The 1973–74 San Diego Conquistadors season was the second season in franchise history. During the offseason, the Conquistadors not only moved away from the Peterson Gym to the Golden Hall in the hopes of finding better luck with gaining fans there despite it having less seating by comparison, but they also acquired legendary Los Angeles Lakers center Wilt Chamberlain with the intention of using him as a player-coach for their franchise, though a judge later ruled that he could only coach for the team and not play for them. As a result of that ruling, he subsequently left a chunk of the coaching duties to assistant coach Stan Albeck since Chamberlain proved to not have much interest in coaching basketball as he did playing it. The team finished the season with a tied record for fourth place in the ABA's Western Division alongside the Denver Rockets. In the one-game playoff, despite San Diego playing this game on the road, the Conquistadors defeated the Rockets in what ultimately became the Rockets' final game under that name; the Denver franchise would soon rebrand themselves to the Denver Nuggets the following season and still use that name while in the NBA to this day. The Conquistadors then lost to the Utah Stars in six games during the Western Division Semifinals in what ultimately became their second and final playoff run in franchise history.
Offseason ABA Draft
Interestingly, this year's ABA draft would involve four different types of drafts throughout the early 1973 year: a "Special Circumstances Draft" on January 15, a "Senior Draft" on April 25, an "Undergraduate Draft" also on April 25, and a "Supplemental Draft" on May 18. As such, the following selections were made in these respective drafts by the Conquistadors, which were considered the first official drafts the San Diego franchise had done in the ABA outside of the expansion draft they did with the rest of the surviving ABA teams from the previous year.
ABA Special Circumstances Draft Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 1 7 David Vaughn Jr. C United States Oral Roberts 2 18 Bird Averitt SF United States Pepperdine Due to the "Special Circumstances Draft" being held in January, this draft was considered the only draft done this year where the Conquistadors didn't have the #1 pick in the first round of the draft, with the Denver Rockets getting the #1 pick of the first round for that specific draft there instead. Every other draft this year is one that's considered a draft where the Conquistadors would acquire the #1 pick of the respective draft involved for the rest of the year.
ABA Senior Draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 1 Bo Lamar PG United States Southwestern Louisiana 2 13 Tim Bassett PF/C United States Georgia 3 23 Tom Ingelsby PG United States Villanova 4 33 Darryl Minniefield C United States New Mexico 5 43 Reggie Royals C United States Florida State 6 53 Jim Owens SF United States Arizona State 7 63 Ken Charles SG Trinidad & Tobago Fordham 8 73 Chris McMurray F United States San Diego State 9 83 Russ Hunt C United States Furman 10 93 Nick Connor F United States Illinois The "Senior Draft" done in April is often considered the official, main draft period of the 1973 ABA draft by basketball historians.
ABA Undergraduate Draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 11 (1) 101 (1) Bill Walton C United States UCLA 12 (2) 113 (13) Jim Bradley SF/PF United States Northern Illinois The "Undergraduate Draft" is considered a continuation of the "Senior Draft" that was done earlier that same day, hence the numbering of the rounds and draft picks here.
ABA Supplemental Draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 1 Larry Moore C United States UT Arlington 2 11 Mike Contreras G United States Arizona State 3 19 Doug Little G United States Oregon 4 27 Ernie Kusnyer F United States Kansas State 6 40 Jerry Bisbano F United States Southwestern Louisiana 7 47 Mark Beckwith C United States Montana State 8 53 Wayne Pack PG United States Tennessee Tech 9 59 Fred DeVaughn F United States Westmont College None of the eight players selected in the "Supplemental Draft" would ever play for the Conquistadors once this draft concluded in May, though Wayne Pack would later play in the ABA for the Indiana Pacers instead.
The Wilt Chamberlain Saga and Other Notable Things On September 26, 1973, the Conquistadors signed legendary Hall of Fame-caliber center Wilt Chamberlain to a three-year, $1.8 million contract to become the team's player-coach. However, the Los Angeles Lakers, who had a contract with Chamberlain that was still going on with him at the time, promptly went to court against the ABA and the Conquistadors and subsequently won a ruling that Chamberlain could only play professional basketball for the Lakers while his contract with them was ongoing, though the courts did allow Chamberlain to be the head coach for the Conquistadors instead. Not long after that, Stan Albeck was hired as the Conquistadors' assistant coach and as the team's Director of Player Personnel. However, as the season further played out for the franchise, Albeck often acted as the team's head coach during Chamberlain's erratic absences, which included him missing a game to promote his own biography at the time.
Also during the preseason, the Conquistadors signed Travis "Machine Gun" Grant from the Lakers onto the roster, despite his ABA draft rights being held by the Utah Stars at the time of the 1972 ABA draft.
During the preseason period, the Conquistadors were an anomaly amongst the entire ABA in that, unlike other ABA teams, they did not play any exhibition games against NBA teams whatsoever that season (though they would play preseason games against other NBA teams in later seasons).
