Los Angeles Lakers, who blocks 393 shots (4.85 blocks per game), and Larry Steele of the Portland Trail Blazers, who lives up to his name 217 times (2.68 steals per game).

Smith's 17 blocks in a game Oct. 28 will still be a record 50 years later. His performance is the second of six times in the season and in his career that he makes a triple-double with points, rebounds, and blocks.

Bob McAdoo of the Buffalo Braves wins his first of three consecutive NBA scoring titles. The sophomore has 30.6 points per game in '73-74.

The Braves' Ernie DiGregorio, NBA Rookie of the Year, leads the league in assists with 663, or 8.2 per game. He also has a league-best .902 free-throw percentage.

The Bullets' Elvin Hayes leads the league in rebounding with 1,463 boards, or 18.1 per game.

More ABA stats leaders: Al Smith of the Denver Rockets with 619 assists (8.1 per game), Ted McClain of the Carolina Cougars with 250 steals (2.98 per game), and Caldwell Jones of the San Diego Conquistadors with 316 blocks (4.00 per game).

The West wins 134-123 at the NBA All-Star Game in Seattle. Bob Lanier of the Detroit Pistons is the MVP with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Lanier's scoring average for the regular season is 22.5, and his average next season will be 24.0. Also doing well for the West is Spencer Haywood of the Seattle SuperSonics, with 23 points and 11 boards in the exhibition.

The East wins 128-112 at the ABA All-Star Game in Norfolk, Va. Artis Gilmore of the Kentucky Colonels is the MVP with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Swen Nater of the San Antonio Spurs scores 29 points and gets 22 boards. Nater is named Rookie of the Year at the end of the season, and Gilmore leads the ABA in rebounds with 1,538 (18.3 per game).

The NBA's Coach of the Year is the Pistons' Ray Scott, while the Executive of the Year is the Braves' Eddie Donovan.

Sharing the award for ABA Coach of the Year are the Colonels' Babe McCarthy and the Stars' Joe Mullaney.

The All-NBA First Team: Abdul-Jabbar, the Golden State Warriors' Rick Barry, the New York Knickerbockers' Walt Frazier, the Lakers' Gail Goodrich, and Havlicek.

The All-ABA First Team: the Cougars' Mack Calvin, Erving, Gilmore, the Stars' Jimmy Jones, and the Indiana Pacers' George McGinnis.

In a game against the Portland Trail Blazers March 26, Barry scores 64 points on 30 field goals, both marks of which the NBA hasn't seen the likes since Wilt Chamberlain's best years.

Counting NBA and ABA games, the Cougars' Billy Cunningham reaches 15,000 points sometime this season.

Oscar Robertson of the Bucks retires after the season with 26,710 points and 9,887 assists.

Also among the players retiring after '73-74 is Jerry West of the Lakers, who has 25,192 points, including 1,213 free throws.

The Hall of Fame welcomes Bill Russell in the '74 offseason.

In addition to having traded Erving before the season and Nater early in it, the Squires sell George Gervin to the Spurs Jan. 31. They go from 42-42 to 28-56, and the team will have a league-worst record of 15-69 next season.

This is the struggling Memphis Tams' last year in green and gold and their last under Charlie Finley's ownership, as is the California Golden Seals' case in the WHA. They finish with the worst record in the league. The Tams will be known as the Sounds next year.

After retiring from the NBA, Chamberlain tries his hand at coaching with the Conquistadors. He originally intends to be a player as well, but the Lakers sue to keep him on the bench. Despite Wilt not being on the court and sometimes not even on the sidelines, the Q's go 37-47 -- a seven-game improvement over '72-73 -- and defeat Denver in a tiebreaker for a higher playoff seed. Just like the year before, though, Utah sweeps San Diego in the first round.

The Braves play nine regular season games and one exhibition in Toronto, where the players complain of not enough plastic foam separating the court from the rink.

Warriors guard Jim Barnett takes the ball from the referee Dec. 18 and drop kicks it "into the cheap seats on the third level" (according to his account). The resulting technical foul, in addition to a "T" called on him before, means he is out of this game against the Braves, but the Oakland fans cheer as he goes away.

Braves guard and captain Bob Kauffman argues with referee Lee Jones until second official Richie Powers tells him to return to the bench. At this March 9 game, Kauffman imitates the ref's way of walking. Powers gives him a talking-to, but Kauffman switches to impersonating Powers. The Buffalo fans love it, but Powers certainly doesn't. One technical foul is called, then another. Without even playing, Kauffman costs his team the game against the SuperSonics.

