Los Angeles Stars general manager Jim Hardy was tasked with expunging as many traces of the Anaheim Amigos as possible. He fired the entire front office staff, burned the uniforms (allegedly), and got rid of almost all the players. Of the 20 people who suited up for the Amigos, only three remained on the Los Angeles Stars roster for the start of the 1968-69 season. So let’s take a quick look at these guys.
Steve Chubin was a 6-3 point guard from New York who played at the University of Rhode Island, becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer (he’s now eighth on the list, but is still in the school’s hall of fame). In 1966, “Chube” was drafted in the third round by the San Francisco Warriors, but he didn’t make the team, so he went to Italy for a year. In 1967, he signed with Anaheim and actually led the Amigos in points (18.2 per game) and assists (4.7 per game). As hard as it is to believe, he was second in the ABA in total assists, behind only Larry Brown, who later went on to have a Hall of Fame coaching career. Brown also may have been the reason Chubin was passed over for the All-Star Game, as Brown was chosen as a late replacement for Dallas’ Bob Verga, who had military service.
Despite Chubin’s strong season, Hardy wanted him off the roster. But I don’t think it was just because Chubin was a sore reminder of the dark Amigo days. Chubin simply became obsolete. Los Angeles had drafted a new point guard, who turned out to be much better from Day One (more on him later). So despite opening the season with a somewhat respectable 16.6 ppg and 4.6 apg, Chubin was traded to Minnesota after just 17 games as a Los Angeles Star. The rest of his career became rather turbulent after that trade. He played for four different teams in 1968-69, and four teams again in 1969-70. In 1970, he joined the Hamden Bics of the Eastern Basketball Association then played in Israel for a couple of years.
I talked about Ben Warley last time, so I won’t go through his whole story again. The 6-5 forward had a bit of a letdown after his All-Star season with just 14.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. He was traded to New York after just 35 games and the Nets promptly waived him. I can’t confirm this, but I strongly suspect he may have suffered a season-ending injury, which prompted the trade and sudden release. An injury also explains his lackluster return to the ABA with Denver for the 1969-70 season, where he averaged a mere 4.6 points per game.
Warren Davis was a 6-6 power forward from Atlantic City, who attended North Carolina A&T. He was drafted by the Knicks in the sixth round of the 1965 draft, but he didn’t make the team, so he signed with the Wilkes-Barre Barons of the Eastern Professional Basketball League. After two seasons in Pennsylvania, Davis joined the Amigos and actually had a fairly strong season with 17.0 points and a team-high 10.5 rebounds per game. But he only played 54 games, which may have prevented him from making the All-Star Game.
In the 1969-70 season, Davis put up 12.7 ppg and 10.0 rpg, but he did play in all 78 games and he did become an All-Star. And when the season ended, he was the last remaining former Amigo on the Stars. Since he stayed with L.A. for one more season after this, I’ll save the story of the rest of his career for the next blog post.
So now that we’ve gone over the three former Amigos, let’s meet the two new rookies who made a major impact this season.
Merv Jackson was a 6-3 point guard from Savannah, Georgia, who chose to play at the University of Utah (making him the only player with Utah ties on this roster). Jackson had quite the career for the Utes, earning a spot on the All-WAC First Team twice. In March 1968, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Stars. The ABA didn’t keep records of their first few drafts, so we don’t know exactly when he was drafted. He signed a contract with the Stars in May, which was still a full month before the NBA had its draft. He was selected by the Phoenix Suns, but not until the ninth round. I suspect he may have slipped that far because he had already signed with the ABA.
Jackson was a huge hit right away. Not only did he force out Steve Chubin, but he became the only rookie to participate in the All-Star Game this season. Ironically, Jackson was relegated to the All-Rookie Second Team at the end of the year. He actually spent quite a few years with the Stars, so we’ll be seeing plenty more of him.
