The 1975–76 San Antonio Spurs season was the third season for the franchise while in San Antonio, their ninth overall season when including the seasons they played as the Dallas Chaparrals in Dallas and the one season they went as the Texas Chaparrals representing the entire state of Texas as a regional franchise (specifically playing in both Lubbock and Fort Worth alongside Dallas), and their final season they played as a franchise while out in the ABA. Despite being one of three teams to lose to the short-lived San Diego Sails rebranded franchise alongside the Utah Stars and Virginia Squires (both of whom would later fold operations themselves during this season), the Spurs would make it into the 1976 ABA Playoffs as the third-best team in the entire league behind only the New York Nets and Denver Nuggets, though the Spurs would lose 4–3 to the eventual champion New York Nets (led by the future-named ABA All-Time MVP Julius Erving) in the ABA Semifinals. Despite never winning a playoff series out in San Antonio as the Spurs and only winning one total playoff series in their entire history while in the ABA (that being during their inaugural season against the Houston Mavericks as the Dallas Chaparrals), the Spurs would be admitted to the National Basketball Association (NBA) along with what were considered the other three strongest teams in the ABA in the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, and the most recent (and final) ABA champion New York Nets (now Brooklyn Nets) following the conclusion of the ABA-NBA merger talks in June 1976 due to the Spurs quickly being the highest-growing attending team in the ABA despite only having three seasons spent in San Antonio and having the second-smallest venue of the ABA teams that survived the regular season ahead of only the Virginia Squires' multiple smaller venues, as well as the smallest venue of every ABA team around once the merger occurred. The team's fortunes would only grow for the better in later seasons once they spent more time within the NBA, to the point of having the best success of all previous ABA teams post-merger with five NBA Finals championships to their name (having more championships going forward in the NBA than even the Indiana Pacers during their time in the ABA).
ABA Draft
Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 8 Mark Olberding SF/PF United States Minnesota 2 21 Rick Suttle C United States Kansas 3 28 Bill Taylor SF United States La Salle College 4 38 Ken Smith SG United States Tulsa 5 48 Robert Parish C United States Centenary College of Louisiana 6 58 Bayard Forrest C United States Grand Canyon 7 68 Henry Ward SG United States Jackson State 8 78 Gary Tomaszewski SF/PF United States St. Mary's University of Texas The Spurs' 48th pick in the final ABA Draft ever held, Robert Parish, would be the only non-Denver Nuggets associated selection/player from this draft to either be named an All-Star or a Hall of Famer in his career, as while he would never play with the Spurs or join the ABA at all, he would grow a storied career in the 1980s with the Boston Celtics in the NBA as a major rival to the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers before winning one last NBA Finals championship (out of four total) in his final season of play in 1997 with the Chicago Bulls at 43 years old as the third-oldest player in NBA history behind Kevin Willis and Nat Hickey (as of 2025).
Roster
Regular season ABA Schedule Game Date Opponent Result Spurs Opponents Record 1 2 1974–75 San Antonio Games – Basketball-Reference.com
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 champions1975-76 ABA Season Summary - Basketball-Reference.com
ABA Playoffs
|- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 1 |April 9 | @ New York | L 101–116 |George Gervin (30 |Billy Paultz / Mike Gale (7) |George Karl (4) |Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum8,221 | 0–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 2 | April 11 | @ New York | W 105–79 |Larry Kenon (30) |Billy Paultz (18) |Mike Gale (13) |Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum5,769 | 1–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 3 | April 14 |New York | W 111–103 |Larry Kenon (28) |Larry Kenon (16) |Mike Gale (11) |HemisFair Arena10,009 | 2–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 4 | April 18 |New York | L 108–110 |Billy Paultz / George Gervin (28) |Billy Paultz (12) |Billy Paultz (5) |HemisFair Arena9,277 | 2–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 5 | April 19 | @ New York | L 108–110 |Larry Kenon (27) |Larry Kenon (12) |Mike Gale (8) |Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum11,321 | 2–3 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 6 | April 21 | New York | W 106–105 |George Gervin (37) |Larry Kenon (18) |Mike Gale / Billy Paultz (5) |HemisFair Arena10,484 | 3–3 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 7 | April 24 | @ New York | L 114–121 |George Gervin (31) |Larry Kenon (11) |Mike Gale (6) | Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum15,934 | 3–4
Spurs lose series, 4–3
References
External links Spurs on Basketball Reference RememberTheABA.com 1975–76 regular season and playoff results RememberTheABA.com San Antonio Spurs page RememberTheABA.com 1975–76 game by game results