1974 Part One: The beginning of the end

What does it mean for your team when the owner decides to run for governor? Well, in the case of the Utah Stars, it meant nothing but bad news. The year of 1974 was the beginning of the end for the ABA in Utah. But it also was the beginning of the NBA’s arrival to Utah.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that the Stars had to spend most of the 1972-73 season knowing they’d soon lose their head coach, Utah then spent much of the 1973-74 season with the knowledge that owner Bill Daniels would be selling the team. In January 1974, Daniels announced his candidacy for the Colorado governorship. He promised to hold on to the Stars until the season ended, and he vowed to do everything he could to keep the team in Utah. Unfortunately, it proved enormously difficult for him to find someone willing and able to purchase the club.

And then in February, the Stars were hit with a bombshell. Their top player, Zelmo Beaty, had filed a lawsuit for more than $1 million. This all began in October 1973, with Beaty holding out of training camp to try to get a better contract. The Stars responded by suing him, but he quickly agreed to pay a fine and return to the team in order to have that lawsuit dropped. But a few months later, Beaty decided to sue his team partly for that training camp fine, but mostly for failing to honor all the terms of the contract he had originally signed with Jim Kirst back with the Los Angeles Stars. For better or worse, Beaty agreed to continue playing for Utah while the lawyers battled it out in the courts.

So with all that looming over Utah’s head, the players tried to stay focused on winning basketball games and the front office of Vince Boryla and Arnie Ferrin tried to prepare for the draft. Everybody apparently hated the ridiculous format of four separate drafts in 1973, so the ABA wisely pared it down to a more standardized system. Of course, they still continued their practice of beating the NBA to the punch, holding the first two rounds of their draft in March, then the next seven rounds in April. Neither of Utah’s first two picks — Joe C. Meriweather and Len Kosmalski — joined the team, which sadly was all too commonplace in the ABA.

Between the second and third rounds of the draft, Daniels finally ended his months-long search for a buyer. Daniels had allegedly asked for $2.5 million for anybody willing to keep the team in Salt Lake City and $3 million for out-of-state offers. On April 1, Daniels announced that a Salt Lake-based corporation called West Am agreed to purchase the Stars. (Is it really wise to make such important announcements on April Fools’ Day?)

Keith Howick, president of West Am, promised to not only keep the Stars in Salt Lake, but also to keep the team’s front office in place. Although the purchase of the team (which was scheduled to be finalized on August 1) included Vince Boryla’s minority share, Howick hoped to keep Boryla on board as team president for at least two more seasons. Daniels perhaps felt a little strange selling the team to a company, but he acknowledged that the prices of professional sports teams had risen to the point where individuals couldn’t afford them by themselves. But could West Am actually afford the Stars? The company owned a small ski resort, a motorhome manufacturer, and various real estate properties throughout the state. Nowadays, it doesn’t seem like too big of a hurdle for such a corporation to come up with $2.5 million. But back then? Well, I consider it a bit of a red flag that West Am immediately began calling on the government’s help to enable them to sell off 80% of the team as public stock options. West Am claimed this was because they wanted to let local Utahns have a more direct ownership in the team. But I (with the benefit of hindsight) can only see this as an admission that West Am did not have the required capital.

Regardless, this was an exciting time for the Stars. And it may have been the allure of new owners that prompted Boryla and Ferrin to make a massive gamble in the third round of the draft.

Moses Malone was a high schooler from Virginia, who had been considered by many to be the next Wilt Chamberlain. He was also intrigued by the idea of becoming the first basketball player since the 1940s to completely skip college and go straight to a professional league. The NBA forbade this, but the ABA was willing to set a new precedent. And the Stars were willing to take that risk. Of course, this pick was incredibly polarizing at the time, with many people — including in the local media — criticizing the Stars for seeking to exploit a teenager.

Of course, there was no guarantee that Malone would actually join the Stars. That saga would take months to resolve. In the meantime, there was still plenty of basketball left to play! So let’s take a look at the five most interesting players this season.

Zelmo Beaty’s legendary career had finally begun to approach its end. Although the 34-year-old managed to appear in 77 games, he only put up 13.4 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. And he missed the All-Star Game for the first time in his ABA career. But he was still regarded as the leader of the team and many envisioned him as the ideal mentor to young Moses Malone (should he choose to join the Stars).

Willie Wise once again was Utah’s best player, putting up 22.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game. He made his third straight All-Star Game and was on the All-Defensive First Team for the second year in a row.

James Jones also had another strong season with 16.8 points, 5.2 assists, and 1.9 steals per game, along with an ABA-high .884 free throw percentage. He made his second-straight All-Star appearance, which was his sixth overall.

Ron Boone continued to thrive in his starting role, averaging 17.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. He also was named an All-Star for the second time of his career, his first time as a member of the Utah Stars.

Gerald Govan was acquired by the Stars in 1972, when Utah sent former Ute Merv Jackson to Memphis. Govan was a 6-10 center from Jersey City, who played college ball at St. Mary of the Plains in Kansas. He was drafted by the St. Louis Hawks in the 11th round in 1964, but he didn’t make the team. So he went to Italy until he signed with the New Orleans Buccaneers in 1967. In 1969, he made his first and only All-Star appearance. His numbers dipped by the time he reached Utah — just 7.0 points and 8.8 rebounds per game in 1973-74 — but he was a reliable player who helped ease the pressure off the oft-injured Beaty.

New coach John Mullaney kept the Stars on their winning ways, finishing with a 51-33 record to win the Western Division for the third-straight year. Utah needed six games to eliminate San Diego in the first round, before facing off against Indiana for the fifth consecutive season. Once again, the Western Division Finals went a full seven games. Fortunately, Game 7 was played in the Salt Palace. Unfortunately, Zelmo Beaty was unable to play.

However, James Jones stepped up big time with 29 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, and two steals as Utah cruised to a shocking 109-87 victory. This put the Stars back in the Finals for the third time in franchise history, this time pitting them against superstar Julius Erving and the New York Nets. Utah dropped the first two games in New York before returning to Salt Lake for Game 3. Despite Jones’ 28 points and Beaty’s 22 points with 16 rebounds, the Stars lost by three points in overtime. (Willie Wise’s 7-for-20 shooting performance certainly didn’t help matters.)

The Stars did avoid a sweep, thanks to Jones’ 24 points and Gerald Govan’s monster 23 rebounds in Game 4. But the Nets claimed the title with a 111-100 win in Game 5. Sadly, Zelmo Beaty (who apparently had the flu) only had four points and zero rebounds in what turned out to be his final game for the Utah Stars. It also ended up being the final game for Willie Wise and James Jones in Utah uniforms, though they both performed much better. Wise had 34 points and Jones scored 20. Whether anyone involved knew it at the time, it was the end of an era.

Just 11 days after losing the championship to the Nets, Bill Daniels was forced to make an unhappy announcement. The proposed deal with West Am Corporation had fallen through. Daniels refused to go into much detail of why the agreement was canceled or what happened to the down payment West Am had given him of more than $50,000 and 350 acres near Heber City. From what I can tell, it seems the biggest sticking point was West Am’s inability to guarantee a full sale of 80% of the team through stocks by September 1.

In a tense press conference, Daniels vowed to sell the Stars by August 1, saying that date would give the new owners time to relocate the franchise in time for the 1974-75 season, if necessary. Although he prioritized keeping the Stars in Salt Lake, Daniels did raise his asking price from $2.5 million to $2.8 million to offset the losses he had sustained since April. The sad fact was that the Stars were bleeding money. Despite being one of the winningest teams in the ABA, attendance at the Salt Palace had been in a steady decline since their 1971 championship. And nobody really knew why. Even the league’s biggest star, Dr. J, couldn’t sell out a Finals game in Salt Lake. Was it because the Stars didn’t have any local talent on the roster by this point? Was it because basketball fans had come to regard the ABA as an inferior product to the NBA? Was it because Ron Boone was so boring to watch?

Vince Boryla went on the offensive during the May 21 press conference. He placed all the blame on the media for driving fans away. He claimed the Stars only received negative attention from the papers — even after they reached the Finals. Daniels hastily distanced himself from Boryla’s remarks, and he put out another concrete number that would serve to guide the next potential buyer. He set the Stars’ break-even point at 5,000 season tickets, but in 1974, they had less than 3,500.