That's how the pros did. What about the college kids? It's the season of a school in red that won the big one and a rival in blue that lost big time. Plus, there's the most lopsided game ever. More roundball Feb. 9.

Gitcher Program

Ah, 1974. Somewhat like 2022, most of it was the Year of the Tiger if you're not referring to the Detroit kind. To very prematurely celebrate the 50th anniversary (for which I think I'll have some Sports74 Gold posts), here's my selection of 50 scorecard, program, media guide, and yearbook covers from that year.

I do this because for a few days my attention has been on SportsPaper.info, a site with a bunch of those covers. The wiki could use some work.

BASEBALL

ALCS program for the "Once More in '74" Oakland A's; reuses the yearbook art.

Scorecard for the A.L. East champion Baltimore Orioles; the cover mistakenly calls it a "Golden Glove."

Media guide for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won the National League pennant with Walter Alston at the helm for the seventh time.

Program for the N.L. East champion Pittsburgh Pirates, Pirates, Pirates, Pirates, Pirates, Pirates, Pirates (it was this or the album cover-looking yearbook).

Yearbook for the Atlanta Braves, with the big moment of '74 anticipated.

Yearbook for the New York Yankees, second place in the A.L. East in their first of two Shea Stadium seasons.

Scorecard for the four-games-out-of-first Cincinnati Reds with the image of Don Gullett; the crossword is filled in on the Joe Morgan version. 

Media guide for the second-place Texas Rangers, who hired Billy Martin late in '73 and watched him go to the Yankees in '75.

The All-Star Game program, with Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente as "All-Time All-Stars."

The World Series program, with a neat concept someone had to think up sometime.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL (with final '74 AP rankings; chosen for teams and not designs)

Program for Oct. 5 game, No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 12 Michigan State (ND won 19-14). 

Program for Oct. 12 game, No. 18 Texas vs. No. 1 Oklahoma (OU won 16-13).

Program for Nov. 23 game, No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 4 Ohio State (OHST won 12-10). Look at that Big Ten logo, so true to the name and compact in geographical area.

Program for Liberty Bowl, No. 20 Tennessee vs. No. 13 Maryland (TENN won 7-3).

Program for Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl, No. 11 N.C. State vs. No. 19 Houston (31-31 tie).

Program for Sugar Bowl, No. 9 Nebraska vs. No. 15 Florida (NEB won 13-10). Note the bicentennial logo at the top-right.

Media guide for No. 5 Alabama, with newcomer Bear Bryant.

THE NFL

Program for Super Bowl VIII, the second with the trophy on the front (VII was the last without it).

Program for the canceled Chicago College All-Star Game. Not the only charity exhibition game of the year, I could see while browsing.

Media guide for the Super Bowl IX champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Simple and symbolic.

Media guide for the NFC champion Minnesota Vikings.

Program for the Nov. 24 game between the San Diego Chargers and Green Bay Packers, Johnny Unitas having finished his career with the former the year before (GB won 34-0) 

Program for the Dec. 21 playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders (OAK won 28-26).

WORLD FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Program for the Aug. 28 game between the Portland Storm and Southern California Sun (SC won 45-15), teams with distinctive uniforms (not pictured). 

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Media guide for the '74 Final Four, with action from the previous year's UCLA-Memphis State game in St. Louis (it says KPLR).

Media guide for the '74-75 UCLA Bruins, with John Wooden prominently featured.

THE NBA

Playoff program for the Finals-bound '73-74 Boston Celtics.

Playoff program for the Capital Bullets in their only season under that name.

Playoff program for the champion '73-74 Milwaukee Bucks.

Media guide for the '74-75 Portland Trail Blazers, with Bill Walton's distinctive face and figure.

Program for a New Orleans Jazz vs. Kansas City-Omaha Kings game Nov. 5 at Omaha (KCO won 115-97).

THE ABA

Media guide for the '73-74 Kentucky Colonels, with a very '70s font.

Program for the '74 All-Star Game at the Norfolk Scope.

Playoff program for the Western champion Utah Stars. Groovy stripes and Rick Mount.

Program for the '74 Western runner-up Indiana Pacers' interleague game against the Milwaukee Bucks. How'd they make that picture?

Media guide for the '74-75 Pacers, whose new arena had just opened.

Yearbook for the reigning champion New York Nets of '74-75.

