1976 ABA dispersal draft


On August 5, 1976, as a result of the ABA–NBA merger that occurred back in June of that year, the NBA hosted a dispersal draft to select players from the Kentucky Colonels and Spirits of St. Louis, the two American Basketball Association franchises that had survived the final ABA season up until the conclusion of the 1976 ABA Playoffs, but were not included in the ABA–NBA merger properly.
The eighteen NBA teams and the four ABA teams that joined the NBA, the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets and San Antonio Spurs, were allowed to participate in the draft. The teams selected in reverse order of their win–loss percentage in the previous NBA and ABA seasons. In the case of the teams that were in the ABA that survived into the NBA, all of them were already considered some of the best teams there in terms of playing record, though the Indiana Pacers were the only team to be an early selection as the apparent 8th pick of the first round of that draft due to their 39–45 record in the ABA being something that would have likely let them miss the playoffs entirely in the NBA that season, while the San Antonio Spurs, New York Nets, and Denver Nuggets would have picked at the equivalent of 17th, 19th, and 21st picks of that draft had every team used their first-round selections there. The team that made a selection paid for the signing rights to the player, which were set by the league's committee. The dispersal draft would have also lasted for upwards to three rounds had teams opted to use them all, but only one team in the Kansas City Kings even bothered using up their second round pick at all in this draft, with no teams even using the third round at all. Two dispersal round trades also occurred around this time as well, with one of them resulting in one of the teams being an immediate championship winner following the 1977 NBA Finals. The money from the draft was used to help the four ABA teams that merged with the NBA to pay off some of their obligations to the two folded ABA franchises, the Colonels and Spirits, with the third and final ABA team that had survived the ABA's final regular season, the Virginia Squires, missing out on the dispersal draft and negotiations in the ABA-NBA merger altogether. The team that made a selection was obligated to assume the player's ABA contract. The players who were not selected would become free agents.
Twenty players from both the Colonels and the Spirits were available for the draft. Eleven were selected in the first round, while the twelfth player was selected in the second round. Eight players were not selected from this draft and thus became free agents not long afterward. The Chicago Bulls used the first pick to select the Colonels' five-time ABA All-Star Artis Gilmore with a signing price of $1,100,000. The Portland Trail Blazers, who acquired the Atlanta Hawks' second pick, selected Maurice Lucas from the Colonels and Moses Malone from the Spirits with signing price of $300,000 and $350,000 respectively. Both of these players would become the only players selected in this draft to end up winning an NBA Finals championship during their careers, though they would not do so as teammates, with Lucas winning his immediately after being drafted by Portland in the 1977 NBA Finals and Malone winning his with former New York Nets star Julius Erving and Denver Nuggets rising star Bobby Jones while with the Philadelphia 76ers after joining the team in 1982 in time for the 1983 NBA Finals. Marvin Barnes from the Spirits of St. Louis, who was selected fourth by the Detroit Pistons, was the second most expensive player in the draft with a signing price of $500,000. Ron Thomas from the Colonels, who was selected ninth by the Houston Rockets, but he ultimately became the only ABA player drafted to not play a single game in the NBA at all. Several teams elected to pass up on using their first-round picks, with only the Kansas City Kings using the second-round pick as an option altogether. The draft continued up until the third round, but no other players were selected by then, making the existence of that third round become a complete waste of time and effort.
By the end of the dispersal draft, seven players from the Colonels and five players from the Spirits would be selected in this draft, while four players from the Colonels and four players from the Spirits were free to enter the NBA free agency market to sign up with other teams to potentially play in the NBA alongside all of the Virginia Squires' players that missed out on being a part of the dispersal draft. In terms of undrafted Colonels and Spirits players available, the Colonels' Allen Murphy and Johnny Neumann alongside the Spirits' Mike D'Antoni, Steve Green, and Freddie Lewis would all see play in the NBA after the dispersal draft ended, while the likes of the Spirits' Barry Parkhill and the Colonels' Jimmie Baker and Jimmy Dan Conner would never play professionally again. Meanwhile, numerous former Squires players like Mel Bennett, Mack Calvin, Fatty Taylor, Luther Burden, Mike Green, Dave Twardzik, Willie Wise, Jim Eakins, and Swen Nater would all end up playing in the NBA themselves through other teams. Notably, many of the undrafted players from the dispersal draft alongside players from the Squires would see themselves in the NBA due to one of the four surviving ABA teams giving them a shot at the NBA themselves. However, Dave Twardzik would be the only former ABA player from one of the three defunct ABA teams that was not selected in the ABA dispersal draft to later win an NBA Finals championship, with him being a part of the 1976–77 Portland Trail Blazers championship roster alongside Lucas.

Record reference of NBA & ABA teams in 1975–76

This table showcases the overall records of every NBA team and every ABA team that officially completed their respective 1975–76 seasons. The teams that are not included here are the San Diego Sails and the Utah Stars, who both folded operations in late 1975 alongside the Baltimore Claws, a planned replacement for the Memphis Sounds who did play three preseason games against the Virginia Squires of the ABA and the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA before folding operations five days before the start of what would become the ABA's final season of play.
TeamWLPCT.
Golden State Warriors5923.720
Denver Nuggets6024.714
Boston Celtics5428.659
New York Nets5529.655
Cleveland Cavaliers4933.598
San Antonio Spurs5034.595
Washington Bullets4834.585
Philadelphia 76ers4636.561
Buffalo Braves4636.561
Kentucky Colonels †4638.548
Seattle SuperSonics4339.524
Phoenix Suns4240.512
Houston Rockets4042.488
Los Angeles Lakers4042.488
Indiana Pacers3945.464
New York Knicks3844.463
New Orleans Jazz3844.463
Milwaukee Bucks3844.463
Portland Trail Blazers3745.451
Detroit Pistons3646.439
Spirits of St. Louis †3549.417
Kansas City Kings3151.378
Atlanta Hawks2953.354
Chicago Bulls2458.293
Virginia Squires ‡1568.181

† did not make it to the NBA via the ABA–NBA merger.
‡ survived the regular season, but did not make it to the ABA–NBA merger at all whatsoever.
Italics – runner-ups of their respective leagues.
Bold – champions of their respective leagues.