Enter financial consultant James A. Collier. He launched an ambitious “Save Our Stars” campaign to drive up season ticket sales. By July 24, the Stars had reached 5,000, but their goal was actually 7,000. Both he and the local government didn’t just want the Stars to break even — they wanted the team to actually be profitable. They worked out a complicated deal involving escrows and stock options and tax rates that went way above my head. But from what I can tell, that 7,000 goal was never met. But that didn’t stop Collier from trying to purchase the Stars. He spent all summer quietly negotiating with his team of 20 investors. That number soon dropped by half, then finally six by the time August rolled around. Which then set up a rather unusual press conference.

Without ever actually saying that he had purchased the Utah Stars, Collier indirectly implied that he and his five fellow investors were now in control of the franchise. If you think that sounds fishy, you’re not alone. One of the first people to jump ship at this news was head coach Joe Mullaney. In his lone season with the Stars, he not only took them to the Finals, but he was named co-Coach of the Year. But even though he had two years left on his contract, he decided he didn’t want to risk missing any paychecks (as so many people involved in the ABA did). So Mullaney went to Memphis, then St. Louis, before returning briefly to the NBA with Buffalo. But he was out of the big leagues by 1978, finding work in Italy, at Brown, and then finally back to Providence, where he retired in 1985. He eventually passed away in Providence, Rhode Island, in 2000 at the age of 75.

It was pretty much an open secret that Mullaney was headed out the door by the time Collier and associates held their odd press conference. So Collier came prepared, using the opportunity to announce the hiring of former Ute Bucky Buckwalter as director of player personnel. Although Collier didn’t explicitly say it, everybody naturally assumed that Buckwalter would also be named the head coach. Of course, the Stars did officially make an offer to Zelmo Beaty, who was still interested in becoming a player/coach. But he was insulted by their offer of $25,000 when the average salary for ABA coaches was $50,000.

Morris “Bucky” Buckwalter was born and raised in Oregon, but played for the University of Utah, leading them to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals in 1956, only to lose to Bill Russell and the San Francisco Dons. Buckwalter wasn’t good enough to go pro, so he got involved in coaching, joining the Ute staff as an assistant in 1959. He served under the legendary Jack Gardner until 1967, when he got his first head coaching job at Seattle University. He stayed there until becoming an assistant for the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics in 1972. In 1973, he was named the interim head coach to replace Tom Nissalke (remember that name). 

After a 13-24 record, Seattle wasn’t too interested in keeping Buckwalter, but the Utah Stars were happy to have him for two reasons. One, he was a connection to Utah — something the Stars hadn’t had since LaDell Andersen left. And two, he promised to play an up-tempo game. Even though Joe Mullaney’s slowed-down isolation offense worked well with Utah’s aging roster, the fans hated him for it. Apparently reaching the Finals didn’t matter if it wasn’t fun to watch. In any case, no one was too sad to see Mullaney leave.

And it seems like very few people lamented Vince Boryla’s departure, either. His shares in the team had (allegedly) been purchased by Collier and associates, and Collier himself had claimed Boryla’s position as team president. Boryla had been an effective general manager, making big, bold moves that helped the Stars win the 1971 title and remain a contender for the following three years. But he had also been a brash, contentious figure, constantly complaining about the media and the ABA’s ineffectual commissioners. 

I don’t think his criticisms of the sports reporters was warranted, but I do empathize with his complaints about the ABA. I find it completely outrageous that the league allowed another team to essentially steal Utah’s No. 1 draft pick. I also have a bit of sympathy for Boryla being forced to make all the hard decisions for the franchise. While Daniels seemed to do little more than write checks from Colorado, Boryla was the one dealing with Utah’s constantly rotating coaching carousel and the increasing cost of the players’ contracts. Yeah, Daniels did have deep pockets, but it became harder to justify his spending when the team kept losing more money each year.

Boryla kept busy by becoming the agent for his quarterback son, Mike, who was drafted in fourth round in 1974 by Cincinnati. Mike Boryla was a Pro Bowler in 1975, but a knee injury ended his career in 1978. Vince Boryla returned to the NBA as the general manager of the Denver Nuggets. In 1985, he was named Executive of the Year. In 2016, he died in Denver at the age of 89.

With Boryla and Mullaney out of the picture, that left Arnie Ferrin, James Collier, and Bucky Buckwalter to try to convince Moses Malone to sign with the Stars. Shortly after announcing his “takeover” of the team, Collier led the way of wooing the 19-year-old phenom. Wisely, Zelmo Beaty was not involved in these efforts. I imagine his frustrations with the Stars would have turned Malone away faster than Robert Parish. But convincing Malone to join still took an enormous amount of work, mainly because he had already signed a letter of intent with the University of Maryland. For one wild week in August, Malone dominated the headlines, seemingly changing his mind back and forth each day. And the amount of money Utah was offering him also varied widely. But finally, the intense negotiations paid off for the Stars’ new management. Partly because Malone was worried the NCAA would punish him for receiving money from college recruiters.

After initially seeking a 15-year contract worth over $3 million, the Stars signed Malone to a five-year deal worth approximately $1 million. The team was notoriously cagey about revealing any financial details, especially at this time, when Collier wouldn’t even explicitly say whether he purchased the team. Regardless, it was an enormous amount of money for a team with cash flow problems to dedicate toward one player. This deal reminds me eerily of the Los Angeles Stars signing Zelmo Beaty. It was the right move for the team, but the wrong move for the franchise.

This was supposed to be an exciting moment for the Stars. They had returned to the Finals, secured a new owner who would keep the team in Utah, and they added one of the nation’s top prospects. But everything continued to crumble down around the franchise. And for Bill Daniels, too. Despite pouring approximately $300,000 of his own funds into his political campaign, Daniels lost in September’s Republican primary to incumbent John Vanderhoof, who went on to lose to Democrat Richard Lamm in the general election. Perhaps he was distracted by endless negotiations of the sale of the Stars, or his still on-going lawsuit against his first coach, Bill Sharman.

The bad news continued when general manager Arnie Ferrin resigned just one week after Daniels’ gubernatorial defeat. Ferrin took a position in the University of Utah’s athletic department, but he made it clear that he was worried about the financial stability of the Stars and the ABA as a whole. He admitted that he (and perhaps others in Utah’s front office) had really been counting on the long-promised merger with the NBA. But that Oscar Robertson lawsuit still hadn’t been resolved, putting the future of the ABA in serious jeopardy. Ferrin quickly was promoted to athletic director for the Utes and held that position until 1985. In 2022, he died at age 97.

Just three days after Ferrin announced his resignation, the Stars released Zelmo Beaty, while Willie Wise and Jimmy Jones announced their intentions to hold out of training camp. Talk about everything happening at once! Of course, each of these decisions had slowly been building all summer long, so let’s break them down one at a time.

Despite Beaty’s frustration with the Stars, he insisted that he wanted to retire in Utah. He had received an offer from the Lakers in August, but decided to give the Stars a month to try to match it. In explaining how the negotiations broke down, Beaty casually dropped what I consider a huge bombshell: “I don’t think the fans are aware of the fact that Bill Daniels still owns the Utah Stars.” That’s right. Everyone had spent all summer referring to Collier as the owner, and Daniels and Collier played along with it, even though they both knew full well it wasn’t true.

This was particularly troubling for Beaty, who seemed like he had been hoping for a fresh start with Collier. Beaty realized he would never be able to get a fair deal from Daniels after he had sued his employer in February. So Utah decided to cut their losses with Beaty and allow him to reunite with Bill Sharman in Los Angeles. Beaty didn’t play particularly well in his lone season as a Laker and retired in 1975. He then finally fulfilled his dream of becoming a coach, by taking over the Virginia Squires. But he only put up a 9-33 record in that hectic final season of the ABA. 

Beaty never held another coaching job after that. And it seems like he largely disengaged from basketball, apart from a couple of brief gigs with the Utah Jazz broadcasting team. In 2013, he died of cancer at age 73. Three years later, he was posthumously enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. His wife of 50 years, Ann, delivered an extremely brief prerecorded speech. She and her two children were then officially welcomed into the Hall of Fame by Lenny Wilkens, who had played with Zelmo on the St. Louis Hawks.