Larry Miller (not to be confused with Larry H. Miller) was a 6-4 shooting guard who was the highest-recruited college prospect out of Pennsylvania. He chose North Carolina, where he was named ACC Player of the Year twice. With that resume, I highly suspect he was the Stars’ first-round pick in 1968. Just like Merv Jackson, Miller signed with Los Angeles well before the NBA draft was held. Miller was picked by the Philadelphia 76ers in the fifth round, but he never played in the NBA.
Miller averaged 17.0 points per game and led the Stars in total points. He also pulled down an impressive 7.7 rebounds per game. Even though he missed out on the All-Star Game, he was named to the All-Rookie First Team. And we will see him again, too.
So, how did the Stars do in their new city with their new coach and their new roster? Not much better than before. Bill Sharman had 15 players suit up in the scarlet, Carolina blue, and white. Eight of them were rookies and the rest (except for Warley) only had one year of professional experience. The Stars finished with a 33-45 record and missed the playoffs once again.
Despite having a much better home court arrangement than the Amigos had, attendance at Stars games lagged and revenue was sparse. Jim Kirst insisted that he had enough cash to keep the Stars in L.A. (unlike Art Kim) and he batted away NBA merger rumors by insisting that the league would need to accommodate both the Stars and the Lakers. Unfortunately, neither Kirst nor Hardy had a gift for promotion. Hardy’s big publicity stunt over the offseason was to dribble a basketball for 300 miles while talking to people about the Stars. He called it his “Star trek” and it sounds utterly pathetic. The Stars did, however, develop a real logo this year.
There’s some nice movement to this logo, and I still find the font quite charming in its simplicity. But I wouldn’t call this a dynamic design by any means. And I find it ironic that the team named Stars only has one tiny star in its logo. I guess the implication was that the stars would be the players themselves.
And to the credit of Kirst and Hardy, they realized their team needed star power — and bad. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and with the Stars bleeding money, they decided to offer a huge contract to a genuine NBA All-Star. Since they missed out on Wilt Chamberlain, they chose the next best thing. Or the next, next, next best thing.
Zelmo Beaty was a 6-9 center from Texas, who attended Prairie View A&M University. He led his small school to the 1962 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship before being drafted third overall by the St. Louis Hawks in that same year. Beaty thrived for the Hawks, earning two All-Star honors in his seven years with the franchise (six in St. Louis, one in Atlanta). The only problem was his knees, which may have prevented Atlanta from giving him the long-term contract he was looking for in 1969.
But Kirst and Hardy were willing to gamble on Beaty’s health, and on Oct. 7, 1969, they signed Beaty to a massive four-year contract that paid him more than $200,000 a year. But there was a catch. Beaty could not legally play for the Stars in the 1969-70 season. You see, the NBA had rules in place to discourage this exact type of scenario — and they had the rulings of the courts to support them. Even though Beaty’s contract with Atlanta had expired, the Hawks still owned his rights for a full year afterward.
Beaty was well aware of this before signing with the Stars, and he seems to have made the most of the “gap year” he suddenly inherited. In addition to resting his aching knees, he took a job at a bank in Southern California to begin preparing for his post-playing career of financial planning. The Stars were quick to proclaim him as a bona fide superstar and praised the display of his dedication by moving his family with him to California. But I don’t think too many fans got terribly excited by this signing. At the very least, I can say it certainly didn’t help the Stars sell more tickets in Los Angeles.
I also have to point out another bizarre connection to Utah basketball. In February 1970, the Atlanta Hawks traded Beaty’s contract to the San Francisco Warriors for a future draft pick. And that pick ended up being Pete Maravich. It’s truly delightful how many little connections one can find in the world of basketball!
Meanwhile, in Utah …
The Salt Palace opened on July 11, 1969. The $17 million building boasted a capacity of 10,725. Although it never got to host the Winter Olympics as intended, it was able to open with winter sport tenant. The Salt Lake Golden Eagles were an expansion team of the Western Hockey League, made entirely possible by the construction of the arena. But just one year later, the Eagles would have to learn to share the Palace with a basketball team.
No comments:
Post a Comment