1975–76 Denver Nuggets season

The 1975–76 Denver Nuggets season was Denver's ninth and final season in the American Basketball Association (ABA), as well as their second season using the Nuggets team name instead of the prior Rockets team name. It was also their second season where they had Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown around throughout his tenure with the team. Before the start of the season, co-owner Frank Goldberg would leave his ownership duties with the Nuggets in order to own his local area's San Diego Conquistadors franchise, which he decided to rename to the San Diego Sails for what ultimately became eleven total games played in this season before the franchise closed operations under Goldberg's watch early on in the start of the season. This would later result in Nuggets Management, Inc. (the minority owners of the Nuggets franchise from the previous season) taking over with full ownership of the franchise going forward from this season in the ABA. Also before the season began, the Nuggets and New York Nets intended to try and jump ship from the ABA to the National Basketball Association (NBA) earlier than anticipated (with them also wanting the Kentucky Colonels to join in) due to them seeing themselves as the strongest ABA teams around by that point in time, but the judges preceding in their case informed them to stay in the ABA for at least one more season first due to the notion that even having two ABA teams join the NBA like that would still technically count as a merger happening between leagues. To start out this season in earnest, however, the team moved their home games from the Denver Auditorium Arena to the new McNichols Arena.

1975–76 Denver Nuggets season
Division champions
Head coach	Larry Brown
Owners	Nuggets Management, Inc.
Arena	McNichols Sports Arena
Results
Record	60–24 (.714)
Place	Division: 1st Conference: 1st
Playoff finish	ABA Finals (lost to Nets 2–4)
Local media
Television	KWGN 2
Radio	KOA
< 1974–75 1976–77 >

By December 1975, the ABA only saw seven teams remaining in competitive action, with one of them in the Virginia Squires looking like they were the next team to fold at any moment during the season. As such, the ABA nixed divisional play altogether and saw the 1976 ABA All-Star Game be the team with the best record in the ABA that season against the rest of the ABA's All-Star players that season. This saw the Nuggets become the opposing team for the ABA's All-Stars that year, which was very convinient for the league since the Nuggets previously agreed to host the 1976 ABA All-Star Game before it saw multiple teams fold during the season; the Nuggets later won that game 144–138 in what became the highest-scoring All-Star Game in ABA history thanks to the Nuggets scoring 52 points in the fourth quarter, with rookie David Thompson being named the final All-Star Game's MVP that year. By the end of the season, the Nuggets had the best record of the ABA, which saw them beat the Kentucky Colonels 4–3 in the semifinal round before losing to the New York Nets 4–2 in the championship round in their only ABA Finals championship series. The Nuggets would not get another chance to win another championship until the 2023 NBA Finals, which they would win against the #8 seed Miami Heat. At the conclusion of the season, the Nuggets would join the New York Nets (now Brooklyn Nets), San Antonio Spurs, and Indiana Pacers as the four surviving ABA teams from the ABA-NBA merger to officially join the NBA.

ABA Draft

Main article: 1975 ABA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position(s)	Nationality	School
Bonus	1	Marvin Webster	C	United States	Morgan State
2	20	Bill Willoughby	PF/C	United States	Dwight Morrow High School (Englewood, New Jersey)
3	26	Tom Kropp	PG	United States	Kearney State College
3	30	Monte Towe	PG	United States	North Carolina State
4	40	Bob Fleischer	F	United States	Duke
5	50	Jimmy Moore	PF	United States	Utah State
6	60	Charles Russell	SF	United States	Alabama
7	70	Mike Odemns	PF/C	United States	Western Kentucky
8	80	Owen Brown	F	United States	Maryland

The Nuggets acquired a bonus draft pick (which subsequently became the official #1 pick of the 1975 ABA draft) as a sort of compensation for them due to the Carolina Cougars (who later became the Spirits of St. Louis) signing away Marvin Barnes from Denver back when they were still named the Denver Rockets on July 14, 1974. (Funnily enough, the Spirits of St. Louis would also acquire a bonus draft pick for this year's draft as well, though unlike the Nuggets, the Spirits would not use their bonus draft pick at all despite them gaining it by losing star player Billy Cunningham to the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA by a court ruling back when they still were the Carolina Cougars (likely for financial reasons).) The Nuggets would also acquire the actual #1 pick outside of the Bonus draft pick of Marvin Webster, shooting guard David Thompson from North Carolina State University (who compared favorably to Julius Erving at the time), a month later through a trade with the Virginia Squires involving two players of their own that were former All-Stars in the ABA. This was also the only ABA draft in franchise history where they were participating in the event while using the modern Denver Nuggets name as opposed to their previous Denver Rockets name or even a tentative team name like the "Larks" or "Lark Buntings" names that were considered to be official names for the franchise at one point in time back in 1967.

Roster

1975–76 Denver Nuggets roster

Players

Coaches

Pos. No. Player Height Weight DOB From PF 40 Byron Beck 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 225 lb (102 kg) January 25, 1945 Denver PF 10 Jim Bradley 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 215 lb (98 kg) March 16, 1952 Northern Illinois C 20 Roger Brown 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 225 lb (102 kg) February 23, 1950 Kansas PG 15 Jimmy Foster 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 175 lb (79 kg) December 16, 1951 Connecticut SF 22 Gus Gerard 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 200 lb (91 kg) July 27, 1953 Virginia SF 30 George Irvine 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 200 lb (91 kg) February 1, 1948 Washington C 25 Dan Issel 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 235 lb (107 kg) October 25, 1948 Kentucky PF 24 Bobby Jones 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 210 lb (95 kg) December 18, 1951 North Carolina SG 44 Ralph Simpson 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 200 lb (91 kg) August 10, 1949 Michigan State SG 21 Claude Terry 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 195 lb (88 kg) January 12, 1950 Stanford SF 33 David Thompson 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 195 lb (88 kg) July 13, 1954 NC State PG 13 Monte Towe 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) 150 lb (68 kg) September 27, 1953 NC State C 10 Marvin Webster 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) 225 lb (102 kg) April 13, 1952 Morgan State PG 11 Chuck Williams 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 175 lb (79 kg) June 6, 1946 Colorado