In an October press conference, Daniels sheepishly apologized for pretending he had sold the team. He also admitted that Collier had only sold 5,600 season tickets — well short of the promised 7,000. Even worse, many of the people who had purchased tickets had backed out. But Daniels remained adamant that Collier would still become the owner of the franchise by the end of October — they just needed to finalize the details, which apparently included a massive drop in price to $1.8 million. Unfortunately, Daniels chose to use Jones and Wise as scapegoats, arguing that the holdouts were preventing the sale.

While Beaty’s departure hurt, it wasn’t terribly surprising. Nor was Jimmy Jones’. Back in June, after his contract expired, Jones made it quite clear that he would leave unless he got a pay raise. Jones asked for a four-year deal worth $250,000. He said that Utah had offered him only $80,000, while Collier claimed the deal was for $150,000. In any case, Jones made the argument that because the new offer was more than 10% less than his current salary, he was now legally a free agent. This was another case where Utah’s secrecy with financials came back to hurt them.

In October, Jones signed with the NBA team that had originally drafted him back in 1967, the Washington Bullets. The Stars tried to prevent this with a legal injunction (not that they didn’t have enough lawsuits on their hands), but were ultimately unsuccessful. Unfortunately, Jones’ NBA career turned out to be a dud. He tore the ligaments in his knee in 1975 and had to retire in 1976. Sadly, he was recently seen working as an 81-year-old Uber driver in Las Vegas.

While the Stars had all summer to deal with Beaty and Jones, Willie Wise’s trade request caught them completely off guard. And they did not take it well. In addition to fining him $300 a day, Daniels refused to trade Wise or even sell his contract — even though he publicly admitted that seven other teams had made serious offers for the valuable two-way forward. Wise could have ended the standoff at any time by simply rejoining the Stars, but he was just as stubborn as Daniels, saying he’d rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable.

And why was Wise so miserable? He had learned that Vince Boryla (and/or Wise’s agent) had secretly altered his contract, which had included a substantial amount of money to be deferred until 1975. But without Wise’s consent, that deferment had been pushed back to 1979. With the turmoil of Daniels struggling to sell the Stars to Collier, Wise rightly worried that his contract would never be paid in full. He was also quite distressed with how the team treated Beaty and Jones. After spending years propping Beaty up as the face of the franchise and Jones as the best guard in the league, Utah was loath to pay them what they were worth and quick to demonize them as disloyal and selfish. 

Wise aptly put it thusly: “They say they are tired of players who don’t live up to their contracts, but why can’t we get tired of them making promises and not living up to them or fulfilling clauses in specific times? Or doing things underhanded that we’re not aware of? We have no recourse? We have to take it and the abuse dished out in the papers?”

Can you believe that Zelmo Beaty was named president of the players union ahead of this guy? Seriously, every interview I’ve watched or read from Willie Wise has blown me away with how articulate and thoughtful he was. Anyway, Wise’s contract was eventually sold to Virginia, but not until January 30, 1975. Wise spent two seasons with the Squires, which meant that he was coached by Beaty, but only for a little bit. Beaty wasn’t hired until January 26, 1976, and Wise went down with a season-ending injury on February 24. After the ABA collapsed, Wise signed with the Denver Nuggets, but was limited to a reserve role. The next year, he joined the Seattle SuperSonics, but only appeared in two games before another injury forced his retirement. Today, Wise is working with Jimmy Jones to advocate for higher pensions of former ABA players.

So, to recap, in one year, Bill Daniels …

• Spent months negotiating a sale of the Utah Stars to West Am Corporation, which ultimately fell through

• Spent even more months negotiating a sale to James A. Collier and his associates, which never fully materialized

• Spent a sizable chunk of his personal fortune on a failed run for governor of Colorado

• Spent quite a bit of time and money in court, battling lawsuits against his former coach and two of his players

• Lost his current coach, team president, and general manager

• Lost the three best players of his team

But he did gain Moses Malone … a transaction that only cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars that he didn’t really have. As October turned into November and then December, Daniels was forced to finally admit that Collier would never be able to purchase the Stars. Daniels promised to keep the team in Salt Lake through the 1974-75 season, but beyond that was anyone’s guess. For the first time all year, he actually publicly began musing about moving the team to Cincinnati, Toronto, or even back to Los Angeles and Anaheim. He also expressed interest in owning the Denver Nuggets, since their owner lived in San Diego and would have rather owned the Conquistadors. The only thing snagging up this potential trade of franchises was Daniels’ inability to sell the Stars.

So, things were looking pretty grim at the end of 1974. But I’ll leave on a high note. One good thing brought about by James Collier was the introduction of fresh new jerseys.

Collier replaced that obnoxious giant star in the middle of the jersey with a fun, dramatic swoop, reminiscent of the controversial Atlanta Hawks jerseys of the day. Obviously these new uniforms weren’t enough to save the Stars, but they were a welcome change of pace.

I had originally planned on adding the formation of the New Orleans Jazz to this post, but I decided it was already long enough. (There was just so much drama this year!) So next time, we’ll explore the origin of the franchise that eventually became Utah’s preeminent professional basketball team.

1973: All-Stars on Stars Avenue

On Feb. 6, 1973, Salt Lake City hosted the ABA’s 6th Annual All-Star Game. But before I can get to that, I have to talk about the 1973 ABA Draft, which was more complicated than ever before!

This year, the ABA decided to hold four separate drafts spread out from January to May — a Special Circumstances Draft, a Senior Draft, an Undergraduate Draft, and a Supplemental Draft. I suspect the ABA may have created this Special Circumstances Draft to avoid missing out on the next Julius Erving, who wasn’t drafted by the ABA because the league didn’t know he wanted to leave college early. Regardless, the ABA selected a pool of players they believed needed to be picked in January and couldn’t wait till the main draft. Some of these players were seniors, some were underclassmen. I don’t know why. The ABA was quite weird. Anyway, the Stars had the eighth pick in this draft, and while they foolishly passed on George Gervin, they did actually pick a future Hall of Famer.

Robert Parish was a 7-1 center from Shreveport, Louisiana. When he enrolled at Centenary College in 1972, he was one of several players who submitted an ACT score instead of an SAT score. The NCAA accused Centenary of using an illegal test score conversion formula to land the star freshman and they placed the college on probation for six years — barring them from postseason play and refusing to acknowledge their records or statistics during that time.

Naturally, the ABA and the Utah Stars felt that Parish would not want to continue playing college ball under such harsh restrictions. But, as was always the case in the ABA, drafting the player was only half the battle. To convince Parish to sign with the Stars, general manager Arnie Ferrin flew to Parish’s home with Utah’s best player, Zelmo Beaty. This was Ferrin’s first big test and … he blew it. From the way Parish told the story, it almost sounds like Beaty actually discouraged Parish from joining the ABA. I wonder if Beaty was secretly seeking to sabotage the Stars at this point. You see, by the time he and Ferrin made this trip out to Louisiana in May, Beaty had been denied the chance to become a player-coach for the Stars (more on that later) and he was having issues with his contract (more on that much later).

Anyway, Parish felt that Centenary did nothing wrong and he chose to stay with them for all four years and appeal the NCAA’s decision. The court ruled against the small college, but that didn’t prevent Parish from becoming a top NBA prospect. He eventually put together a remarkable career that included nine All-Star appearances, four championships, and a new record for most games played (LeBron James has since passed him).

Now it’s time to put that heartbreaking draft behind us and focus on the fun part of 1973 — the All-Star Game! The ABA hadn’t invented the dunk contest or anything like that yet, so the All-Star “weekend” only consisted of a Bill Cosby appearance the night before the game. The game itself was naturally held in the Salt Palace. LaDell Andersen coached the West, which had three Utah players on its roster: Zelmo Beaty, Willie Wise, and James Jones. (He’s listed pretty much everywhere these days as Jimmy Jones, but the newspapers I read from 1973 called him James.)

Andersen did everything he could to let his players shine, giving Wise and Jones the most minutes on the team. (Beaty was already beginning to succumb to his old age and only played 15 minutes.) Wise arguably had the best game on the West’s winning squad, putting up a game-high 26 points and six rebounds. Shockingly, he was not chosen as the game’s MVP. That honor instead went to Denver’s Warren Jabali, who had 16 points and seven assists. The sold-out Salt Palace booed as Jabali was named the winner of a free trip to Europe instead of Wise. Ironically, Jabali didn’t even want to go to Europe, saying he much rather would have preferred a cash prize.

