The 1971–72 Kentucky Colonels season was the fifth season of the Colonels franchise in the American Basketball Association. The Colonels won 68 games during the season, en route to not just the best record ever put out in ABA history, but also their first ever Eastern Division title. This season, they were led by both second-year star player Dan Issel and rookie star center Artis Gilmore, who like Issel before him, signed a 10-year deal worth $1.5 million. Gilmore won both the ABA Rookie of the Year and the ABA Most Valuable Player awards, averaging 23.8 points and 17.8 rebounds per game, later joining Issel as eventual members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. However, despite the Colonels having the best record in ABA history this season, they were ultimately upset early on in the 1972 ABA Playoffs by 6 games against the New York Nets in the Eastern Division Semifinals. One other notable thing involving the Colonels this season had them going up against the Baltimore Bullets in the second ever ABA Vs. NBA exhibition game on September 22, 1971, in Louisville, Kentucky, with Kentucky winning that match 111–85.
ABA Draft
This draft was the first ABA draft to have a properly recorded historical note of every round in their draft available. Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 8 Artis Gilmore C United States Jacksonville 3 25 John Roche PG United States South Carolina 4 40 Fred Brown PG/SG United States Iowa 5 51 Mike Gale PG/SG United States Elizabeth City State College 6 62 Jim Welch G United States Houston 7 73 Larry Steele SG/SF United States Kentucky 8 84 Clarence Sherrod G United States Wisconsin 9 95 Mike O'Brien F United States Saint Leo College 10 106 Larry Saunders F United States Duke 11 117 Sid Catlett F United States Notre Dame 12 127 Jim Dinwiddie G United States Kentucky 13 137 Pierre Russell SG United States Kansas 14 146 Jerome Perry G United States Western Kentucky 15 155 Willie Cherry F United States Denver As of 2025, Artis Gilmore would be the only player that was actually drafted during the 1971 ABA draft to have ended up becoming a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. (While both Julius Erving and George McGinnis would end up joining Artis Gilmore as members of the Hall of Fame themselves later on, both of those players wound up becoming undrafted players in this ABA draft unlike Gilmore himself due to them both being juniors in their respective universities at the time of the draft, which was partially done as a stipulation by the NBA themselves in order to have the originally planned ABA-NBA merger occur back in 1971 instead of when it actually did occur years later in 1976.)
Roster
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Final standings Eastern Division + Team W L % GB Kentucky Colonels 68 16 .810 - Virginia Squires 45 39 .536 23 New York Nets 44 40 .524 24 The Floridians 36 48 .429 32 Carolina Cougars 35 49 .417 33 Pittsburgh Condors 25 59 .298 43
ABA Playoffs ABA Eastern Division Semifinals Game Date Location Score Record Attendance 1 April 1 Kentucky 108–122 0–1 4,772 2 April 4 Kentucky 90–105 0–2 8,212 3 April 5 New York 105–99 1–2 14,056 4 April 7 New York 92–100 1–3 14,896 5 April 8 Kentucky 109–103 2–3 7,949 6 April 10 New York 96–101 2–4 11,533 Colonels lose series, 4–2
Awards and honors 1972 ABA All-Star Game selections (game played on January 29, 1972, in Louisville, Kentucky) Dan Issel (named MVP of the game) Louie Dampier Artis Gilmore Coach Joe Mullaney was also selected to coach the Eastern Division Team.
ABA Most Valuable Player Award: Artis Gilmore Rookie of the Year: Artis Gilmore All ABA-First Team selections Dan Issel Artis Gilmore All ABA-Rookie Team selections Artis Gilmore
References
Colonels on Basketball Reference
External links RememberTheABA.com 1971–72 regular season and playoff results RememberTheABA.com Kentucky Colonels page