1976 ABA dispersal draft

On August 5, 1976, as a result of the ABA–NBA merger that occurred back in June of that year, the NBA hosted a dispersal draft to select players from the Kentucky Colonels and Spirits of St. Louis, the two American Basketball Association (ABA) franchises that had survived the final ABA season up until the conclusion of the 1976 ABA Playoffs, but were not included in the ABA–NBA merger properly. (A third team, the Virginia Squires, did survive the regular season period of the 1975–76 ABA season (albeit with 83 games played instead of the full 84 games played from every other ABA team that survived the regular season period), but they would not survive past the 1976 ABA Playoffs due to them failing to make what could have very well been a final $75,000 assessment for the ABA alongside an extra $125,000 in back pay for their players that was missed out for them at various points in their final season of play, meaning their players were not eligible for being selected in the dispersal draft.)

The eighteen NBA teams and the four ABA teams that joined the NBA, the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets and San Antonio Spurs, were allowed to participate in the draft. The teams selected in reverse order of their win–loss percentage in the previous NBA and ABA seasons. In the case of the teams that were in the ABA that survived into the NBA, all of them were already considered some of the best teams there in terms of playing record, though the Indiana Pacers were the only team to be an early selection as the apparent 8th pick of the first round of that draft due to their 39–45 record in the ABA being something that would have likely let them miss the playoffs entirely in the NBA that season (with the only possible way they would have been in the 1976 NBA Playoffs was if they had appeared in the Midwest Division), while the San Antonio Spurs, New York Nets, and Denver Nuggets would have picked at the equivalent of 17th, 19th, and 21st picks of that draft (with San Antonio being behind the Cleveland Cavaliers, the ABA champion Nets being behind the NBA champion Boston Celtics, and Denver being behind only the Golden State Warriors in terms of selections that year) had every team used their first-round selections there. The team that made a selection paid for the signing rights to the player, which were set by the league's committee. The dispersal draft would have also lasted for upwards to three rounds had teams opted to use them all, but only one team in the Kansas City Kings even bothered using up their second round pick at all in this draft, with no teams even using the third round at all. Two dispersal round trades also occurred around this time as well, with one of them resulting in one of the teams being an immediate championship winner following the 1977 NBA Finals. The money from the draft was used to help the four ABA teams that merged with the NBA to pay off some of their obligations to the two folded ABA franchises, the Colonels and Spirits, with the third and final ABA team that had survived the ABA's final regular season, the Virginia Squires, missing out on the dispersal draft and negotiations in the ABA-NBA merger altogether. The team that made a selection was obligated to assume the player's ABA contract. The players who were not selected would become free agents.

Twenty players from both the Colonels and the Spirits were available for the draft. Eleven were selected in the first round, while the twelfth player was selected in the second round. Eight players were not selected from this draft and thus became free agents not long afterward. The Chicago Bulls used the first pick to select the Colonels' five-time ABA All-Star Artis Gilmore with a signing price of $1,100,000. The Portland Trail Blazers, who acquired the Atlanta Hawks' second pick, selected Maurice Lucas from the Colonels and Moses Malone from the Spirits with signing price of $300,000 and $350,000 respectively. Both of these players would become the only players selected in this draft to end up winning an NBA Finals championship during their careers, though they would not do so as teammates, with Lucas winning his immediately after being drafted by Portland in the 1977 NBA Finals and Malone winning his with former New York Nets star Julius Erving and Denver Nuggets rising star Bobby Jones while with the Philadelphia 76ers after joining the team in 1982 in time for the 1983 NBA Finals. Marvin Barnes from the Spirits of St. Louis, who was selected fourth by the Detroit Pistons, was the second most expensive player in the draft with a signing price of $500,000. Ron Thomas from the Colonels, who was selected ninth by the Houston Rockets, but he ultimately became the only ABA player drafted to not play a single game in the NBA at all. Several teams elected to pass up on using their first-round picks, with only the Kansas City Kings using the second-round pick as an option altogether. The draft continued up until the third round, but no other players were selected by then, making the existence of that third round become a complete waste of time and effort.

By the end of the dispersal draft, seven players from the Colonels and five players from the Spirits would be selected in this draft, while four players from the Colonels and four players from the Spirits were free to enter the NBA free agency market to sign up with other teams to potentially play in the NBA alongside all of the Virginia Squires' players that missed out on being a part of the dispersal draft. In terms of undrafted Colonels and Spirits players available, the Colonels' Allen Murphy and Johnny Neumann alongside the Spirits' Mike D'Antoni, Steve Green, and Freddie Lewis would all see play in the NBA after the dispersal draft ended, while the likes of the Spirits' Barry Parkhill and the Colonels' Jimmie Baker and Jimmy Dan Conner would never play professionally again. Meanwhile, numerous former Squires players like Mel Bennett, Mack Calvin, Fatty Taylor, Luther Burden, Mike Green, Dave Twardzik, Willie Wise, Jim Eakins (who had previously played for the Squires during their final season of play, but was last playing for the ABA champion Nets before leaving that team sometime either during or after the ABA-NBA merger commenced), and Swen Nater would all end up playing in the NBA themselves through other teams. Notably, many of the undrafted players from the dispersal draft alongside players from the Squires would see themselves in the NBA due to one of the four surviving ABA teams giving them a shot at the NBA themselves. However, Dave Twardzik would be the only former ABA player from one of the three defunct ABA teams that was not selected in the ABA dispersal draft to later win an NBA Finals championship, with him being a part of the 1976–77 Portland Trail Blazers championship roster alongside Lucas.