The Fans Speak Out - letters - Letter to the Editor

In the May issue of BASKETBALL DIGEST, David Friedman wonders why ABA stats aren't included in NBA publications even after the so-called merger. He states in his piece that the NBA voted to merge. It did not.

The NBA forced the ABA to fold, then picked up the scraps. Officially the NBA "absorbed" four new teams. There was no merger. ABA types like Friedman still fry to perpetuate this myth about a merger.

The fact that it was an absorption is the reason ABA stats don't "exist." Another reason is the poor quality of play in the ABA. Yes, some fine players went from the ABA to the NBA. But the vast majority of ABA players were looking for work. If the league was so good, it wouldn't have folded.

Sam Palermo
Rochester, N.Y.

Sam, the NBA Board of Directors voted to merge with the ABA in June 1970. Mere weeks later, the Oscar Robertson Suit--a wide-ranging action brought upon the NBA by the players that paralleled Curt Flood's case against major league baseball--suspended the merger indefinitely Prior to that suit, Seattle SuperSonics owner Sam Schulman threatened to jump to the ABA if the NBA did not pursue merger talks.

In hotly-contested head-to-head exhibition play from 1971 to 1976, ABA teams won 79 games to the NBA's 76. Within five years of the merger, the NBA had adopted the ABA's three-point line; in 10, its Slam Dunk Contest. The four ABA teams that merged into the NBA--the Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs--had a combined regular-season record of 152-156 in 1976-77, despite the drag of the NBA-worst Nets at 22-60. Ten of the 24 players in the 1977 NBA All-Star Game had ABA roots. In total, 66 players from the ABA joined the NBA for the 1976-77 season, meaning only a dozen or so ABA players didn't move into the NBA.

A dynamic duo

I know Elgin Baylor averaged 27.4 ppg and Jerry West 27.0 ppg in their careers. What is the highest single-season scoring average for both players? What year is their best for combined points per game?

Tim Moule
Grass Valley, Calif.

Tim, Baylor's top scoring average was 38.3 in 1961-62, a season in which he played only 48 games. West's top average was 31.3 ppg in the 1965-66 season. In the 1961-62 season, West's 30.8 ppg combined with Baylor's career-high 38.3--a combined average of 69.1 ppg--was their best scoring output as a duo.

Marbury-Kidd, the flipside

Strangely enough, this letter is in response to my own letter "Marbury Row" from the December 2000 BASKETBALL DIGEST. In that letter, I defended Jason Kidd after reading a letter in your Summer 2000 issue by Prince Wallace claiming that Stephon Marbury was the best thing since sliced bread, while at the same time calling Kidd overrated.

I proved my point (no pun intended) who the better player is. Now we get to see if Prince is a New Jersey Nets fan or a Marbury fan. Because I guarantee the Nets will have a better record and possibly make the playoffs with Kidd.

As far as I'm concerned--being a lifelong Phoenix Suns fan--I hope I'm wrong about Marbury, but he hasn't showed anything in his career to make me think he isn't a cancer. So congratulations, Prince, if you're a Nets fan, your team is better. If you're a Marbury fan, you and me both will be crossing our fingers, hoping that I'm wrong.

Cody Ren
Sedona, Ariz.

Vince Carter, Warrior?

I'm a big fan of BASKETBALL DIGEST. I like what you have in your magazine every month and I read it and study it from cover to cover. It's my favorite basketball magazine and I can't wait to get in in the mail each month.

I noticed in your 2001 NBA Draft Preview ["Attack of the Underclassmen!", Summer 2001] you said that Allen Iverson and Vince Carter are the only two of the 2000-01 season's top-five scorers to play for the teams that drafted them. That's incorrect. Carter was chosen by the Golden State Warriors and then traded to the Toronto Raptors for Antawn Jamison.

Thank you for keeping me up to date in both college and NBA basketball.

Jordan King, age 10
Stevens Point, Wis.

Right on, Jordan (hmm ... are you named after a particular future Hall-of-Famer?). Jamison, chosen No. 4, and Carter, the fifth pick, were swapped soon after the 1998 NBA draft. We should have said that Iverson and Carter were the only two of the top-five scorers to have played with only one NBA team in their careers.

Underrated Spoon

As a reader of your publication since 1993, I believe that BASKETBALL DIGEST should focus a little more of some of the more underrated players who, despite lacking recognition, still put up great numbers. One of those players, Clarence Weatherspoon, is quietly closing in on getting 10,000 points for his career. You wouldn't know it, though, as he has been stuck on bad teams throughout his career. The Spoon has established himself as a model of consistency, with career averages of 13.2 ppg and 7.9 rpg. Spoon's achievements have gone unrecognized while he keeps going about his business on terrible teams. The Spoon has earned the respect of everyone in the league and he should get the recognition he so thoroughly deserves.