SHOOTING STARS:
A Four-Part Series Documenting L.A.’s only ABA Team
Eric Patten (Twitter: @ericpatten), Clippers.com

Part 2: The Stars Make the Playoffs – 2/22/12

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 2 of Shooting Stars below:

The Stars debut season in Los Angeles, while filled with all the ABA bravado and showmanship, was largely unsuccessful. Attendance at the Sports Arena was lower than expected and they were devoid of an All-Star in the six-team Western Conference, and missed the playoffs after finishing 33-45.

But general manager Jim Hardy insisted the 1969-70 season would be different and for the second year in a row the Stars underwent wholesale changes. Hardy brought in five new players during training camp, including somewhat unknown rookies Mack Calvin and Willie Wise.

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    • The duo impressed second-year head coach Bill Sharman, however, and when the season opened on Oct. 17, 1969 at Nassau Coliseum against the New York Nets, both rookies were prominent members of the rotation. They complemented one another perfectly. Calvin was a 6-foot guard known for his hustle and foot speed, a near necessity in the fast-paced ABA, while Wise was smooth shooting, 6-foot-5 small forward.

    Note: Both men wound up with ties to the University of Southern California. Calvin was a two-year starter for the Trojans, while Wise’s nephew, Eric, is currently a forward on USC’s basketball squad after transferring from UC Irvine.

    Despite winning three of their first four games, the season hardly started as Sharman had envisioned it. Mired in a six-game losing streak and with a 16-22 record, the team acquired 6-foot-11 center Craig Raymond from the Pittsburgh Pipers. In two and a half years, the franchise never had a noteworthy pivot player.

    But Raymond, a first round pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1967 NBA Draft, entered and effectively played the best 46-game stretch of his life. In 34.1 minutes per game, the 24-year-old former BYU standout scored 15.4 points and grabbed 11.7 rebounds. In the three years that followed he never eclipsed seven points or eight boards.

    Led by Raymond, Calvin, Wise, sharpshooter George Stone, and Mervin “The Magician” Jackson, the Stars closed the season with 17 wins in their final 23 games, including an impressive 13 out of 14 from Feb. 27 to March 22, 1970.

    During the stretch they knocked off the Denver Rockets and Dallas Chaparrals, both Western Conference powers, as well as the Eastern Conference’s top regular-season team, the Indiana Pacers. And despite allowing 59 points to league MVP Spencer Haywood in a loss to Denver in the season finale, the Stars crept into the playoffs as the fourth and final seed in the West.

    They finished, 43-41, one game ahead of the New Orleans Buccaneers, setting up a first round matchup against Dallas. What happened next was nothing short of shocking.

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