Summary
The American Basketball Association broke up. Four of its teams, the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs, were admitted to the NBA for a franchise fee of $3.2 million apiece.
Other former ABA stars were distributed to NBA teams through a special dispersal draft. Among them were Maurice Lucas, who went to Portland; Artis Gilmore, who went to the Chicago Bulls; and Moses Malone. Selected by Portland, Malone was traded to Buffalo and then to the Houston Rockets.
One of the ABA's greatest stars, Julius "Doctor J" Erving, was acquired by the Philadelphia 76ers from the Nets, who couldn't afford him because of the franchise fee.
Erving led the Warriors to first place in the Atlantic Division, ahead of the defending champion Boston Celtics. The Rockets, with Malone at center, finished atop the Central Division and Denver won the Midwest. In the Pacific Division, the Lakers' trade for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar the previous season paid off in a first-place finish.
The playoff field was expanded to include six teams from each conference, the division winners and the four teams that had the best won-lost records without finishing first. In the first round, the division winners received byes while the other teams played best-of-three series to determine which would advance.
In the East, Philadelphia eliminated the Celtics in a tough seven-game series but had a somewhat easier time in the conference finals, beating Houston in six games.
The Lakers also squeezed through a seven-game series in the conference semi-finals, beating Golden State. Meanwhile, the unheralded Portland Trail Blazers beat Denver in six games.
The Western Conference final was ballyhooed as a matchup of two outstanding centers out of UCLA, Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton. Walton, finally healthy after being hampered by foot injuries during his first two NBA seasons, led the league in rebounds and blocked shots.
The match-up turned out to be a mismatch. Portland swept the Lakers in four games. Then, after losing the first two games of the championship series at Philadelphia, the Trail Blazers won four in a row. The championship capped the team's first winning season.