Head coach Larry Brown Legend (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured Roster

Season standings

Team	W	L	PCT.	GB
Denver Nuggets *	60	24	.714	—
New York Nets *	55	29	.655	5
San Antonio Spurs *	50	34	.595	10
Kentucky Colonels *	46	38	.548	14
Indiana Pacers *	39	45	.464	21
Spirits of St. Louis	35	49	.417	25
Virginia Squires †	15	68	.181	44
San Diego Sails †	3	8	.273	—
Utah Stars †	4	12	.250	—
Baltimore Claws †	0	0	.000	—

Asterisk (*) denotes playoff team
† did not survive the end of the season.
Bold – ABA champions^[1]

Player stats

Note: PG= per game; M= Minutes; R= Rebounds; A= Assists; S = Steals; B = Blocks; P = Points; T = Turnovers; PF = Personal fouls

Player	Age	Games played	MPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TPG	PFPG	PPG
David Thompson	21	83	37.4	6.3	3.7	1.6	1.2	3.0	3.4	26.0
Ralph Simpson	26	84	37.2	5.4	7.1	1.8	0.3	4.3	2.2	18.0
Bobby Jones	24	83	34.3	9.5	4.0	2.0	2.2	2.8	3.0	14.9
Dan Issel	27	84	34.0	11.0	2.4	1.2	0.7	2.4	3.2	23.0
Chuck Williams	29	79	32.0	2.7	4.7	1.5	0.1	2.3	2.7	11.0
Gus Gerard	22	60	19.8	5.0	2.0	0.9	0.9	2.4	2.8	9.9
Byron Beck	31	80	19.8	4.4	1.5	0.6	0.3	1.1	2.4	9.6
Claude Terry	26	79	17.1	1.9	1.8	0.5	0.1	1.2	1.5	7.1
Jim Bradley	23	7	15.3	4.3	1.6	0.7	0.7	0.7	3.7	4.6
Marvin Webster	23	38	10.5	4.6	0.8	0.2	1.4	1.0	1.6	4.3
Monte Towe	22	64	9.0	0.9	2.1	0.6	0.1	1.3	1.3	3.0
Roger Brown	25	37	7.9	2.0	0.6	0.2	0.6	0.5	1.7	2.0
James Foster	24	48	7.3	0.9	1.0	0.4	0.1	1.3	1.6	3.1
George Irvine	27	3	4.7	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.3	1.3 [2]

Playoffs

Main article: 1976 ABA Playoffs

Semifinals ^[3]

Game	Date	Location	Score	Record	Attendance
1	April 15	Denver	110–107	1–0	15,234
2	April 17	Denver	110–138	1–1	16,384
3	April 19	Kentucky	114–126	1–2	9,644
4	April 21	Kentucky	108–106	2–2	11,444
5	April 22	Denver	127–117	3–2	17,068
6	April 25	Kentucky	119–115	3–3	6,312
7	April 28	Denver	133–110	4–3	18,821

Nuggets win series, 4–3

This ultimately became the only playoff series that the Nuggets and Colonels would face off against each other in since the Colonels would later fold operations due to the ABA-NBA merger in June 1976.

ABA Finals ^[3]

Game	Date	Location	Score	Record	Attendance
1	May 1	Denver	118–120	0–1	19,034
2	May 4	Denver	127–121	1–1	19,107
3	May 6	New York	111–117	1–2	12,243
4	May 8	New York	112–121	1–3	15,934
5	May 11	Denver	118–110	2–3	18,881
6	May 13	New York	106–112	2–4	15,934

Nuggets lose championship series, 4-2

Awards, records, and honors

• Ralph Simpson led the league in turnovers (360)
• Bobby Jones led the league in field goal percentage (.581)

ABA All-Stars

Due to the unique circumstances involved with this particular season in the ABA, the usual format of East Vs. West All-Star teams was scrapped by December 1975 in favor of having the best team by the All-Star break competing against the rest of the league's best All-Stars around the rest of the league that still remained intact by this point in time. When they reached that specific point, it was officially confirmed that the Denver Nuggets would be the team that would compete against the rest of the ABA's All-Star talents that season, which was something the league conveniently had hoped for since Denver agreed to host the All-Star Game for this season earlier on back when the ABA still had ten teams around. Originally, three of the Nuggets' players were selected for the ABA All-Star team (David Thompson, Bobby Jones, and Ralph Simpson) before being swapped back to the Nuggets team and replaced by other players worthy of the All-Star team spot for this season (which became Larry Kenon of the San Antonio Spurs and the only first-time ABA All-Stars to replace Nuggets players in Maurice Lucas of the Kentucky Colonels and Don Buse of the Indiana Pacers). As such, the following Denver Nuggets players represented the team that competed in the 1976 ABA All-Star Game.

• Byron Beck
• Roger Brown
• James Foster
• Gus Gerard
• Dan Issel
• Bobby Jones
• Ralph Simpson
• Claude Terry
• David Thompson
• Monte Towe
• Chuck Williams^[4]

All-ABA Teams

• Ralph Simpson- 1st team
• Dan Issel- 2nd team
• Bobby Jones- 2nd team
• David Thompson- 2nd team

All-Defensive Team

• Don Buse- 1st team
• Bobby Jones- 1st team

All-Rookie Team

• David Thompson