1973–74 ABA season

The 1973–74 ABA season was the seventh season of the American Basketball Association. The 1973 ABA draft would utilize four different draft formats throughout multiple months that the nine ABA teams went through during the offseason period before officially starting this season. The New York Nets won the ABA championship, 4 games to 1, over the Utah Stars.

Only one franchise move occurred from the previous season, and it stayed in its original state. The Dallas Chaparrals were purchased by a group called "Professional Sports, Inc." led by Angelo Drossos, John Schaefer, and Red McCombs and were moved to San Antonio and renamed to become the San Antonio Spurs after originally being planned to be the San Antonio Gunslingers, with them still being the Spurs in the present day after initially having it be a unique deal where the team could return to Dallas (likely to become the Chaparrals once again) by 1975 if they weren't bought outright by then. One thing that helped their standing with the locals early on was having their venue offering both Coca-Cola and Pepsi products when most other teams had to offer one or the other due to licensing issues. However, what helped get the Spurs see long-term success (to the point of getting Drossos, Schaefer, and McCombs to officially buy out the original Chaparrals owners and own the Spurs as a long-term franchise properly this season) was having them acquire key players from the Virginia Squires in rookie Swen Nater and George Gervin through trades in order to help the latter team out with their own financial struggles (though those same financial struggles that Virginia tried to get out of by trading key players would later do them in for their chances of survival in the next few seasons afterward).