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A Four-Part Series Documenting L.A.’s only ABA Team
Beginning on Thursday, January 26, the Clippers and adidas will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the American Basketball Association’s (ABA) founding with a series of games during NBA Hardwood Classics Month. As part of the celebration, the Clippers are one of nine teams to recognize the anniversary by wearing commemorative uniforms and hosting special in-arena events.
The Clippers will wear the uniform of the Los Angeles Stars, an ABA team that played at the L.A. Sports Arena from 1968-1970 for the first time against the Memphis Grizzlies on Jan. 26.
Throughout the season, Clippers Insider Eric Patten will look back at the history of the ABA in Los Angeles. Check out Part 1 of Shooting Stars below:
Before Los Angeles had their all too familiar Clippers color scheme of red, white, and blue, they had the L.A. Stars, a short-lived ABA franchise that lit up the Sports Arena more than a decade ahead of the Clippers arrival from San Diego.
After one poorly attended season at the Anaheim Convention Center playing as the Anaheim Amigos, the franchise relocated to Los Angeles. Under new ownership, a new nickname, and donning flashy powder blue, scarlet and white uniforms, the Stars became an instant curiosity in the then one-team basketball town.
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A year earlier, the Lakers vacated the Los Angeles Sports Arena to play at the Forum in Inglewood. And certain segments of L.A. society viewed the move as disagreeable. Words like “abandoned” were bandied about and the Stars, with their youthful roster and the ABA mystique of high-scoring offense, offered an alternative to the more established NBA.
“The Lakers are now the Inglewood Lakers of the National Basketball Association,” Gilbert W. Lindsay, President of the Coliseum Commission, told the Los Angeles Times in 1968. “Los Angeles now has a team of its own—The Los Angeles Stars.”
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Much like other notable ABA franchises during the era, Krist and Hardy made a point of bringing in familiar names. They hired NBA legend Bill Sharman, who left his post with the San Francisco Warriors, to coach the Stars. And after waiving nearly all of the former Amigos players, they opened their first season in Los Angeles with eight rookies, including major college stars Larry Miller (North Carolina), Mervin “The Magician” Jackson (Utah), Edgar Lacey (UCLA) and Bobby Warren (Vanderbilt).
A dazzling opening ceremony with spotlights in the dimmed arena and “The Magician” bursting through a giant paper hoop, introduced the Stars prior to their first game versus the New Orleans Buccaneers on Oct. 30, 1968. The pageantry, though, was for not as the Stars fell 112-109.
The Stars were 10-10 through their first month of play and the season had its share of signature moments. In a four-day stretch in Jan. 1969 the Stars knocked off ABA Finalists Indiana, 129-128, in overtime, and Oakland, 123-121. They also strung together six wins in seven games two months later, defeating the Oaks twice in that span. Still, the Stars managed just a 33-45 record, fifth in the six-team Western Conference.
Miller, who averaged 17 points and 7.7 rebounds, was named to the All-Rookie First Team, while Jackson and George Stone made the second team. Midseason pickup George Lehmann led the team in scoring, averaging 18.8 points in 32 games.
