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1975 ABA draft

The 1975 ABA draft was the ninth and final draft done by the American Basketball Association (ABA), a rivaling professional basketball league to the National Basketball Association (NBA) that they would later merge with as a part of the NBA following the conclusion of the 1975–76 ABA season. This draft period would ultimately be the draft period where the lack of a proper national TV market to compete against the NBA would finally catch up to the ABA due to a significant number of its teams facing financial struggles and burdens entering this draft period. It also marked the only true time where the ABA draft would truly start after the NBA draft did, which combined with an even lower amount of rounds and draft picks available from the ABA's end marked early signs that the ABA were about to meet its own end, one way or another. That being said, the ABA would still find a scant few successes from this draft day before their final season concluded and the ABA ended up merging with the NBA with only four total teams still being active to this day, with two other teams that survived up until the merger ultimately not making it to the NBA in the end. This draft also marked the only draft that the Denver Nuggets would participate in while still in the ABA under that name, as well as the only draft that both the Memphis Sounds and Spirits of St. Louis would be involved in altogether under those names before things started to fall apart for the ABA in their final season of play.

Draftee career notes
Due to this year's draft being the final draft in ABA history before the ABA-NBA merger happened, it can be said that there's not too many notable draftees at hand this time around by comparison. However, there are still some notable aspects about this year's draft from the ABA that still stand out as a whole, such as excluding the Bonus pick of Marvin Webster by the Denver Nuggets (who underperformed in his rookie season and missed out on the 1976 ABA All-Star Game due to liver problems that apparently related to hepatitis, but still had a couple of solid seasons in the NBA afterward), the technical #1 pick of the ABA draft was former technical #102 1973 undergraduate draft pick David Thompson by the Virginia Squires, who chose to play for the Nuggets (who did not have his undergraduate draft pick rights at the time, but chose to play for Denver over the Squires or Memphis Sounds (who did have his undergraduate draft rights by this point in time), with the Squires later conducting a trade involving Thompson going to Denver a month after this draft ended) alongside Webster over the Atlanta Hawks (who had drafted him as the #1 pick earlier in the 1975 NBA draft, but were considered below par when compared to the Nuggets in the ABA at the time), with Thompson not only being the only draft pick from this year to be a part of the ABA All-Time Team through being the final ABA All-Star Game's MVP via the 1976 ABA All-Star Game as a member of the Denver Nuggets (but would have made it in regardless of team designation), but also won the final ABA Rookie of the Year Award (while also being a member of the final ABA All-Rookie Team) and being a member of the All-ABA Second Team in his only ABA season before later being a two time All-NBA First Team member and four time NBA All-Star (including the 1979 NBA All-Star Game's MVP) in order to not only have his #33 retired by the Nuggets, but also be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In addition to Thompson, he was joined by #8 pick Mark Olberding and #32 pick (also former #54 pick of the 1974 ABA draft) Luther Burden, as well as #36 pick of the 1974 ABA draft Kim Hughes and #29 pick of the 1973 ABA Senior Draft M. L. Carr as the last members of the All-ABA Rookie Team that was ever created. In addition to Thompson, #30 pick Monte Towe was the only other player drafted in this year's draft to be named an ABA All-Star (though his privilege was more due to him being a part of the Denver Nuggets that season over anything else), meaning this year's draft only produced two total ABA All-Stars for the 1976 ABA All-Star Game out of 92 overall ABA All-Stars (with 35 ABA All-Stars having been eligible for play coming from the 1966 NBA draft, if not earlier than that, including some players that had previously been banned from the NBA due to alleged involvement in the 1961 NCAA University Division men's basketball gambling scandal). In addition to David Thompson, the only other player selected in this draft to have also made it to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame was #48 pick Robert Parish, who would make it there due to his part with what was considered a "Big Three" and then a "Big Four" era for the Boston Celtics during the 1980s, as well as another championship while with the Chicago Bulls under Michael Jordan's own "Big Three" of sorts during Parish's final year of play in 1997, which would make him the oldest ABA associated player by that point in time. Finally, the player that can be considered the last pick of the entire ABA's history was Lou Silver from Harvard University by the defending champion Kentucky Colonels; while he would never play for either the ABA or the NBA, he would have significant success with the Maccabi Tel Aviv out in Israel (to the point of later becoming a dual citizen for Israel alongside the U.S.A.) by winning Israeli League championships in every single season of play for them there alongside eight Israeli Cup championships, two EuroLeague championships, and a FIBA Intercontinental Cup championship alongside a FIBA European Selection in 1981 and a silver medal for EuroBasket in 1979. ==Historic draft notes==
Historic draft notes
This draft saw the ABA cut down the number of rounds from ten in the previous year's draft to only eight in this year's draft, excluding the bonus round draft selections given out to both the Denver Nuggets and the Spirits of St. Louis for different reasons relating to players at hand. The Nuggets were given a bonus selection alongside the picks they already got due to the Spirits of St. Louis signing Marvin Barnes away from them on July 14, 1974 back when they were still going by the Denver Rockets, while the Spirits were granted a bonus draft pick due to Billy Cunningham leaving the franchise back when they were still going under the Carolina Cougars name for the Philadelphia 76ers in the rivaling NBA due to legal court jargon, though the Spirits ultimately skipped out on using their pick by comparison to the Nuggets (likely for financial reasons). This draft period's aftermath would be the breaking point of the ABA, with the league truly starting to feel the struggles of regularly competing against the NBA without having a proper national TV contract to help generate more money for it. Following the conclusion of this draft day, the Memphis Sounds would move up to Baltimore, Maryland to initially play as the Baltimore Hustlers before controversy with that team name forced them to rename the team into the Baltimore Claws instead,