Even though Wise got robbed of the game MVP, the All-Star Game was still a special moment for Salt Lake City. Now let’s take a quick look at the five most interesting players for Utah this season.

Zelmo Beaty did make his third-straight ABA All-Star team and he only missed two games in the regular season. But his bad knees had begun to catch up to him. His production level had dipped down to 16.4 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. And for the first time since joining the ABA, Beaty did not receive any MVP votes. Luckily, the Stars had someone else ready to pick up the slack.

Willie Wise had a career year with 22.0 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Not only was he an All-Star, but he also earned a spot on the ABA All-Defensive First Team and received an MVP vote for the first time since his rookie season. Wise stepped up even more in the playoffs, raising his scoring to 25.0 ppg.

James Jones made the All-Star Game for the first time as a member of the Utah Stars, but it was his fifth All-Star appearance overall. He put up 16.7 points and 5.6 assists per game, but saw his numbers dip slightly in the playoffs.

Glen Combs led the ABA in 3-point percentage for the second-straight season, making 38.1% of his long-distance shots. Unfortunately, he suffered a career-altering injury that limited him to 50 games. He finished the regular season with a 13.2 ppg average, but he was a shell of his former self by the time the playoffs began. Combs could only play 6.7 minutes per game in the postseason, averaging a dismal 2.7 ppg. Utah would trade him away partly through the 1973-74 season and he retired in 1975.

Ron Boone was the greatest beneficiary of Combs’ injury. He put. Up 18.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per games and even received a vote for MVP (for the first and only time of his career). Unfortunately, Utah really needed Boone to also step up in the playoffs, but his scoring dipped to 16.9 ppg.

The Stars went 55-29, claiming their second-consecutive Western Division title. After sweeping the San Diego Conquistadors in the first round, Utah faced the Indiana Pacers in the Western Division Finals for the third-straight year. This time, the Pacers won in six games. Perhaps the most painful loss was Game 5 in Salt Lake City. Willie Wise scored 34 points, but Zelmo Beaty only had nine, and the Stars lost 104-102. Indiana then cruised to a decisive 107-98 win in Game 6, as Wise was held to just 17 points. Former Star Donnie Freeman came up big for the Pacers, filling in nicely for the aging Roger Brown.

Oddly, Stars coach LaDell Andersen seemed almost relieved by the loss, simply saying, “Now we don’t have to try to win on Saturday.” You see, he had spent most of this season knowing it would be his last. In January, Utah State had offered him their Athletics Director job, and he agreed to take it as soon as the Stars season ended. Andersen admitted that he had always wanted to be Utah State’s AD, but he had originally planned on staying with the Stars for five years. He went out of his way to praise the team’s front office, and conceded that he liked “most of the players.” Which, to me, means that he didn’t quite like all the players. I know it was quite common in this era for college coaches to struggle with professional players’ desire to make money and maximize their earnings. I’m not certain if that was Andersen’s problem with the ABA, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it played a factor in his early departure.

While Andersen appeared to be at peace with his decision, he created a cloud of uncertainty that hung over the Stars for most of the season. And it took Vince Boryla and Arnie Ferrin quite a long time to find a new head coach, which is rather odd, considering how they literally had people begging for the job. Zelmo Beaty, entering the final years of his career, asked to be the player-coach. Tom Nissalke, who had recently been fired from Seattle after he foolishly traded away Lenny Wilkens, also asked for the Utah. But Boryla turned them both down. A full eight months passed from Andersen’s announcement before Boryla’s ideal candidate fell into his lap.

Joe Mullaney was a 6-0 guard from New York, who helped Bob Cousy and Holy Cross win the 1947 NCAA Championship. He was drafted in the third round by the Boston Celtics in 1949, but he only played 37 games for them. After working with the FBI for a while, Mullaney got into coaching at Norwich University in 1954. The next season, he joined Providence College, where he thrived, winning two NIT Championships. In 1969, he took the leap to the professional world, taking over none other than the Los Angeles Lakers. In his first season, he guided Los Angeles to the NBA Finals, only to lose to New York in seven games. After failing to return to the Finals the next season, the Lakers fired Mullaney in 1971 and replaced him with Utah’s Bill Sharman.

Ironically, Vince Boryla initially wanted Mullaney to replace Sharman, which would have basically ended up as a funny inter-league coaching swap. But as Utah’s lawsuit against Sharman drug out, Mullaney chose instead to coach the Kentucky Colonels. He took the Colonels to the 1973 ABA Finals, but lost to Indiana in seven games. He probably would have stayed in Kentucky had the franchise not gained a new owner, who clashed with Mullaney and threatened to move the team to Cincinnati. Mullaney strongly considered returning to Providence, but Boryla quickly swooped in and convinced him to lead one of the ABA’s best teams.

Could this new coach help the Stars continue their winning ways despite their aging and disgruntled captain, their injured sharpshooter, and their continued streak of bad luck in the draft? We’ll find out next time.

1972: You call THAT a consolation prize?!

I am baffled by this banner. From what I can tell, this was the official championship banner the Stars hung in the Salt Palace. I have no idea why it randomly included the 1972 Western Division Championship — that seems like something that should be on its own banner, but what do I know? Anyway, as you can see from this strange banner, the Utah Stars followed up their championship run with another successful season, but fell short of repeating their title.

Despite a tumultuous offseason, new head coach LaDell Andersen guided Utah to a 60-24 record and a first-place finish in the Western Division. As always, I like to take a look at five of the most interesting players on this season’s roster.

Zelmo Beaty was once again Utah’s top player, putting up 23.6 points and 13.2 rebounds per game. He returned to the All-Star Game and finished third in MVP voting (rookie Artis Gilmore won and Dan Issel was second). Beaty played all 84 regular season games and all 11 of Utah’s playoff games. But his knees began giving him issues in the postseason and he was often seen hobbling around on crutches between games. As such, his scoring fell to just 20.1 ppg in the playoffs.

Willie Wise enjoyed a breakout season, averaging 23.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. He became an All-Star for the first time and led the Stars with 25.3 ppg during the playoffs. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for Utah, but I’ll get more into that later.

Glen Combs was Utah’s third All-Star this season with 16.5 points per game. But most impressively, he led the ABA with 103 total 3-pointers and a league-high .406 percentage. For some reason, he really struggled in the playoffs. His minutes dipped from 34.6 per game to 28.8 and his scoring fell to 13.3 ppg.

Jimmy Jones was the lone bright spot for Utah’s 1971 offseason. Even though former Ute Merv Jackson did have a few good moments during the championship run, he had already fallen far from his All-Star rookie year. So general manager Vince Boryla decided to find an upgrade at point guard through free agency. He did have to pay a heavy price, though. In addition to paying Jones twice what Memphis had offered him, Utah also had to forfeit its first round pick of the 1972 draft. (As the Oscar Robertson lawsuit worked its way through the courts, both the ABA and NBA continued enforcing onerous anti-free agency rules.)

Jones was born and raised in Louisiana and attended Grambling State. In 1967, he was drafted in the second round by the Baltimore Bullets and was a territorial pick by the New Orleans Buccaneers. The 6-4 point guard chose to stay close to home and became an All-Star in each of his first four seasons (three in New Orleans and one in Memphis after the team relocated). But when his contract expired, Memphis apparently lowballed him, even though he had twice received MVP votes.

After being burned by Jim McDaniels, Boryla was thrilled to learn that Jones actually wanted to come to Utah. In his first season with the Stars, Jones put up 16.5 points and 6.2 assists per game, bumping those numbers up to 21.0 ppg and 6.3 apg in the playoffs. It appeared that he was worth the cost.

John Beasley ultimately ended up being Utah’s consolation for losing McDaniels. Officially, Carolina gave the Stars a big man named George Peeples. But Peeples pulled a McDaniels and also refused to play in Utah. So in November 1971, the Stars were forced to trade Peeples, a future draft pick, and what was reported as “a considerable amount of cash” to Dallas for Beasley.

