The 1974–75 San Antonio Spurs season was the second season for the San Antonio Spurs and eighth season overall when including their seasons under the Dallas Chaparrals name, including the one failed season where they attempted to rebrand themselves as the Texas Chaparrals to become a regional franchise to represent the state of Texas by playing in Lubbock and Fort Worth alongside their original home in Dallas, Texas. The Spurs made their regular season debut on October 18, 1974 by winning a 129–121 double-overtime thriller against the Indiana Pacers in Indiana. After that, the Spurs would win the next two games, getting off to a rather quick start on their ends. However, despite the Spurs going onto an 18–10 start into the season, the Spurs would fire head coach Tom Nissalke due to fans not liking the coaching style that he had for the team and replace him with Bob Bass for the rest of the season. By the end of December they would be 21–18, after finishing 7–10 in the month (with a five gaming losing streak occurring at one point with their new coach), but Bass and the Spurs would quickly recover from the poor finish for 1974 as they would enter 1975 by winning 30 of their last 45 games of the season (with the Spurs even getting a seven game winning streak at one point), which led to them finishing with over 50 victories for the first time in franchise history, either as the Spurs or as the original Chaparrals team name. However, they would only get a second place finish in the Western Division since they finished behind the Denver Nuggets there by 14 games (in what would later become the second-best record put out in ABA history behind only the 1971–72 Kentucky Colonels). In the 1975 ABA Playoffs, the Spurs once again lost in the first round to the Indiana Pacers, this time losing to them 4–2 despite the Spurs appearing to be the better team this time around due to the Pacers trading 7x All-Star Mel Daniels to the Memphis Sounds; Indiana would later reach the 1975 ABA Finals themselves, though they would lose to the Kentucky Colonels there.
ABA Draft
Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 2 15 Truck Robinson PF United States Tennessee State 3 29 Collis Temple SF United States LSU 4 35 Fred Saunders SF/PF United States Syracuse 4 36 Kim Hughes C United States Wisconsin 5 45 Gene Short SF United States Jackson State 6 55 Gary Anderson G United States Wisconsin 7 65 Gerald Cunningham F United States Kentucky State 8 75 Hercle Ivy G United States Iowa State 9 85 Walter Luckett SG United States Ohio University 10 95 Charles McKinney C United States Baylor 10 100 Mike Ogan C United States Carson–Newman This draft table does not include the "ABA Draft of NBA Players" that was done immediately afterward.
ABA Draft of NBA Players Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College NBA Team 1 5 Tom Boerwinkle C United States Tennessee Chicago Bulls 2 15 Clyde Lee PF/C United States Vanderbilt Golden State Warriors 3 25 Neal Walk C United States Florida Phoenix Suns 4 35 Steve Kuberski PF/C United States Bradley Boston Celtics 5 45 Lloyd Neal PF/C United States Tennessee State Portland Trail Blazers The "ABA Draft of NBA Players" that was done on April 17, 1974 happened immediately after the actual ABA Draft done for this season was concluded on that day. None of the five players drafted by the Spurs would report to the team this season. Interestingly, the Spurs would join the Kentucky Colonels as the only two ABA teams that year to not draft any NBA players that would later go on to become members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Roster
Regular season ABA Schedule Game Date Opponent Result Spurs Opponents Record 1 2 1974–75 San Antonio Games – Basketball-Reference.com
Season standings + 1974–75 ABA Western Standings Western Division W L PCT. GB Denver Nuggets 65 19 .774 – San Antonio Spurs 51 33 .607 14 Indiana Pacers 45 39 .536 20 Utah Stars 38 46 .452 27 San Diego Conquistadors 31 53 .469 34
ABA Playoffs ABA Western Division Semifinals Game Date Location Score Record Attendance 1 April 5 San Antonio 119–122 (OT) 0–1 8,529 2 April 7 San Antonio 93–98 0–2 7,643 3 April 10 Indiana 103–113 0–3 12,217 4 April 12 Indiana 110–109 1–3 17,389 5 April 14 San Antonio 123–117 2–3 10,986 6 April 16 Indiana 100–115 2–4 15,675 Spurs lose series, 4–2
References
External links RememberTheABA.com 1974–75 regular season and playoff results RememberTheABA.com San Antonio Spurs page RememberTheABA.com 1974–75 game by game results Spurs on Basketball Reference