# 1973–74 San Antonio Spurs season

The 1973–74 San Antonio Spurs season was the first season for the newly named San Antonio Spurs, who had spent the past six seasons as the Dallas Chaparrals (and in one season's case, the Texas Chaparrals) in the American Basketball Association. The team initially went by the San Antonio Gunslingers before the season began, but decided to change their name to the Spurs some time before the season officially began either by results of a "Name That Team" contest or by the recommendation of one of the team's new co-owners as a nod to the birth town of Spur, Texas. In any case, the Spurs made their debut on October 10, 1973, against the San Diego Conquistadors in San Antonio, losing 121–106. Afterwards, the Spurs would win just 6 of their next 13 games. By the end of November, they would be back to .500. During this season, the Spurs owners would be able to buyout the previous Dallas Chaparrals owners and permanently own the team after previously being under a lease agreement with them back when they first owned the relocated franchise, which helped secure greater success with a newfound fanbase there. By February the Spurs were at 34–33, but they would win 11 of their next 16 games to finish the season 3rd in the 3 team Western Conference, going to the playoffs. In the 1974 ABA Playoffs, the Spurs lost in the first round 4–3 to the Indiana Pacers.

## ABA Draft

During the early parts of this draft, the team made what was considered to be their "special circumstances draft" selections while still going by the previous Dallas Chaparrals name. Once the team entered what was considered the "senior draft" onward, the team would make their future selections onward as a part of the new San Antonio name, initially as the San Antonio Gunslingers before retroactively having them become San Antonio Spurs draft picks going forward.
| Player | School/club team |
| Mike D'Antoni | Marshall |
| Craig Littlepage | Pennsylvania |
| Kevin Kunnert | Butler |
| George Adams | Iowa |
| Dwight Jones | Houston |
| Tom Henderson | Hawaii |
| John Brown | Missouri |
| John Coughran | California |
| Kevin Joyce | South Carolina |
| Bob Fullerton | Xavier |
| Bob Kilgore | Michigan State |
| Ron Houge | Georgia |
| Luke Witte | Ohio State |
| Gary Melchionni | Duke |
| John Lang | Augustana |
| Gary Melchionni | Duke |
| Jeff Overhouse | Texas A&m |
| Richie Fuqua | Oral Roberts |
| Henry Wilmore | Michigan |
| Tim Dominiz | Valdosta |
| Bill Harris | North Illinois |
| Mark Sibley | Northwestern |
| Larry Lilly | Alabama State |
| Bob Bodell | Maryland |
| Leon Howard | Wisconsin |
| Jeff Jellison | N.E. Massachusetts |

## Regular season
### Schedule

| Game | Date | Opponent | Result | Spurs | Opponents | Record |
| 1 | | | | | | |
| 2 | | | | | | |

### Season standings

1973–74 ABA Western Standings :
| Western Division | W | L | PCT. | GB |
| Utah Stars | 51 | 33 | .607 | – |
| Indiana Pacers | 46 | 38 | .548 | 5 |
| San Antonio Spurs | 45 | 39 | .536 | 6 |
| San Diego Conquistadors | 37 | 47 | .440 | 14 |
| Denver Rockets | 37 | 47 | .440 | 14 |

## ABA Playoffs

Western Division semifinals
| Game | Date | Location | Score | Record | Attendance |
| 1 | March 30 | Indiana | 113–109 | 1–0 | 7,438 |
| 2 | April 1 | Indiana | 101–128 | 1–1 | 6,988 |
| 3 | April 3 | San Antonio | 115–96 | 2–1 | 10,693 |
| 4 | April 4 | San Antonio | 89–91 | 2–2 | 12,079 |
| 5 | April 6 | Indiana | 100–105 | 2–3 | 10,079 |
| 6 | April 10 | San Antonio | 102–86 | 3–3 | 12,304 |
| 7 | April 12 | Indiana | 79–86 | 3–4 | 10,079 |