The 6-foot-9 big man was born and raised in Texas and attended Texas A&M. In 1966, he was drafted in the fifth round by the Baltimore Bullets, but he never made the team. So he went the minor league route, playing for the Phillips 66ers and Allentown Jets before joining the Dallas Chaparrals. Beasley was a huge hit right away, making three-straight All-Star Games, winning the 1969 All-Star Game MVP, and receiving votes for the regular season MVP twice. But by the time Utah traded for him, he was no longer that player. Beasley put up a dismal 3.9 points in just 10.8 minutes per game in his first season with the Stars, serving as a painful reminder of that lost No. 1 overall pick. On the bright side, Utah didn’t miss out on anything with Peeples. He only played in 15 more professional basketball games after this trade.

For this season, at least, the McDaniels debacle didn’t limit Utah’s production on the court. After claiming their first division title, the Stars once again faced off against the Chaparrals in the first round. And for the second-straight year, Utah cruised to an easy sweep, which set up another rematch with the Indiana Pacers in the division finals. Just like last year, this series went the full seven games, but this time, Utah had home court advantage. But it didn’t help too much, as the Pacers built a big lead early and held on for a 117-113 win. Willie Wise had an impressive 26 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists. Zelmo Beaty added 25 points and 11 rebounds, and Jimmy Jones chipped in 23 points. But they just weren’t enough to best Roger Brown (27 points and seven rebounds), Freddie Lewis (23 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists), and Mel Daniels (19 points and 15 rebounds).

The Salt Lake Tribune reported the loss as the end of a “beautiful dream.” And for three key figures in our story so far, it was the end. In a way.

Former All-Star Red Robbins became victim to the ABA’s first (and only) expansion draft. The ABA lost its first two teams this summer — Miami and Pittsburgh — but oddly added an expansion team in San Diego. Many complained that the new owner of the Conquistadors should have simply acquired one of those failing franchises, but the ABA chose to make a clean break of them. As such, they held a dispersal draft for all the players on the folding teams, followed by an expansion draft for the new team. The Stars were only allowed to protect six players, so that left poor Red Robbins exposed. He stayed in the ABA until 1975, but never regained his All-Star form. After one final year in Italy, he retired from pro basketball. Robbins died in 2009 at age 65 due to cancer.

To replace Robbins, the Stars traded for a big man named Gerald Govan. He didn’t make much of an impact, but he did cost Utah former Runnin’ Ute Mervin Jackson. The one-time All-Star really was a shell of his former self by this point, and he ended up only playing 22 games for Memphis before his career came to an abrupt end. Jackson died in 2012 also at the age of 65 due to Parkinson’s disease.

The third key figure to leave didn’t actually leave, but just diminished his role. Team president and general manager Vince Boryla decided his dual role was too stressful. So he hired a new general manager, while maintaining his duties as team president. For all intents and purposes, Boryla remained the face of the franchise, as owner Bill Daniels rarely left his home in Denver and was so hands-off, he didn’t even meet with the Stars’ new general manager until well after Boryla had hired him. Just like with his choice at head coach, Boryla wisely tabbed a local legend for this position.

Arnie Ferrin was born in Salt Lake, played high school ball in Ogden, and college ball at the University of Utah. In 1944, he led the Utes to the NCAA Championship and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. After serving in the Army, he returned to guide Utah to the 1947 NIT Championship (which some considered even more impressive than the NCAA Tournament at the time). In 1948, the 6-foot-2 Ferrin was drafted in the second round by the Minneapolis Lakers. He won two championships with George Mikan, but then retired in 1951.

Ferrin spent the next two decades heavily involved in University of Utah athletics, holding various broadcasting and administrative jobs. But he never had any prior experience of being a pro team’s general manager. So we’ll see how he did in the coming years. Of course, it’ll be impossible to sort out his actions from Boryla’s, as he was a very active team president.

One of the first things Ferrin did was announce a series of exhibition games against NBA teams in Hawaii. After the 1971 merger fell through, the NBA and ABA began playing each other on a regular basis. In 1971, the Knicks visited the Salt Palace and won. In 1972, the Stars earned their first victory over an NBA team, defeating the Seattle SuperSonics, who were coached by Tom Nissalke. Remember that name.

In addition to entering the 1972-73 season with a new general manager, the Stars also finally did something about their dreadfully boring uniforms. Unfortunately, these new ones are a bit obnoxious. They’re the kind of gimmicky design that you would normally see for an All-Star Game — not for 84 regular season games. Come back next time to find out if these new jerseys brought any good luck. (Spoiler alert: They didn’t.)

1971: We Are the Champions!

“They Did It! Stars Are ABA Champs” proclaimed the Deseret News’ front page on May 19, 1971. In their first season in Salt Lake City, the Utah Stars won the ABA championship, which remains the only professional basketball title awarded to a team in Utah. So let’s take a quick look at how this amazing achievement was accomplished.

Everything begins and ends with Zelmo Beaty, seen here with the ABA championship trophy. (That trophy later had all the names of the players engraved on it. As far as I can tell, it remains in possession of Bill Daniels’ estate in Denver.) Beaty was forced to sit out the entire 1969-70 season due to a punitive NBA rule designed to prevent players from joining the ABA. This was bad news for the Los Angeles Stars, but it may have been exactly what Beaty and his aching knees needed. When he returned to the court for the 1970-71 season as a member of the Utah Stars, he played the best basketball of his life.

Beaty averaged 22.9 points and 15.7 rebounds per game, including a league-high 5.4 offensive rebounds per game. He also led the ABA with a .555 field goal percentage. Not only was he an All-Star, but he finished second in voting for MVP, falling to Indiana’s Mel Daniels. And after the championship was won, he was named the ABA’s Playoffs MVP. Talk about a Hall of Fame season!

Austin “Red” Robbins was traded to the Stars in September 1970 for BYU’s Craig Raymond. A lot of people were really excited to see the former Cougar play in Utah, especially since he was coming off a career year. But Stars general manager Vince Boryla decided to swap out the center for a power forward to play alongside Beaty. And I think he ended up finding a nice upgrade for Raymond in the process.

Robbins was a 6-8 forward from Florida, who played at Chipola College before transferring to Tennessee. In 1966, he was drafted in the sixth round by the Philadelphia 76ers, but he didn’t make the team, so he went to Italy for a year. In 1967, he joined the New Orleans Buccaneers, where he became a three-time All-Star and even received MVP votes in the 1969-70 season. In his first season with the Stars, he made his fourth consecutive All-Star Game behind averages of 12.6 points and 11.9 rebounds per game.

Donnie Freeman actually shares a lot in common with Red Robbins. He was a 6-3 guard from Illinois, who was also drafted by Philadelphia in 1966. Although he went in the third round, he still didn’t make the team. In 1967, he signed with the Minnesota Muskies, who became the Miami Floridians after just one season. Like Robbins, Freeman was an instant ABA All-Star, even receiving MVP votes in 1969 and 1970. Also like Robbins, Freeman joined the Utah Stars through a daring offseason trade. Despite Mack Calvin’s impressive rookie campaign, Vince Boryla went with a win-now mentality and swapped him for the more seasoned three-time All-Star.

Freeman played well for Utah, putting up a team-high 23.6 points per game, as well as 5.7 rebounds per game. But he only played in 24 games for the Stars before Boryla pulled off an even more daring trade. On January 8, 1971, (just two days after being named an All-Star) Freeman was packaged in a blockbuster trade to Texas for Glen Combs, Ron Boone, and the Chaparrals’ first-round draft pick. 

Apparently Freeman had been locked in the middle of a nasty contract dispute with the Stars front office — they even fined him $1,000 for failing to suit up for a game. I’m assuming he enjoyed his situation with Chaparrals, as he finished the 1970-71 season strong, receiving MVP votes for the third time in his career. And he made the All-Star Game for the fifth and final time in the following season. He then fell into a supporting role with Indiana and San Antonio before concluding his professional basketball career with the Lakers in 1976.

Glen Combs was a 6-2 guard from Kentucky who played at Virginia Tech. In March 1968, he was drafted by the Dallas Chaparrals and signed with them before also being drafted by the San Diego Rockets in the fifth round. Combs became an All-Star in his second season and even received MVP votes. Just like Freeman, Combs was named to the 1971 All-Star Game two days before being traded. Combs didn’t have the same all-around game that Freeman had, but he was a much better 3-point shooter and he still averaged 20.1 points per game in his first season with the Stars.

