1972–73 Memphis Tams season

The 1972–73 Memphis Tams season was the first season of the Tams existing and third overall season of American Basketball Association basketball in Memphis, as well as the sixth overall season of play when including the three seasons of play while out in New Orleans as the New Orleans Buccaneers. After Memphis had two seasons as the Memphis Pros with middling profits under multiple different ownership groups in mind, Charles O. Finley bought the team on June 13, 1972. He then proceeded to rebrand the team into the image of his other teams that he had owned at the time (the Oakland Athletics in the MLB and the California Golden Seals in the NHL), changing the colors of the team to Kelly Green, California Gold, and Polar Bear White. The team's name was picked from an array of 20,000 postcards sent by fans, with the winner being given a $2,500 prize, which turned out to be Tams. The Tams name was meant to be an anagram to stand for the fans that resided in the states of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi, with a tam o'shanter hat being the main logo for the new team. In fact, during their first ever game on October 12, 1972, the entire team came out wearing the vaulted tam o'shanter hats in question. Finley also had a hand in the combinations of uniform colors worn, in part due to every top and trunk there being either green, gold, or white, with one notable combo being yellow tops with white trunks. For all of the flair the team had with their uniforms, however, it did not translate into success either on the court or for their attendance, which also quickly made Finley go dour on his purchase of the franchise. By December, Finley tried to have negotiations to move the team to St. Paul, Minnesota (which would have been the third team to go to the state of Minnesota had the plan succeeded), with Ron Franz being cut from the team before Christmas (claiming he had retired from play at the time before returning to play for the Dallas Chaparrals later in the season). The Tams were sixth in points scored at 111.5 per game but were dead last in points allowed at 118.1 per game. They had two different instances of 10-game losing streaks, with the Tams going around a month between wins at one point, losing 15 straight games from February 25 to March 24. By the time their streak ended, they had already been eliminated from making the playoffs with the New York Nets acquiring the final playoff spot in question in the Eastern Division. By the end of the season, they were the first ABA team to lose 60 games in a season since the Miami Floridians back in 1969.^[1]

Weirdly enough, as of 2025, there has been no official draft records for the first five rounds of the 1972 ABA draft specifically, while every other round after that point has been properly recorded by basketball historians otherwise. Because of the strange dispersity of draft picks not being properly recorded this year after previously being fully recorded in the previous year's draft and the number of rounds potentially being off for even the players being selected this year, the recorded players selected in this year's draft will be marked with a ? for the pick number in particular (as well as certain round numbers, if necessary) in order to showcase the awkward display currently going on with the 1972 ABA draft year in particular (though what is known is that Memphis ended up forfeiting their original #2 pick of the draft due to the Pros signing Larry Cannon from the Denver Rockets sometime after the 1971 ABA draft, which resulted in the team's forfeiture of that selection (ironically, Memphis would also be victims of having an ABA signing a player of interest on their end with multi-time ABA All-Star Jimmy Jones signing a deal with the Utah Stars after that same draft, which caused Utah to lose their own first round pick as well)). However, if any changes come up to where a proper, official recording of the 1972 ABA draft gets released displaying both pick numbers and round numbers for where certain players got selected, please provide the updated (potential) draft ordering with a source confirming the round and pick numbers included here.

During the draft, whenever Memphis would get a chance to select players in a round, they would swap their round ordering with the soon-to-be-defunct Pittsburgh Condors franchise due to them being considered the two worst teams of the ABA by the time the draft began on March 2, 1972, with Memphis starting off not just round two, but also the other even-numbered rounds, whenever applicable. Also, this draft would become the last ABA draft where the Memphis franchise would draft players under the Memphis Pros name. Months after the 1972 ABA draft concluded, the new owner of the Memphis squad would change the team's name from the Pros to the Tams, around the time the 1972 ABA dispersal draft began.

Sometime after Charles O. Finley bought the Memphis Pros, the franchise would officially be renamed into the Memphis Tams. Not long after that, they would debut their new team name in what would become the ABA's first ever dispersal draft done on July 13, 1972. This dispersal draft would occur after it was found out by the ABA itself that neither "The Floridians" nor the Pittsburgh Condors would be able to continue operations either in their original locations or elsewhere in the U.S.A. (or even Canada in the case of "The Floridians"), with Memphis themselves avoiding the same fate as them this season due to their new ownership taking over this season. Unlike the main draft the ABA did during the months of March and April, this draft would last for only six rounds as a one day deal and would have the nine remaining inaugural ABA teams, including the recently renamed Tams, selecting players that were left over at the time from both "The Floridians" and Pittsburgh Condors franchises (including draft picks from both teams there) and obtain their player rights from there.^[2] Any players from either franchise that wouldn't be selected during this draft would be placed on waivers and enter free agency afterward.^[3] Interestingly, only 42 total players were selected by the nine remaining ABA teams at the time of the dispersal draft, meaning everyone else that was available from both teams was considered a free agent to the ABA not long afterward. Not only that, but the Tams would start out this draft with the #1 draft pick in the event, as well as become both one of four teams (alongside the Carolina Cougars, Dallas Chaparrals, and Denver Rockets) to have multiple first round draft picks and one of two teams alongside the Virginia Squires to utilize all six rounds of the dispersal draft at hand. With all that said, the following players were either Floridians or Condors players that the recently renamed Memphis Tams acquired during this dispersal draft.

The Memphis Tams would have the most overall picks of the draft with seven total selections made in six rounds of the draft. For the first overall pick of this draft, George Thompson, was previously an ABA All-Star for the Pittsburgh Condors during the last season of his three years he played with the Pittsburgh Pipers/Condors franchise; Thompson would later gain two more ABA All-Star appearances while with the Tams before leaving them in 1974 to play for the Milwaukee Bucks in the rivaling NBA and then leaving for international play not long afterward. As for their second first round pick, Ron Franz would briefly play for the Tams before "retiring" from play on December 1972 before returning to play for the Dallas Chaparrals in 1973 before later playing international basketball as well. Their second round pick, Dave Lattin, would especially be notable for being a part of the first all-black starting line-up for an NCAA championship squad through the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame worthy 1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team, though he'd also play his final season with the Tams before retiring in 1973. Their third round pick, Sam Cash, would only play in seven total games for the Tams in his rookie season before later retiring from play in 1973. As for their fourth round pick, despite Ron Thomas being drafted by the Tams after acquiring his player rights from "The Floridians" franchise in this draft, Thomas would instead sign up with the Kentucky Colonels for this season and play with them all the way up until the ABA-NBA merger officially happened in 1976, including the Colonels' only ABA championship in 1975. For their fifth pick, Charles Edge decided to return to LeMoyne–Owen College for his senior year of college before later playing for the Tams for one season and then the Indiana Pacers for another season before retiring from play in 1975. Finally, their last pick in the draft, Ray Golson, would be the only selection from this draft to not play anywhere in either the ABA or rivaling NBA at all whatsoever.

1973 ABA All-Star Game selection (game played on February 6, 1973)

• George Thompson

• RememberTheABA.com 1972–73 regular season and playoff results
• Memphis Tams page