1972 ABA draft
The 1972 ABA draft was the sixth draft done by the American Basketball Association, a rivaling professional basketball league to the National Basketball Association that they would eventually merge as a part of the NBA only a few years later despite official merger talks ultimately being dead during the later, more competitive years of the ABA's history. This year would see an odd thing happen with the first five rounds of this year's draft not be recorded properly as of 2025 in terms of round ordering from March 2, 1972 via standings from February 20, while the rest of the rounds of this draft would be recorded properly in terms of draft ordering on April 12 all at the ABA's headquarters in New York. This draft also was the first draft in the ABA to allow their teams to draft one college underclassman to the first five rounds of the draft after seeing major success with underclassmen like Spencer Haywood, Ralph Simpson, George McGinnis, and Julius Erving going from undrafted players to successful, All-Star quality players in the ABA. This new policy created by the ABA drew strong criticisms from both the NCAA and numerous college coaches when it first happened, but it would eventually help pave the way for numerous college underclassmen to take their chances with later ABA and NBA drafts the more years passed by following this draft period by the ABA. However, the ABA wouldn't see as much success from this year's draft when compared to drafts from their previous years, with most of these college underclassmen opting to return to college for at least one more year instead and a number of Hall of Fame players, including that of their #1 pick in junior Bob McAdoo, going to the NBA instead despite him not being drafted at #1 that year there. This draft period would also be the last draft that the Memphis Pros would participate in under that name since they would rebrand themselves to the Memphis Tams after this main draft period by June 1972, as well as be the last event altogether for "The Floridians" and the Pittsburgh Condors franchises, as they would both fold operations months after this draft concluded on July 13, 1972, with a new team called the San Diego Conquistadors being created a month later on August 10 that same year.
Draftee career notes
This year's #1 pick would mark the second year in a row where the ABA would not only have a different #1 pick from the NBA altogether, but also had a #1 pick that was owned by one team get itself traded to another team before the upcoming draft year began. While the NBA's draft had one of the biggest busts in NBA history via LaRue Martin from Loyola University Chicago going to the Portland Trail Blazers, the ABA's draft had one of the members of both the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors and later NBA 75th Anniversary Team in junior Bob McAdoo from the University of North Carolina as the #1 pick by the Virginia Squires by a trade with the Pittsburgh Condors. However, much like the previous #1 pick for the ABA draft, Jim McDaniels, McAdoo would not play for the ABA team that drafted him at all. McAdoo would prove his success almost immediately once he went professional by winning the NBA's Rookie of the Year Award, be named a five-time All-Star there, be named a member of the All-NBA Second Team in 1974 and All-NBA First Team in 1975, be named a three-time scoring champion for the NBA from 1974 until 1976, and later be named a two-time NBA Finals champion while with the Showtime Lakers before he later went to Italy for the rest of his career from 1986 until retiring in 1992 with two Italian and EuroLeague championships won with Tracer Milano in the process. His honors not just with the NBA, but also Italy would help him earn a spot in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, with McAdoo also being joined by Denver Rockets pick Paul Westphal from the University of Southern California and Dallas Chaparrals selected sophomore Bill Walton from UCLA, who both won at least one NBA Finals championship themselves during their careers and had significant success during their professional careers in the NBA.Out 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 the ABA All-Star Game either twice or once while the event existed: Brian Taylor, James Silas, and Swen Nater would make it to the All-Star Game twice in the ABA, while Claude Terry, the undrafted Don Buse, and the undrafted Dave Twardzik would make it to the All-Star Game only once there. Brian Taylor would be the player to see some of the most honors given to a player from this year's draft that actually played in the ABA with Taylor not only being named the Rookie of the Year in 1973 and an All-Star in the final two seasons of the ABA's existence, but also won the ABA Finals championship twice while with the New York Nets, was twice a member of the ABA's All-Defensive Team in the league's final seasons of play, and led the ABA in steals in 1975, though he would be strangely absent from the ABA All-Time Team in spite of his honors. One player that would make the ABA's All-Time Team, however, was James Silas, whose honors from the ABA included being a member of the ABA's All-Rookie Team in 1973, two All-Star appearances in the league's final seasons of play, an All-ABA Second Team spot in 1975, and an All-ABA First Team spot in 1976. Another player from this draft that would also win Rookie of the Year honors by the ABA was the Dutch-born Swen Nater, who returned to UCLA after the draft following "The Floridians" franchise folding operations entirely before being considered an undrafted signee for the following year's draft that later signed with the Virginia Squires after they had previously picked up his player rights in the ABA's first ever dispersal draft; Swen Nater would not only win the ABA's Rookie of the Year Award in 1974, but he'd also be named an ABA All-Star and a member of the All-ABA Second Team twice in two out of three seasons of play in the ABA. The last player that was drafted this year to make it to an ABA All-Star Game, Claude Terry, was mainly named an All-Star due to the Denver Nuggets being the best team of the ABA during the final All-Star Game in the ABA's existence due to the unique circumstances from before the 1976 ABA All-Star Game. As for the other two players that made it to an ABA All-Star Game while also not being drafted during this year's draft period, Don Buse from the at the time Division II University of Evansville decided to forgo playing for the Phoenix Suns immediately for a shot at playing with his home state Indiana Pacers, which led to him being an ABA Finals champion in 1973, a two-time ABA All-Defensive team member in the league's final two seasons of existence, and an ABA All-Star, an All-ABA Second Team member, and the ABA's leader in steals during that league's final season of existence before seeing similar looking success in the NBA following the eventual ABA-NBA merger with both the Pacers and Suns later in his career. Finally, Dave Twardzik from Old Dominion University stayed with the area's Virginia Squires team as an undrafted player, yet he was able to make it to the ABA's All-Star Game in 1975 before later winning an NBA Finals championship in 1977 and then having his number be retired by the Portland Trail Blazers.
Historic draft notes
Strangely enough, this draft period would be the only draft period to have recorded inconsistencies in terms of even draft locations of certain players, never mind draft orderings found within the first five rounds of the 1972 ABA draft, according to the select few basketball websites that are willing to record the ABA's draft record history in the first place. As such, the ordering of not just certain players that were drafted, but even certain teams that might have drafted some of these players are expected to be wildly inconsistent in terms of provided results given out to the public as of 2025, meaning this draft order shown here is likely not going to be 100% accurate in terms of output, especially since it looked like many teams lost selections within the first five rounds of the draft during this year. That being said, this draft period would be considered the last draft period where the Memphis Pros would participate under that team name, since they would later rename themselves to the Memphis Tams. It also ultimately became the last draft event altogether for both "The Floridians" and the Pittsburgh Condors franchises since they would both fold operations entirely on July 13, 1972, leaving the ABA with only nine operating teams for less than a month before the creation of the San Diego Conquistadors months after this draft period ended on August 10 that same year effectively had the team taking on both of those teams' spots since they both looked at San Diego as a relocation option at one point in time, as well as led to the ABA working with 10 teams for most of its operating tenure instead of 11 teams going forward.Key
| Symbol | Meaning | Symbol | Meaning |
| ^ | 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 1972 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.| Player | Pos. | Nationality | School |
| * | PG | Evansville | |
| PF/C |  United Statessortname|Dave|Twardzik |