Ron Boone is a name very familiar to Utah basketball fans. He was born in Oklahoma City, but grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Standing just 5-foot-7 after graduating from high school, he initially enrolled at Clarinda Community College in Iowa. He suddenly had a growth spurt that brought him up to 6-foot-2, which helped him earn a scholarship at Idaho State. After making the All-Big Sky First Team twice, he was drafted by the Dallas Chaparrals in 1968 before being picked by the Phoenix Suns in the 11th round.

Despite leading the ABA in turnovers as a rookie, he still had a strong debut and earned a spot on the ABA All-Rookie First Team. But he didn’t become an All-Star until 1971. Like Combs, he was honored for his work in Dallas, but ended up representing Utah at the ABA’s mid-season break. However, Boone was relegated to the bench in his season as a Star, putting up 15.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. He also prided himself on never missing a basketball game and ended up playing 86 regular season games this season because of the trade.

Now, before I can go on with the season, I need to talk about the 1971 ABA Draft. From the very beginning, the ABA had held their draft months ahead of the NBA Draft in an attempt to lock down their new rookies long before the NBA came calling. Of course, this didn’t work with the most elite prospects like Lew Alcindor, but that didn’t stop the ABA from trying. In fact, they just kept bumping up the date. Their first draft was in April, the next year March, then February. By 1971, the ABA Draft was in January, held one day before the All-Star Game.

This year, the ABA decided to get rid of the territorial pick system, which had allowed teams to acquire local college players before the draft officially began. The league also finally ordered its draft based on teams’ records — simply giving the top pick to the worst team. Of course, a mid-season draft meant they had to off whatever the records were at the time. This worked out marvelously for Utah, though, as the Chapparals’ first-round pick ended up being No. 1 overall. And there was only one player Vince Boryla had his eye on.

Jim McDaniels was a budding superstar from Western Kentucky. The 6-11 big man averaged 27.6 points and 13.8 rebounds over his three-year college career and was considered a can’t-miss game-changer. Some said he was as good a defender as Bill Russell. One of his coaches said he could score even if he was lying down on a stretcher. So Boryla didn’t hesitate to make McDaniels the first No. 1 pick in Utah Stars history. However, even before the draft, it was common knowledge that the Carolina Cougars were aggressively working to add McDaniels to their team. More on that later.

So one day after making the top selection in the draft, Utah sent four players to the All-Star Game in Greensboro, North Carolina. This strong roster guided the Stars to a 57-27 record, just one game behind the league-leading Indiana Pacers. In the first round of the playoffs, Utah was matched up against Texas. Although Don Freeman played well against his former team, the Stars still easily swept the Chaparrals.

Due to realignment, the rematch with the Pacers took place in the Western Division Finals. The two teams were evenly matched, ultimately ending up in a Game 7 in Indianapolis. Many years later, coach Dick Sharman said this game was his favorite memory of this season — gaining revenge on the Pacers’ home court, largely due to the inspired play of Red Robbins (25 points, 14 rebounds, and 11-for-13 shooting from the field).

The Stars met the Kentucky Colonels in the ABA Finals and we forced once again to play the full seven games. But this time, Utah had home court advantage and earned a 131-121 victory in front of a sold-out Salt Palace. Kentucky’s Dan Issel had a game-high 41 points, but the Stars got brilliant performances from each of their starters. Zelmo Beaty naturally led the way with 36 points and 16 rebounds, while Willie Wise added 22 points, 20 rebounds, and six assists. Red Robbins came up big again with 13 points, 15 rebounds, and five assists, while Glen Combs chipped in 20 points and five assists. And let’s not forget Merv Jackson’s 19 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists. This was a team with a lot of weapons, good ball movement, and even better rebounding. Although they lacked the raw power of superstar-led teams like Indiana and Kentucky, Utah had just enough of the right ingredients to pull off this most impressive feat.

The ABA rewarded the Stars with $48,000, which was split evenly between the players and coaches. Frankly, I find that prize money embarrassingly small — even by 1971 standards. Utah’s governor declared the month of May to be Stars Month, and they did unofficially rename the road in front of the Salt Palace as Stars Avenue. But Salt Lake City didn’t throw an official parade for them. At least the players did get from fairly decent-looking championship rings.

Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last very long. The 1971 offseason proved to be little more than a series of misfortunes for the Stars. I’ll start with the least egregious one: the failed NBA merger. There had been serious talk of merging the ABA with the NBA since the formation of the ABA in 1967. By 1971, the NBA appeared to have been ready to welcome every ABA team into their fold with open arms (except for the Virginia Squires because they were too close to the Baltimore Bullets). But at the last minute, the courts put an indefinite hold on the merger due to a landmark lawsuit filed by Oscar Robertson against the NBA. That lawsuit would (eventually) overhaul free agency in the NBA and give the players more rights. It also illustrates the high level of uncertainty the courts had with professional basketball in the ‘70s. The sport had never had this much money flowing around and the complications caused by the rival league fighting for the same players’ rights left everyone scrambling. Teams were constantly suing other teams, and players frequently had to sue their team owners to reclaim their paychecks. Everything was quite dubious from a legality standpoint. And unfortunately for the Stars, the courts took a little too long to resolve everything. Had the 1971 merger been able to proceed, I think there’s a high probability the Stars would still be in Utah today.

The next big misfortunate was Jim McDaniels. The ABA’s No. 1 pick refused to play for the team that drafted him. That in itself wasn’t unusual, as all the ABA’s previous top picks also turned their team (Elvin Hayes, Lew Alcindor, and Pete Maravich). But McDaniels was unique in that he didn’t leave the ABA for the NBA — he simply wanted to play for a different ABA team, the Carolina Cougars to be specific.

McDaniels may have been the first basketball superstar to turn down Utah. He said that if he had to even dribble a basketball for Utah then he wouldn’t play in the ABA. So Carolina quickly signed him to what they boldly proclaimed the biggest basketball contract ever. The newspapers of the day knew how much Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was making, so they logically assumed that McDaniels’ contract was close to $3 million. Because all this happened before the NBA Draft, McDaniels fell to the second round, where he was picked up by the Seattle SuperSonics.

Vince Boryla was furious. He accused Carolina of stealing his property and sneered at their pitiful compensation offers. Boryla hyperbolically claimed that even an unlimited amount of No. 1 picks wouldn’t suffice because there’d be no guarantee any of them would be as good as McDaniels. I don’t think he fully believed that last bit, but I do think he was justified in his outrage. A fellow team just flat out stealing a draft pick completely undermines the integrity of the league. Unfortunately for Utah, no recourse was available. The ABA commissioner publicly downplayed the importance of the draft, saying all that mattered was a team’s ability to sign the player. And the Stars knew they wouldn’t be able to count on the courts to help them out. So in the end, they had no choice but to accept Carolina’s pitiful compensation: an inconsequential center named George Peeples, who the Stars quickly traded to the Chaparrals for a washed-up former All-Star named John Beasley.

McDaniels happily began his career with the Cougars and tried to smooth things over with Utah fans by diplomatically claiming that he only turned down the Stars because they had just won the championship and he preferred the challenge of bringing a title to Carolina. I don’t know if anyone actually bought this nonsensical reasoning, especially as it didn’t line up with the timing of any of this saga. I don’t know if it was ever proved, but many speculated that McDaniels actually signed his contract with Carolina as early as November 1970. But what we do know for sure is that his contract was nowhere near the speculated $3 million.

Turns out that Carolina had signed McDaniels to a six-year, $1.35 million contract. That wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the payment plan, which stretched out that $1.35 million over 25 years. McDaniels played brilliantly — putting up 26.8 points and 14.0 rebounds per game and making the All-Star Game — but that bad contract quickly began to weigh on him. He requested to shrink that 25-year plan to 15 years, but was denied. So, after just 58 games with Carolina, McDaniels made the shocking decision to join the Sonics.