Media guide for the "new" Denver Nuggets, who with the name change had more of a claim to "new" than the Squires.

Media guide for the "new" Virginia Squires. Only that of the San Antonio Spurs was plainer that season.

THE NHL

Media guide for the Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers. Bobby Clarke had 37 goals in '72-73, not 36.

Playoff program for the Eastern champion Boston Bruins. Speaking of arithmetic, sometimes you'd get a program that explicitly stated the actual price plus tax. 

Media guide for the '74-75 California Golden Seals, whose Schulz-created mascot would be around for only two years.

Media guide for the expansion Washington Capitals.

THE WHA

Program for the '74-75 Quebec Nordiques (from 5th place in East to first in Canadian), with Rejean Houle in his Summit Series uniform.

Media guide for the reigning Avco Cup champion Houston Aeros.

Program for the '73-74 Eastern champion New England Whalers' Oct. 19 game against the blink-and-you'll-miss-them Michigan Stags (NE won 2-1 in OT).

AUTO RACING

Program for the 450-mile Daytona 500, whose winner is on the cover, Richard Petty also having won in '73.

Program for the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, won by David Pearson.

Program for the Indianapolis 500, held on the same day as the World 600 for the first of many times and won by Johnny Rutherford.

SOCCER

Program for the West Germany-Holland World Cup final, featuring a few flags no longer in use.

EDIT 6:55 p.m. EDT: Did some more underlining and corrected category of the Orioles item.

EDIT July 16, 7:55-8:01 a.m. EDT: Added Houston's final AP ranking and deleted an unnecessary "an."

EDIT Jan. 17, 2023, 1:32-1:43 p.m. EST: Added a period after Rutherford's name, re-worded part about Braves yearbook, and kind of fixed broken link to Rangers media guide.

EDIT June 15, 2023, 12:06-12:17 p.m. EDT: Fixed some more broken links, I hope.

EDIT Nov. 30, 2023: 2:25 p.m. EDT: Introduced the "football" label.

Moses Malone, 1955-2015

In 1974, Petersburg High School beat West Springfield 50-48 to remain basketball champions of the Commonwealth of Virginia. That season, Moses Eugene Malone, a Petersburg senior, scored 896 points to set a 12th-grade record that stood for almost forty years.¹ Then, twenty-one years before Kevin Garnett started the wave, the ABA's Utah Stars selected Malone in the third round, at a time when no other team was willing to have anyone make that jump.^2 3

He had 1,209 rebounds, including a league-leading 455 offensive, his mark of 128 blocks was among the league's top ten, and his .571 field goal percentage was third-best in the league. His play was good for an All-Star Game appearance and a place on the All-Rookie Team.

The next season, after the team folded, he played with the Spirits of St. Louis, but due to his injury and his contract holdout, he took the court nearly halfway through.

He made his NBA debut with the Buffalo Braves, Portland having claimed him in the dispersal draft. After two games, he was traded to Houston. Each team got draft picks for Malone; Portland drafted Rick Robey, while Buffalo drafted Wesley Cox and Micheal Ray Richardson. The latter ended up being dealt to the Knicks and started a solid career.

As for Moses, you don't need me to tell you what happened next. I could just throw a bunch of numbers, many pertaining to his rebound totals, but here's the nitty-gritty. Over the course of 19 seasons, he was a three-time MVP, a 12-time All-Star, and Most Valuable Player of the '82-83 NBA Finals. His jersey number, 24, is retired in Houston. In Philadelphia, his #2 should be. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in 1996 and gained a place in the Hall of Fame five years later.

Here's to the career that began in the year of '74.

<sup>1. [Andrew Rowsey of the 2013 Rockbridge County Wildcats now holds that record.]↩
2. [The next year, by the way, NBA teams drafted two guys out of high school. And also, he's not the first player to make it to the pros without going to college, as I've heard at least once today; I remember from an old sports almanac that a few guys did so in the '40s (namely Kappen, Simmons, and Graboski).]↩
3. [His Topps NBA cards are unusual in that a simple "NO" follows the colon after "DRAFTED." He was drafted, just not by an NBA team at first.]↩</sup>

More '74

Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors on their first championship in 40 years. The Warriors went 23-12 in the last four months of 1974, and they won 11 of 15 in November. They were much hotter this season, going 25-5 by the end of the calendar year! I might add some individual player stats to this entry sometime.

