1971 ABA draft


The 1971 ABA draft was the fifth draft done by the American Basketball Association, a rivaling professional basketball league to the National Basketball Association that they would eventually merge with as a part of the NBA later in the decade. Much like the previous year's draft, this year's draft would be first conducted on January 22, 1971 before being completed on March 15 later that year in New York, New York, with New York being the permanent home area of all major ABA drafts going forward. This year's draft period for the ABA and its aftermath months later would see arguably its greatest impact upon the league for success with not just some of the players that joined the ABA instead of the NBA, but also with a couple of its undrafted players from this draft period as well, primarily that of the ABA's All-Time MVP Julius Erving and George McGinnis. The ABA would steal away three players that NBA teams had drafted in the first round of the 1971 NBA draft, though none of them would hold a great impact upon either the NBA or ABA despite Roche being a member of the ABA's All-Rookie Team during his first season, while the only Hall of Famers from the NBA's draft class that year as of 2025 would both play in the ABA first before entering the NBA in later years, with the ABA's draft actually producing more Hall of Famers by comparison this time around. Interestingly, the final pick of this draft, an individual named "Slick Pinkham", would be drafted in what was essentially a prank draft pick by the Indiana Pacers since he was a gag name that was a portmanteau of head coach Bobby "Slick" Leonard and team owner Dick Tinkham, who actually did attend DePauw University. This year would also see only one team rebrand themselves some months after this draft period concluded, with the Texas Chaparrals returning to their original Dallas Chaparrals name following their only draft under the Texas regional name instead, thus making this the ABA's most successful draft period by that point in time.

Draftee career notes

This year marked the first time the ABA draft would not have the same #1 draft pick as the NBA draft did in the same year. While the NBA draft had Austin Carr from the University of Notre Dame get selected at #1 by the Cleveland Cavaliers, the ABA draft had Jim McDaniels from Western Kentucky University get selected at #1 by the Utah Stars via trading with the Texas Chaparrals instead. However, McDaniels never played for either team by comparison and instead signed up with the Carolina Cougars after the draft ended, where he played well enough in his rookie season to be named one of the league's All-Stars from his draft class, but left the Cougars to join the SuperSonics in the NBA instead due to him being dissatisfied with his contract that would have had it be paid out throughout the course of 25 years, after which he never gained the same level of success afterward either in the NBA or in his brief return back in the ABA in 1976. By contrast, the biggest success story in terms of players drafted by the ABA that year would occur with what became the eighth pick of the draft that year, center Artis Gilmore from the University of Jacksonville. During his time with the Kentucky Colonels in the ABA, Gilmore would not only be considered both the ABA's Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season, but he'd also be named both an All-Star and All-ABA First Team member in every season of play, as well as be named an All-ABA Defensive Team member in every season of play that grouping existed in, lead the league in rebounding for every season of play outside of his penultimate season there, and being named the ABA Playoffs' MVP in 1975 for the work he did with the Colonels in getting them their only championship before being shut out of the ABA-NBA merger a year later due to the Chicago Bulls wanting to gain Gilmore back in the NBA and them already having his draft rights beforehand. His results in the ABA made him an easy ABA All-Time Team member, but his work with both the ABA and NBA would help propel him into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Of the 92 overall ABA All-Stars, there were six players eligible to be selected in this year's draft that would make it to at least one ABA All-Star Game, with Roger Brown from the University of Kansas in particular being named an All-Star in the league's final season of existence in 1976 for the Denver Nuggets due to them being the best team in the ABA that season under the unique circumstances the ABA dealt with that year. Outside of the previously mentioned players, the final drafted player to be named an All-Star in the ABA was Ted McClain, who became an All-Star during his final season with the Carolina Cougars due to his defensive prowess, primarily with leading the league in steals into earning him an All-ABA Defensive Team spot in 1974 before winning the final two ABA championships with the Kentucky Colonels and New York Nets respectively. As for the undrafted players that made it big, the first player that did so was George McGinnis, a sophomore player from the University of Indiana that signed with the local Indiana Pacers despite him not only violating the initial conditions set by the NBA in order to allow for the initial ABA-NBA merger to have happened by this time, but also facing threats by the NCAA for potentially violating their rules for signing away a player of theirs years earlier then they were intended to do so before the NCAA ultimately changed their own system for later drafts at hand. McGinnis would prove to be one of the ABA's most important players during the league's later years of existence, as after he made it to the ABA's All-Rookie Team, he would not only be named an All-Star for the ABA three different times, but also made it to three different All-ABA Teams, won two straight ABA championships with the Pacers, and was named the ABA's co-MVP in 1975 due to him also leading the league in scoring that year before leaving the ABA later that year to play for the Philadelphia 76ers in the rivaling NBA, where he'd also see some success with. Still, his success in both the ABA and NBA later on would lead to him being named a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, as well as lead to him being one of three ABA players to have his number retired by the Indiana squad as of 2025. The second, and arguably biggest, player that was undrafted that year to see major success in the ABA was Julius Erving, a junior player from the University of Massachusetts that signed with the Virginia Squires some time after the draft ended. Erving would showcase why he would be named the ABA's All-Time MVP in the five seasons of play with the league following his appearance in their All-Rookie First Team with five straight All-Star Game appearances alongside the league's only Slam Dunk Contest champion, five straight All-ABA Team appearances, three straight ABA MVP awards in the league's final seasons of play, a three-time scoring champion for the ABA, an All-Defensive Team member in the ABA's final season, and two ABA Finals MVPs relating to championships won by the New York Nets, as well as become the only ABA player to have a combined total of over 30,000 career points when combining both his ABA scoring totals with his NBA scoring totals, later earning the right to have his number be retired by both the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA. Another undrafted player eligible for this year's draft, Johnny Neumann from the University of Mississippi, was notable for signing a five year deal worth a total of $2 million, though while he made it to the All-Rookie Team as well, he didn't do much with his career by comparison to the other players. One other notable player from this draft year, fifth round pick Mike Gale of the Kentucky Colonels, would also make it to the All-Defensive Team twice in the league, thus being one of seven players to take part in the All-Defensive Team twice by comparison.