It is my personal belief that the mental stress of this whole episode caused irreparable harm to McDaniels’ psyche. Once he arrived in Seattle, he was a shell of his former self, struggling to make any impact on the game he once so effortlessly dominated. I couldn’t find any reports of him suffering a major injury, so I think all his problems stemmed from the financial concerns and the feelings of both being betrayed and betraying others. Later in his life, McDaniels regretted his decision to leave Carolina, saying he should have given the ABA a few more years to sort things out. The rest of his basketball career was a bleak disappointment, bouncing back and forth between the NBA and ABA and overseas. He retired in 1978 and died in 2017 at age 69.

In hindsight, Artis Gilmore would have been the better pick, as he actually ended up having the type of career everyone thought McDaniels would have had. Even better would have been the greatest ABA player of all time, Julius Erving, but he hadn’t decided to leave college early at the time of the draft, so he wasn’t available. (This is why the NBA doesn’t hold the draft in January!)

And now for the final misfortune of the offseason. (This is starting to sound like a witch’s curse. “You will win the title, but then be betrayed thrice in the summer!”) Bill Sharman’s dream job of coaching the Lakers opened up. Just as he ditched the Warriors to coach the Los Angeles Stars, Sharman wasted no time in returning home.

This was a profound loss for Utah. He was a Coach of the Year and now an ABA champion. He brought credibility and stability to the club. And — more importantly from a legal perspective — he was still under contract with the Stars. This time Bill Daniels got involved and he filed a lawsuit against both Sharman and the owner of the Lakers. At first, the judge ruled in Utah’s favor. But after Sharman appealed, the Lakers emerged victorious and didn’t even have to pay Utah any damages.

Sharman promptly guided the Lakers to another championship, becoming the only coach to win titles in the ABL, ABA, and NBA. He then helped L.A. win five more titles as their general manager. He was elected to the Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, ultimately collecting 17 championship rings. Even after he retired, the Lakers kept giving him rings up until 2010. He died in 2013 at age 87.

Anyway, back in 1971, the Stars had to scramble to find a new head coach. Wisely, they chose someone local. Not only so the fans would like him, but also so he wouldn’t pull a Sharman and seek to return home.

LaDell Andersen was born in Malad City, Idaho, and attended nearby Utah State University. He was just a good enough player to be invited to the Olympic tryouts, but not good enough to make the team. Or play professionally, for that matter. But he did discover he had a knack for coaching. He started as an assistant at the University of Utah in 1956 before taking the head coaching job at Utah State in 1961. He took the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament five times and the NIT once during his 10-year career there. So it seems like he was certainly ready and prepared to take the leap to the professional level. Next time we’ll explore how well Andersen adapted to the ABA and how the reigning champions overcame their summer of heartache.

1970: Welcome to Utah!

In 1969, Jim Kirst was confidently telling everyone that he had the money and the determination to keep his ABA team in L.A. But by early 1970, he proved to have neither. Claiming losses of $1.75 million (a staggering amount for the day), Kirst sold the Los Angeles Stars to Bill Daniels for $850,000. So to recap: Art Kim and James Ackerman purchased the Anaheim Amigos in 1967 for $30,000. After losing $500,000, they sold the team to Kirst in 1968 for $450,000. And then less than two years later, Kirst was forced to dump the team again. The value of the franchise kept climbing steadily, but not nearly quick enough to keep pace with the rising cost of operation. Kind of like an old house in frequent need of costly repairs. Yeah, each year it’s technically worth more money, but is it really?

Luckily, money wasn’t much of a concern for Bill Daniels in 1970. Unlike Kim and Kirst, Daniels had periods of his life where he could be described as being fabulously wealthy. And how he got that money is a rather interesting story. It begins with him being a Golden Glove boxing champion in New Mexico before enlisting in the Navy in World War II. He continued to serve as a pilot through the Korean War before finally returning home in 1952. While visiting a bar in Denver, Daniels became fascinated with the technology that enabled the bar to air an out-of-state boxing match. He quickly learned everything he could about cable television and set up his own cable channel in Casper, Wyoming (where his family was running an insurance business at the time).

From there, Daniels kept growing and expanding until he gained the reputation of being a cable television pioneer. He also wisely diversified his business into brokering and investment banking, which gave him enough money to start buying some fun things. Things like race cars, amateur boxing teams, and, of course, a professional basketball team.

While Kirst believed that moving the Amigos to Los Angeles would save the franchise, Daniels saw it as a fatal mistake. The Stars simply didn’t have the, well, star power to compete with the Lakers’ Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor. And despite Jim Hardy’s “Star trek” of dribbling a basketball 300 miles, the attendance at Stars games was dismal — frequently less than 1,000. Daniels knew he had to move the Stars to save them, especially if the rumored NBA merger were to happen, as he couldn’t envision the NBA accepting a second Los Angeles team.

But where to move the Stars? At this point in time, Daniels was based in Denver, Colorado, which already boasted an ABA team, the Rockets. So he couldn’t go there, but maybe he could go to Kansas City, where the Rockets were originally supposed to go in 1967. But that team moved to Denver before the season began because they couldn’t find a good arena. And that intriguing market still lacked a suitable place to play in 1970, so Daniels moved his search elsewhere.

Believe it or not, but Daniels actually became quite enamored with the idea of moving the Stars to Albuquerque, New Mexico. He spent months floating this idea — even before he officially completed the purchase of the team. Daniels readily admitted that Albuquerque also lacked a decent playing facility, but he just really wanted to return to the state he grew up in, I guess. Rumor has it that the only reason he backed off was because the owner of the New York Knicks protested. He said he’d refuse to merge with a league that had a team in such a small, remote city as Albuquerque. And I don’t think he was the only one.

So that left Daniels with Salt Lake City. I wish I could say it was Daniels’ experience in cable television that taught him Salt Lake was a growing market, capable of supporting a professional sports team. But I don’t think that was the case. In all the newspaper articles I read from 1970, Daniels’ primary focus was on the brand-new, state-of-the-art Salt Palace. He even went so far as to compare it favorably to the Lakers’ Forum and the Knicks’ Madison Square Garden. And I suppose that’s reason enough to justify the move.

Of course, all this negotiating was happening while the 1969-70 season was wrapping up. I didn’t find any quotes of the players grumbling about a potential move — I suppose they were all used to frequent relocations in this era. But I did see some of them praise the arrival of a new owner, as it meant their paychecks would be guaranteed. Apparently Kirst had also fallen into the same practice of Kim of not always paying his players! Anyway, let’s take a look at what these players were able to do this season.

Warren Davis made his second-straight All-Star Game, putting up 16.0 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. He was the only representative from Los Angeles — making it the first time in franchise history that the Amigos/Stars didn’t have two All-Stars. Oddly, Davis was traded away to Pittsburgh just one day after the All-Star festivities in Indianapolis. And with that, the last remaining link to Anaheim was gone.

General manager Jim Hardy didn’t really seem to value continuity, as he made several transactions this season that left me scratching my head. Like trading away last year’s top rookie, Larry Miller, after just 21 games. I wonder how much of a role finances had to play with the departures of Miller and Davis. Of course, unlike Miller, Davis’ career plummeted after this trade. He bounced around between four ABA teams and was out of the league by 1973. He then spent six years in the Eastern Basketball Association, where he won two EBA championships with the Allentown Jets. I guess it could have been worse, but I’m sure he dreamed of something much bigger.

Willie Wise may have been one of the reasons why both Miller and Davis were traded. Wise was a 6-5 forward from San Francisco, who played at the City College of San Francisco before transferring to Drake University. He was drafted by the San Francisco Warriors in the fifth round in 1969, but he was unable to make his home team’s roster. Remarkably, he was overlooked in the ABA draft, but he earned a spot on the Stars during their June tryouts.

As a rookie, Wise put up 15.2 points and 11.6 rebounds per game, earning a spot on the ABA’s All-Rookie First Team. He also became the first player in franchise history to receive MVP votes, finishing 11th in the contest. Wisely (get it?), the Stars decided to keep Wise so we’ll get to talk more about him later.

Mack Calvin also may have had a hand in Miller’s departure. The 1969-70 Stars media guide hilariously listed Calvin as standing half an inch above 6 feet — I guess they refused to admit he was a 6-foot-nothing point guard. Anyway, Calvin was born in Texas, but grew up in Southern California, where he attended Long Beach City College before transferring to USC. He made the All-PAC-8 First Team in 1969, but wasn’t drafted by the Lakers until the 14th round of the NBA Draft. According to the Stars media guide, he was selected in the “second five rounds” of the ABA Draft. I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.