This summer is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, awarded to the Soviet capital October 23, 1974, by a vote of 39-20 at the 75th IOC session. The same session confirmed the selection of Lake Placid as host city for the 1980 Winter Olympics, Vancouver having withdrawn earlier in the month.

While transferring files to my new external hard drive, I decided Thursday it would be a good time to look at some library books that were almost due. One of them was The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (N.Y.: Free Press, 2001), and the following caught my eye because the year was 1974. It tells of an El Paso second baseman, Jerry Remy, who wonders if he'll ever be a major leaguer. Dave Garcia, the Diablos' manager, started a conversation that went something like this.

DG: Listen, do you know who is playing second base for the Angels?
JR: Denny Doyle.
DG: Who runs better, you or Denny?
JR: I do.
DG: Who throws better?
JR: I do.
DG: Who hits better?
JR: I do.
DG: Well then, you're going to the major leagues.

The next year, Doyle was traded to the Red Sox only to be released in 1978, as once again Remy replaced Doyle as second baseman. Remy played in the '78 All-Star Game to begin a seven-year run with the Red Sox after three with the Angels. As I looked things up for this entry, I learned he's now doing color commentary on NESN, but this May he was too ill for a road trip. Also, due to financial trouble, his restaurant near Fenway Park was closed for a time in March before being sold, and another location in his native Fall River was also sold later in May. He was back in the booth by June, though. Hope things are going better!

Basketball: The Early '74-75 Season

[EDIT 6/22/2015: Removing the apostrophes Microsoft Word forces.]

I cannot apologize enough to myself for missing those two updates, but I couldn't get to a place where I could update this for most of the last three months. Here's what I would have posted in October: a look at all of basketball; at the end of 1974, it was too early for most of the season to have happened at either level.

PRO BASKETBALL

Bill Walton is the #1 pick in the '74 NBA Draft, and he goes to the Portland Trail Blazers. In his first season, he gets 441 rebounds in 35 games.

The NBA's New Orleans Jazz play their first season. LSU alumnus Pete Maravich is traded to the Jazz from the Atlanta Hawks May 3, 1974. The Jazz play at Municipal Auditorium (capacity 7,853) until the Louisiana Superdome (47,284) opens in '75.

Three arenas that open for NBA and ABA teams as well as NHL and WHA teams are Richfield Coliseum (home of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and the WHA's Cleveland Crusaders), Market Square Arena in Indianapolis (ABA Indiana Pacers and WHA Indianapolis Racers), and Kemper Arena in Kansas City (NBA Kings, NHL Scouts).

The Capital Bullets change their name to the Washington Bullets.

Among the NBA-ABA exhibitions in the preseason is Sept. 28, when the New York Nets defeat the Bullets 101-98 in overtime at the Capital Centre. Due to an error in handling luggage, Erving and four other Nets players have to wear Bullets road uniforms.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar plays what will prove to be his final season with the Milwaukee Bucks.

This season, Rick Barry of the Golden State Warriors makes a free throw in the pros for the 4000th time.

Lenny Wilkens, having coached the Seattle SuperSonics for three years before, is back after a two-year absence and begins his stint as coach of the Trail Blazers.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

In his final year at NC State, David Thompson averages 29.9 points per game and gets 229 rebounds (8.2 per game). The Hawks will use their #1 overall pick in the '75 NBA Draft on him, but he will go to the ABA's Denver Nuggets (Rockets until '74) after they trade with the Virginia Squires, who also make him the #1 overall pick.

This season is the last for UCLA coach John Wooden. By March, it will be UCLA's last appearance in the NCAA tournament under Wooden, and the school's tenth championship season.

Pat Head (later Summitt) begins her long coaching career with the Tennessee Lady Vols soon after graduating from the University of Tennessee-Martin.

Bob McCurdy of Richmond leads Division I of the NCAA with 32.9 PPG.

This season will be followed by the first Division III tournament.

Larry Bird, age 18 as of Dec. 7 and fresh out of Springs Valley High School in French Lick, Indiana, initially goes to Indiana University, but quickly transfers to Indiana State.

Bill Walton in the '70s, as Clippers broadcaster Ralph Lawler recounts
The Jazz when they got their name and logo, according to, well, the Jazz
ABA-NBA exhibitions on RememberTheABA.com
David Thompson video highlights from NCAA Web site
John Wooden's last championship, according to the school he beat, Kentucky
Something on Larry Bird's time at IU from Inside The Hall

And that's all I prepared for 2013-14. Thanks for viewing.

COMING SOON: A special bonus.