Roster
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Regular season Season standings + Western Division Team W L PCT. GB Utah Stars 51 33 .607 - Indiana Pacers 46 38 .548 5 San Antonio Spurs 45 39 .536 6 San Diego Conquistadors 37 47 .440 14 Denver Rockets 37 47 .440 14 1973–74 ABA Season Summary - Basketball-Reference.com
Game log
Month by Month October 1973 The Conquistadors opened the ABA season on October 10, 1973, with a road game against the San Antonio Spurs. 5,879 attended as the Conquistadors prevailed, 121–106, behind Stew Johnson's game-high 38 points. The following night 5,013 fans saw the Conquistadors lose on the road to the Denver Rockets, 135–111. The following night the Conquistadors played their home opener in front of 2,318 fans but lost to the Memphis Tams 118–113 in spite of Stew Johnson's 34 points.
After a week off, the Conquistadors again faced the Rockets, this time on their home court in San Diego. The Conquistadors lost again to the Rockets, 113–100. Stew Johnson scored 23 points in front of 2,468 fans. Two nights later, on October 21, the Conquistadors took to their home court in front of 2,261 fans and lost a double-overtime game to the Indiana Pacers, 112–105. After another day off the Conquistadors hosted the Spurs and lost 112–110 in front of 2,468 fans.
On October 26 the Conquistadors, now 1–5, took the court in San Diego against the Utah Stars and their 4–5 record. With a crowd of 2,358 watching, Bo Lamar scored 36 points to lead the Conquistadors to a 122–102 victory.
On October 28 the Conquistadors took their home floor against Memphis and the teams set an ABA record for the most 2 point field goals in a single game by two teams (117). The Conquistadors won, 146–133, in front of 1,906 fans.
On October 29 the Conquistadors signed Caldwell Jones as they traded Larry Miller to the Virginia Squires for Jones.
November 1973 The Conquistadors took a 3–5 record into November. On November 1 the Q's and Tams met again, this time in Memphis, and the Conquistadors repeated as victors, 103–100, in front of 6,273 fans. The following night in Salt Lake City had the Conquistadors take their improved 4–5 record into the Salt Palace in front of 7,168 fans, but lost to the Stars 126–110.
November 6 saw the Q's on the road at Denver, losing 110–104 to the Rockets before a crowd of 2,058. The following night in San Antonio the Conquistadors managed only 9 points in the entire first quarter against the Spurs. A furious comeback led by Bo Lamar's 34 points made for a tight game but the Q's could not overcome their terrible first quarter and lost 105–104 in front of 7,101 fans. That same day, November 7, brought bad news for the franchise: a ballot initiative to fund team owner Leonard Bloom's proposed 20,000-seat arena was defeated by the electorate. 19,000 ballots were cast in the referendum, and the proposal lost by only 294 votes. As a result, attendance problems, which already were bad because the Q's were forced to play in tiny Golden Hall (3,200 seats) instead of in the San Diego Sports Arena, became worse as rumors swirled that the Conquistadors would move to Los Angeles at the end of the season. The league did, in fact, on November 10 order Bloom to begin investigating such a move.
The Q's next took the court on November 10, facing the New York Nets in San Diego. Julius Erving scored 35 points for the Nets but the Q's prevailed 107–105 in front of 2,369 fans. The following night the Q's took their home court again, with only 1,422 in attendance, and eked out a narrow 102–101 victory against the Indiana Pacers to bring their season record to 6–8.
November 14 brought the Q's to Salt Lake City once again, where the Stars prevailed 129–119 in front of 6,354 fans despite Stew Johnson's game-high 23 points. On November 16 the Conquistadors lost in overtime at home against the Denver Rockets, 130–126; only 1,666 fans were reported for the game. The following night the Q's lost to the Spurs in San Antonio, 118–96; Stew Johnson scored 32 in front of 4,046 fans.
On November 21 the Q's took their home floor in front of 1,685 fans and defeated the Carolina Cougars 139–125 behind Bo Lamar's game-high 36 points. A brief winning streak commenced for the Q's as they met the Cougars again on November 23 in Raleigh and came away with a 111–107 overtime victory behind Stew Johnson's 30 points. The following night saw a close game in front of 3,421 fans in Cincinnati, Ohio as the Conquistadors played a tough game but lost 124–121 to the Kentucky Colonels and that team's fearsome front line as Dan Issel and Artis Gilmore scored 30 points each for Kentucky. November 27 saw another Q's loss, this time in Indianapolis to the Pacers, 129–117, before 8,018 fans. The Q's next game came on November 28 as they lost 134–108 to the Nets in front of 6,884 fans in Uniondale, New York.
On the 30th the Conquistadors took an 8–14 record into their final game of November, a home matchup against the Virginia Squires. The Conquistadors scored 86 points in the first half. Virginia's George Gervin put in 37 points but the Q's held on for a 145–139 victory to close out the month at 9–14.
December 1973 On the 2nd they opened the month at home against the Utah Stars and won 105–100 before 1,230 fans. Another win came two nights later in Memphis as the Q's bested the Tams 112–101 before 2,285 fans. The following night the Conquistadors took their improved 11–14 record to Denver but lost a lopsided game to the Rockets, 138–108, in front of 3,773 fans. On the 7th came another loss, 121–113, in front of 7,158 fans on the Utah Stars' homecourt. The following night saw a home loss to the Spurs, 95–85, with attendance at 1,624.
On December 11 Wilt Chamberlain's bench role became final as an arbitrator ruled that, due to the option year on his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers (which was later thrown out in the Oscar Robertson suit by the United States Supreme Court in 1976), Chamberlain was bound to the Lakers for the season and could not play for San Diego properly, though he could at least remain on the team as their head coach.