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1971–72 Indiana Pacers season

ABA basketball team season (won ABA championship)

(Defeated Nets 4–2) The 1971–72 Indiana Pacers season was the fifth season of the franchise while out in the American Basketball Association. The Pacers would end their season with a worse record when compared to their previous season with an eleven-game decrease in wins. However, Indiana still finished the season with a second-place finish in the Western Division (behind only the defending champion Utah Stars) before winning their second ABA title in three years. In the division semifinals, the Pacers required all seven games played in order to eliminate the Denver Rockets, who finished their season with a 34–50 record. Then, in the Western Division Finals, the Utah Stars were eliminated in seven games, getting revenge on the Stars for the division finals loss they had to them last season. Finally, the New York Nets appeared in the ABA Finals championship series for the first time in franchise history, thought the Nets were defeated by the Pacers in six games in the only series the Pacers didn't take to seven games this season. This would lead to the Pacers winning their second championship in three years, as well as their third ABA Finals appearance in four years after missing out on playing in the 1971 ABA Finals.

Offseason

ABA Draft

Main article: 1971 ABA draft

This draft was the first ABA draft to have a properly recorded historical note of every round in their draft available.

Round	Pick	Player	Position(s)	Nationality	College
2	18	Darnell Hillman	PF/C	USA United States	San Jose State
3	24	John Mengelt	SG	USA United States	Auburn
4	42	Jim Cleamons	PG/SG	USA United States	Ohio State
5	53	Clarence Glover	SF	USA United States	Western Kentucky
6	64	Jeff Halliburton	SG	USA United States	Drake
7	75	Dean Meminger	PG	USA United States	Marquette
8	86	Vic Bartolome	G	USA United States	UCLA
9	97	Tom Crosswhite	F	USA United States	Dayton
10	108	Larry Weatherford	G	USA United States	Purdue
11	119	Jim England	G	USA United States	Tennessee
12	129	Jeff Smith	F	USA United States	New Mexico State
13	138	Rick Katherman	F	USA United States	Duke
14	147	Clarence Smith	F	USA United States	Villanova
15	156	Rich Walker	G	USA United States	Bowling Green State
16	164	Tom Bush	C	USA United States	Drake
17	172	Jim Irving	G	USA United States	Saint Louis
18	179	Bob Bissant	G	USA United States	Loyola University (New Orleans)
19	185	Rudy Benjamin	G	USA United States	Michigan State
20	190	Slick Pinkham	PG	USA United States	DePauw

This draft was notable for Indiana due to the Pacers using the final selection that was done in this draft to select a gag name portmanteau player from DePauw University named "Slick Pinkham", who was actually a made-up individual that was a combination of head coach Bobby "Slick" Leonard and Dick Tinkham (the latter of whom actually attended DePauw University and even played basketball for them) to essentially prank the entire American Basketball Association for that specific draft. Their draft period was also notable for them acquiring power forward George McGinnis, a junior from Indiana University as an undrafted prospect; McGinnis would prove to be a key player for the Pacers during the early 1970s while in the ABA, to the point of being one of four Pacers players to have his number retired with the team as of 2025 (and one of three Pacers players to have their number retired while playing in the ABA alongside former Minnesota Muskies draft pick Mel Daniels and Roger Brown, who had previously been banned from the NBA due to perceived involvement in the 1961 NCAA University Division men's basketball gambling scandal).

Roster

Bobby Leonard

Regular season

Schedule

Season standings

Western Division	W	L	PCT.	GB
Utah Stars	60	24	.714	–
Indiana Pacers	47	37	.560	13
Dallas Chaparrals	42	42	.500	18
Denver Rockets	34	50	.405	26
Memphis Pros	26	58	.310	34

Player stats

Regular season

Player	GP	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	TRB	APG	PPG
Roger Brown	78	38.3	.478	.308	.805	6.4	3.9	18.5
Mel Daniels	79	37.6	.505	.000	.703	16.4	2.2	19.2
Freddie Lewis	77	35.2	.428	.310	.861	4.2	4.7	15.4
Bob Netolicky	83	35.0	.479	.211	.724	9.2	1.0	15.1
George McGinnis	73	29.8	.465	.158	.645	9.7	1.9	16.9
Rick Mount	78	27.3	.443	.317	.828	2.0	2.9	14.3
Billy Keller	76	22.8	.426	.331	.879	2.2	3.5	9.7
Darnell Hillman	73	19.0	.488	.200	.644	6.5	0.7	7.1
Larry Cannon	28	17.1	.383	.167	.718	1.2	2.6	6.6
Don Sidle	27	14.6	.503	.000	.633	3.5	0.4	6.5
Wayne Chapman	7	10.9	.389	.500	.500	0.7	1.6	2.6
Arvesta Kelly	4	10.3	.333			1.8	0.5	1.5
John Barnhill	19	10.2	.322	.114	.533	1.0	0.8	3.6
Marv Winkler	20	7.8	278	.500	.571	0.8	0.6	2.0
Mike Price	4	6.3	.333			1.3	0.3	1.5

Playoffs

Western Division Semifinals vs. Denver Rockets

Pacers won series, 4–3

Western Division Finals vs. Utah Stars

Pacers won series, 4–3

ABA Finals vs. New York Nets

Pacers won series, 4–2

Awards, records, and honors

Roger Brown appeared in the 1972 ABA All-Star Game
Mel Daniels appeared in the 1972 ABA All-Star Game
Freddie Lewis appeared in the 1972 ABA All-Star Game

References

Pacers on Basketball Reference

References

[https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/IND/1972_games.html 1971–72 Indiana Pacers Games – Basketball-Reference.com]
"1971-72 ABA Season Summary".
"1971-72 Indiana Pacers Roster and Stats".
"Remember the ABA: 1971-72 Regular Season Standings and Playoff Results".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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