Pro Basketball: The '73-74 Season

[EDIT 6/22/2015: This is the apostrophe police]

[EDIT 11/30/2015: Adding "basketball" label and removing justification]

In a seven-game NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics defeat the Milwaukee Bucks in all the odd-numbered games to win their first title since 1969. John Havlicek is the MVP of the playoffs.

The New York Nets are ABA champions after a five-game final against the Utah Stars.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Bucks is the NBA's MVP for the third time. He averages 30.0 points per game and gets 14.5 rebounds per game.

Julius Erving, brought to the Nets from the Virginia Squires before the season, wins his first ABA MVP award and his second scoring title for the league.

The former Baltimore Bullets play their first season in Landover, Maryland. They are called the Capital Bullets for one season.

The 1973-74 season is the first one in which the NBA and ABA keep track of blocks and steals. The first official NBA leaders in those stats are, respectively, Elmore Smith of the Los Angeles Lakers and Larry Steele of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Smith's 17 blocks in a game Oct. 28 are still a record.

Bob McAdoo of the Buffalo Braves wins his first of three consecutive NBA scoring titles. He has 30.8 points per game in '73-74.

The Braves' Ernie DiGregorio, NBA Rookie of the Year, leads the league in assists with 8.2 per game. He also has a league-high 90.2 free-throw percentage.

The Bullets' Elvin Hayes leads the league in rebounding with 18.1 boards per game.

The West wins 134-123 at the NBA All-Star Game in Seattle. Bob Lanier of the Detroit Pistons is the MVP with 24 points and 10 rebounds. His scoring average for the regular season is 22.5, and his average next season will be 24.0. Also scoring big for the West is Spencer Haywood of the Seattle Supersonics, with 23 points and 11 boards.

The East wins 128-112 at the ABA All-Star Game in Norfolk. Artis Gilmore of the Kentucky Colonels is the MVP with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Sven Nater of the San Antonio Spurs scores 29 points and gets 22 boards. Gilmore leads the ABA in rebounds with 18.3 per game, and Nater is Rookie of the Year.

The NBA's Coach of the Year is the Pistons' Ray Scott, while the Executive of the Year is the Braves' Eddie Donovan.

Sharing the award for ABA Coach of the Year are the Colonels' Babe McCarthy and the Stars' Joe Mullaney.

The All-NBA First Team: Abdul-Jabbar, the Golden State Warriors' Rick Barry, the New York Knicks' Walt Frazier, the Lakers' Gail Goodrich, and Havlicek.

The All-ABA First Team: the Carolina Cougars' Mack Calvin, Erving, Gilmore, the Stars' Jimmy Jones, and the Indiana Pacers' George McGinnis.

In a game against Portland March 26, Barry scores 64 points on 30 field goals, both marks of which the NBA hasn't seen the likes since Wilt Chamberlain's best years.

Counting NBA and ABA games, the Cougars' Billy Cunningham reaches 15,000 points sometime this season.

Oscar Robertson of the Bucks retires after the season with 26,710 points and 9,887 assists.

Also among the players retiring after '73-74 is Jerry West of the Lakers, who has 25,192 points, including 1,213 free throws.

The Hall of Fame welcomes Bill Russell in the '74 offseason.

The ABA's first-ever leader in steals is the San Diego Conquistadors' Caldwell Jones, and the Cougars' Ted McClain is its first leader in blocks.

In addition to having traded Erving before the season and Nater early in it, the Squires sell George Gervin to the Spurs Jan. 31. They go from 42-42 to 28-56, and will have a league-worst record of 15-69 next season.

This is the struggling Memphis Tams' last year in green and gold and their last under Charlie O. Finley's ownership, as was the Seals' case in the WHA. They finish with the worst record in the league and will be known as the Sounds next year.

After retiring from the NBA, Chamberlain tries his hand at coaching with the Conquistadors. Though he originally intends to be a player as well, the Lakers sue to keep him on the bench. Despite Wilt not being on the court and sometimes not even on the sidelines, the Q's go 37-47 - a seven-game improvement over '72-73 - and defeat the Denver Rockets in a tiebreaker for a higher playoff seed. Just like the year before, though, Utah sweeps San Diego in the first round of the playoffs.

The ABA from Basketball-Reference
The NBA from Basketball-Reference
ABA teams on Remember the ABA - Check out stories from the Nets and Stars to the Q's, Tams, and Squires

NEXT TIME - College basketball (and some high-school and international) in '73-74