Historic draft notes

Unlike the first four years of the ABA's existence, this year would mark the first year where the ABA would properly record every round's draft ordering for their draft system, with it working similarly to the NBA's own draft system at the time with the worst team having the first pick in each round available and the best team in terms of records picking last. This draft period also marked the first time where the #1 draft pick in the ABA would be traded to another team, with the recently rebranded Texas Chaparrals trading their first round pick alongside Donnie Freeman and Wayne Hightower to the Utah Stars starting by May 1971 before the Oscar Robertson v. National Basketball Association antitrust lawsuit ruined that merger plan entirely. This draft also saw Howard Porter's early leave for the ABA result in Villanova University vacate their NCAA Tournament wins during the season and three selections by the Virginia Squires be later ruled as ineligible selections due to the planned merger talks that later failed in 1971. This draft also was the only draft where a prank selection was given out, with "Slick Pinkham" being selected by the Indiana Pacers as the last pick of the draft.

Key

SymbolMeaningSymbolMeaning
^Denotes player who has been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame‡Denotes player that was selected to the ABA All-Time Team
*Denotes player who has been selected for at least one All-Star Game and All-ABA Team+Denotes player who has been selected for at least one All-Star Game
~Denotes a player that won the ABA Rookie of the Year Award#Denotes player who has never appeared in either an ABA or NBA regular season or playoff game

Draft

Notable undrafted players

These players were officially considered draft eligible for the 1971 ABA draft and went undrafted this year, yet played at least one regular season or playoff game for the ABA before the ABA-NBA merger actually commenced a few years later when it actually happened in 1976.
PlayerPos.NationalitySchool/Club team
PGLeMoyne–Owen
^‡SFUnited Statessortname|George|McGinnis