Photo by generalstussner on Flickr
With the threat of a shortened or even cancelled season upon us, there is very little we can do to restore a shred of basketball into our lives. What we can do, though, is reminisce over other “lost†seasons. Seasons which saw players or teams achieve extraordinary things that go beyond titles or awards, only to fade back into the background one year later. Here we will bring the tale of these lost seasons, the ones that touched us on a personal level, the ones we will never forget, though history itself might.
Previously on The Lost Season: Boris Diaw, 05-06, Bobby Simmons, 04-05, and the Seattle Supersonics, 04-05.
This edition is a history lesson painstakingly assembled and taught by Emile Avanessian, author of the terrific blog, Hardwood Hype. It’s on Spencer Haywood and his remarkable 96-70 ABA season. Enjoy.
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Be it Dr. J’s prime, or the early days of Moses Malone, George Gervin and David Thompson, the ABA is synonymous with unseen greatness. Thanks to stories from those fortunate enough to witness the feats firsthand, and the pixelated time capsule that is YouTube, we’re able to cobble together a picture, incomplete though it may be, of the incredible play that permeated the moneyball circuit. It’s far from perfect, but it’s what we’ve got.
The limited resources with which we are working, to say nothing of the limited media resources dedicated to professional basketball 35+ years ago, present certain obstacles. Chief among these is the fact that memories of ABA-era hoops tend to be visceral, rather than statistical. We are thus left to sort though nostalgic hyperbole (Julius was doing 720s from the top of the key!!), without much knowledge of actual events. While these stories occupy a really cool place in basketball lore, modern day observers are concerned as much with the “how†as they are with the “what.†Over beers I like hearing stories of how Santa Claus dunked on a unicorn, but it doesn’t add to my understanding of basketball history.
History books tend to focus on the stories of those that won — I understand this. Unfortunately, in doing so, we relegate significant chunks of history to the back burner. Mainstream knowledge of the ABA extends not far beyond Erving, Gervin, Thompson and maybe, maybe Dan Issel. And even with these guys, the vast majority of descriptions are qualitative. Think about it- how many times have you heard an off-the-cuff citation of an ABA statistic?
Who were the top three scorers (in terms of average) in ABA history? And for a single season? Who posted the highest single-season PER in league history? Who was Red Robbins? One man is responsible for four of the top nine rebounding seasons in ABA history- name him. Which player posted the top two assist averages in ABA history? Julius Erving won an ABA record three MVP awards — who was the only other multiple winner?
Despite having the top basketball talent of the late 1960s and (especially) early 1970s, the ABA’s defeat at the hands of the NBA in the battle for control of pro basketball has resulted in numerous great seasons and careers slipping through history’s cracks. This does a disservice to the best players of the era, particularly those whose greatness unfolded in some of pro hoops’ lower profile outposts. Which brings us to one such falling tree in pro basketball’s uninhabited forest — Spencer Haywood in his 1969-70 rookie season.
After a year of junior college ball (at Trinidad JC in Colorado) and another at the University of Detroit — during which he averaged 32.2 points and 22.1 rebounds per game — citing a need to provide for his mother and nine siblings, Haywood was granted basketball’s first-ever “hardship” exemption. Despite protests from the NCAA, most NBA owners and some ABA owners, he was allowed to forgo his remaining eligibility and sign a three-year, $450,000 contract to join the ABA’s Denver Rockets (who became the Denver Nuggets following the 1973-74 season).
The previous spring, following a 44-34 regular season that saw them finish third in the Western Division, the Rockets pushed the 60-win, Rick Barry-led, eventual champion Oakland Oaks to seven games in the postseason’s opening round. They were now looking to the undergraduate phenom to help them over the hump. In response, Haywood, a former All-American and Olympic gold medalist (Mexico City, 1968) authored one of the best campaigns in ABA history, and a rookie season for the ages.
The Rockets stumbled out of the gate in 1969-70, starting the season just 9-19. This resulted in the dismissal of coach John McClendon, who was replaced by Duke alum and veteran of the NIBL’s Denver-Chicago Truckers, Joe Belmont. The team responded fantastically to the change, winning 42 of its last 56 games, including 15 straight at one point, to finish the season with a 51-33 mark — good enough for first place in the Western Division.
While the change on the bench clearly had a positive impact, the key to the turnaround was Haywood. Little is available in the way of ABA highlights of Haywood, though footage of him in subsequent seasons with the Seattle Supersonics (holy alliteration, Batman!) shows a powerful and athletic player whose ability to post up, put the ball on the floor and hit a jump shot, to say nothing of his awesome rebounding ability, compare favorably to those of any modern day big man.
Haywood hit the ground sprinting with the Rockets, scoring 30 points in his regular season debut and putting up 28-30+ on a nightly basis, beasting on the glass and changing games in the paint on defense. He also won the All-Star Game MVP, with a 23-point, 19-rebound 7-blocked shot (Tracked as a stat in the All-Star Game, but not in games that counted. Oh, that wacky ABA!) performance for the West.
For all of his gaudy numbers, however, Haywood was more consistent than spectacular in his first 3+ months. In the season’s final two months, he ratcheted his game to an absurd level. On February 6, 1970, he put up his first 40-point game as a pro, posting 40 on the road against the Los Angeles Stars. Nearly a month passed before he hit for 40 again, doing so, again, in L.A. with 43 points in a March 4 loss.
This jumpstarted one of the greatest dozen-day runs by a big man in the last four decades. Three days later, Haywood equaled his season high of 43 in Washington, though 45 from Rick Barry helped the Capitols (formerly the Oakland Oaks) secure a 144-128 win. The following night, in a double-overtime win against the New Orleans (whose leading scorer, apropos of nothing, was Steve “Snapper†Jones), Haywood played all 58 minutes and scored 46 points. He followed this up with 47 two days later against the Dallas Chaparrals, and 48 against the Miami Floridians five days after that.