Calvin’s arrival proved most fortuitous to Los Angeles, as Merv Jackson suffered a significant injury that seems to have permanently robbed him of some of the explosiveness he demonstrated as a rookie. Calvin proved remarkably durable, becoming the only player on this roster to appear in all 84 games (it baffles me that this struggling league decided to go from 78 games to 84). Calvin averaged 16.8 points and 5.7 assists per game, joining Wise on the All-Rookie First Team. He eventually went on to have one of the best careers in ABA history — but not with the Stars, as he was traded to Miami in June 1970. However, we will see him again. It’ll just take a while.

Bill McGill joined Merv Jackson as one of two former Utes on the Stars roster this season. He was born in Texas, but grew up in Los Angeles, where he established himself as one of the best high school basketball players in the city. According to legend, he got to play a pick-up game against Wilt Chamberlain. Seeking to find a way to score over the much larger and more experienced NBA superstar, the teenaged McGill created a type of hook shot that proved extremely effective and helped him become a dominant scorer despite being an undersized (6-foot-9) center. Unfortunately, McGill also sustained a major knee injury during his junior year of high school. He ignored his doctor’s advice to have reconstructive surgery, opting instead to periodically have his knee drained in secret. This tactic worked for about five years, but not much longer.

McGill was highly recruited out of high school, and nearly went to Cal, but was denied due to his poor grades. Luckily for Ute fans, coach Jack Gardner had no such qualms about McGill’s academic record and made him the first Black man to play at the University of Utah. McGill thrived with the Utes, leading them to a third-place finish in the NCAA Tournament in his junior season. As a senior, he averaged a mind-boggling 38.8 points and 15.0 rebounds per game. Sadly, the Utes were banned from the Tournament that season because one of their players had accepted free plane tickets from a booster (this was back when the NCAA actually had some teeth).

In 1962, the Chicago Zephyrs made McGill the No. 1 pick in the draft. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a bust. Despite his incredible hook shot, that bad knee of his had rendered him too slow and weak to compete at the highest level. He bounced around between four different NBA franchises and was out of the league by 1965. He then played in the North American Basketball League before he landed with the ABA’s Denver Rockets in 1968. They traded him to Los Angeles in 1969, and he was quite excited at the prospect of returning home.

McGill averaged 11.5 points per game in 27 games before he was traded to Pittsburgh for Craig Raymond (more on him later). The Pipers quickly sent him to Dallas, where he played his final games as a professional basketball player. Sadly, he ended his career deep in debt and homeless until a sportswriter helped him land a job at Hughes Aircraft. Later in life, he assisted with the NBA’s Rookie Transition Program and published an autobiography. He died in Salt Lake City in 2014 at age 74.

Craig Raymond was a 6-11 center from Washington state, who attended Brigham Young University. He was drafted with the 12th pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967, but he didn’t make the team right away, forcing him to play in Italy for a season. He then returned to America to play with the Wilkes-Barre Barons in the EPBL before he finally got called up by the Sixers at the end of the 1968-69 season. But he only lasted 27 games before he was traded to Cincinnati. The Royals didn’t want him, but the ABA’s Pittsburgh Pipers did … until they decided to trade him to Los Angeles for Bill McGill in January 1970.

The trade turned out to be the best thing for Raymond, who put up a career-high 15.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. Sadly, Raymond was unable to build on this momentum, as he was traded to Memphis in September 1970. Raymond then bounced around between four different teams before falling out of the ABA in 1973. I find it interesting when several players have breakout seasons with one team, then drop completely off the map once they’re traded away. I wonder if head coach Bill Sharman can take some credit for maximizing the potential of some of these players. Anyway, Raymond’s story ended in 2018, when he died in Provo at age 73.

The Stars really had a turbulent season. Their big acquisition, Zelmo Beaty, was forced to sit out the entire year. The team was sold and rumors of relocation immediately spread. Attendance lagged and revenue dropped. Injuries and trades required 18 different players to suit up, including former Anaheim Amigo Les Selvage for four games. But despite all that, Bill Sharman led the Stars to a 43-41 record, which was just barely good enough to get them into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

Los Angeles then put together a miracle playoff run, upsetting Dallas in six games before stunning Denver in five games in the Western Division Finals. But the Stars met their match in the ABA Finals, losing to Indiana in six games.

And while all this was going on, the relocation talk had finally solidified on Salt Lake City. It was the most logical choice, as it was the only city on Daniels’ short list to have a suitable arena. But then something interesting happened. The Stars were forced to play most of their playoff games away from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, as Kirst hadn’t scheduled the dates out that far. Some people say he never expected the Stars to reach the playoffs, but others speculate that he did this intentionally out of spite. Whatever the reason, the result was that the Stars played their two Finals games back in their original home at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Convention Center officials suddenly saw how fun it was to host big-time basketball games in front of thousands of people — as opposed to the small-time games the Amigos had played in front of hundreds. They actually requested for the Stars to return to Anaheim and probably even revive the Amigos nickname. And Daniels strongly considered this offer. 

I think he had good reason for this. At this point in time, the Stars were the ABA’s only team in California, or even the entire West Coast. It would severely weaken the league to abandon such a large market. Leaving Southern California would also alienate the fan base that had finally begun to grow — making the Finals can do wonders for a team. Daniels was also oddly concerned with the cost of the Salt Palace transitioning between ice hockey games and basketball games — a challenge the Convention Center wouldn’t have had to deal with. Ultimately, though, Daniels chose to take a rather hands-off approach to his team and leave the final decision on relocation to his brand-new team president.

Vince Boryla was a 6-5 forward from Chicago, who played at Notre Dame while serving in the Army. When the Army transferred him to Denver in 1946, he began playing basketball at the University of Denver. In 1948, he helped Team USA win the gold medal in the London Olympics. After graduation in 1949, he signed with the New York Knicks and became an All-Star in 1951. But a wrist injury and a knee injury quickly robbed him of his effectiveness on the court, and he retired in 1954.

Boryla became the head coach of the Knicks in 1956, then moved to the general manager role in 1959. He only held that role until 1961, which probably indicates he was fired, but I can’t say for certain. What I can say for certain was that he returned to Denver in the 1960s and met Bill Daniels through his amateur boxing club. When Daniels purchased the Stars, he decided to make Boryla the team president and general manager.

That picture above is from the Deseret News on June 10, 1970, showing Boryla excitedly signing the contract to bring the Stars to the Salt Palace. He said Salt Lake was always his first choice because of its amazing new arena. So this really feels like a “if you build it, they will come” situation. The Salt Palace failed to land the Winter Olympics, but it did bring in a hockey team and a basketball team.

Boryla explained that they were keeping the Stars name because they just had a lot of success with that name. And I agree — you shouldn’t change your team name after you reach the Finals (I also think you shouldn’t relocate your team after a Finals trip, either, but there you go). Daniels explained that they named the team the Utah Stars instead of the Salt Lake Stars because he intended to play home games in the arenas of Utah State, Weber State, and BYU. The five-year contract he signed with the Salt Palace only required a minimum of 33 games, just so the Stars could travel around the state. As far as I can tell, they only played outside of Salt Lake City a handful of times.

The new logo preserved the old as much as possible, only dropping the Los Angeles for Utah. I really miss the whimsical font Los Angeles was in, and I think Utah is a little hard to read. But I do like that the UTA matches the STA of Stars.

Unfortunately, the Utah Stars did not preserve the wonderful Los Angeles Stars uniforms, which included the unique lettering from the logo and had some sharp stripes up the sides with stars on them. I do like that they settled on a standard shade of blue instead of awkwardly trying to incorporate the light Carolina blue, but that’s about it. These jerseys are boring and basic. Boo!

Despite the efforts from some serious naysayers, most notably Ute coach Jack Gardner, the state of Utah came out to support the Stars. They played their first game on Oct. 14, 1970, beating the Denver Rockets 134-99 in front of a crowd of 9,185. It wasn’t a sellout, but it was much more than they could have fit in Anaheim. I know I’m biased here, but I think Bill Daniels and Vince Boryla made the right decision.