After plummeting to the pedestrian depths of 28-35 a night for a couple of weeks, Haywood continued his onslaught against the L.A. Stars with 41 points in a 119-98 win on March 31. He’d would go on another awesome run to close out his legendary rookie campaign, with a 40 and 26 against Dallas on April 8, 44 against Miami two days later and a 59-point explosion against the Stars (for those keeping score, that’s 45.8 per in his last four against the Stars) in the regular season finale.
In case you lost count, that’s 10 40-point performances in 57 days. Not bad, y’know, if you’re into that sort of thing.
- Prior to his 2,519 in 1969-70, only Wilt Chamberlain had scored 2,500+ points as a rookie. No one has done it since.
- His 30.0 scoring average ranks fifth for a single season is ABA history and was 2.5 per game clear of the nearest competition, Bob Verga of the Carolina Cougars.
- Haywood made 986 field goals in 1969-70. Only the aforementioned Verga was within 220 of this total, and he fell 119 short, despite just 14 fewer attempts.
- His offensive rebound total of 533 was 101 (or 23.4%) better than that of the second-place finisher, Miami’s Donald Sidle. Meanwhile, only Mel Daniels of the Indiana Pacers was within 305 of Haywood’s 1,637 total rebounds… and he fell 175 boards short.
- His 986 field goals made, 1,637 rebounds, and 19.5 rebound per game average are the all-time single-season ABA records.
- Haywood averaged just under 10 turnovers per 100 possessions (9.9)- the fourth lowest rate in the ABA that season.
- He posted a PER of 28.0, the third highest mark in league history and almost 30% clear of second place, Miami’s Donnie Freeman. His Win Share total of 17.1 was similarly in a league of its own, topping the Pacers’ Roger Brown’s second place total of 13.3 by some 29%.
- Haywood was also absurdly efficient, managing all of this with a Usage Rate (available for the ABA well before it was for the NBA) of just 24.9. His ratio of PER to Usage Rate (I wrote about it here;Â judge the merits of the metric for yourself) was 1.125. Only once in the past 35 years (Charles Barkley in 1989-90) has a player with a 25+ PER topped this number.
Sadly, the series came to an ugly end. With the game out of hand, Haywood dished out a love tap to Rick Barry after Barry had taken a hard intentional foul on Rockets’ guard Jeff Congdon. Barry and Haywood proceeded to lob, respectively, a ball and a punch at one another’s heads. Haywood was ejected, though this hardly put an end to the violence. In what can only be described as a prequel to Kermit Washington’s ill-fated blow to Rudy T’s head nearly seven years later, Rocket guard Lonnie Wright then clocked Barry with a blind-side punch, after which a number of fans rushed the floor — with one taking a shot at Barry, as he was on the floor getting attention from a trainer.
In the second round, the Rockets met up with Haywood’s regular season whipping boys, the L.A. Stars. The Rockets won the series opener- the first nationally televised pro basketball to ever take place in Denver — at home by 10 points, further cementing the notion that the heavy favorites would walk away with the series.
After that, however, the Finals-bound Stars, behind the excellent play of George Stone and Mack Calvin (23+ per game in the postseason, up from 16 and 16.8, respectively, in the regular season) and 17-15 from Craig Raymond, won four straight to complete the “gentleman’s sweep.†In the nip-and-tuck series finale (the second nationally televised game from Denver), the Stars’ took a 109-107 lead with 16 seconds left, and wound up winning the game with that score when Congdon missed a potential game-tying jumper.
Haywood’s dominant play carried over into the postseason. In 12 games, he averaged 36.7 points (with 20 more made field goals than any other player) and 19.8 rebounds, with a 26.6 PER. Despite its disappointing conclusion, Haywood’s spectacular rookie season instilled some serious optimism within the Rockets’ fans. Sadly, this optimism was short-lived.
Heading into the 1970-71 season, Haywood took part in a pair of preseason exhibition games — scoring 40+ points in each — before leaving the team over a contract dispute. Upset that a significant chunk of his salary was deferred, Haywood held out in hopes that the Rockets would agree to restructure his contract. The team refused to acquiesce to his demands, itself holding out in the hope that he would return. With most of the 1970-71 season in the books, and in the face of several lawsuits filed by the Rockets, Haywood forced a move to the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics, with whom he played 33 games in the spring of 1971.
Sadly, the marriage between pro basketball’s original underclassman and the Denver Rockets, seemingly consummated in heaven, unraveled in very short order. An ABA title eluded the team, while after an acrimonious split, while Haywood spent the dozen-year balance of his career as something of an NBA nomad. While he would never again reach those heights, in one lost season for the ages, Spencer Haywood earned his spot atop the world of professional basketball.
P.S.- the answers to the impromptu quiz?
Top three career scoring averages in ABA history? Â
- Rick Barry (30.5 points per game)
- Â Julius Erving (28.7)
- Â John Brisker (26.1, and owner of the craziest-ever disappearance from pro basketball)
- Charlie Scott (34.6 in 1971-72)
- Julius Erving (31.9 in 1972-73)
- Rick Barry (31.5 in 1971-72)
- Connie Hawkins, who posted a 28.8 PER for the 1967-68 Pittsburgh Pipers.
- Bill Melchionni of the New York Nets produced the top two assist averages in ABA history in 1970-71 (8.3 per game) and 1971-72 (8.4).
- A few things worth noting:
- No one in the history of the run-and-gun ABA ever averaged more than 8.4 assists per game for a season.
- And prior to this week, I (and probably you) had no idea who the hell Bill Melchionni was.
