1971–72 The Floridians season

The 1971–72 The Floridians season was the fourth and final season of American Basketball Association out in the state of Florida for the franchise, as well as the fifth and final season for the franchise as a whole when including their only season they played as the Minnesota Muskies. For this season, 34 home games were played in Miami, with the other home games being played in either Tampa or St. Petersburg, skipping out on Jacksonville and West Palm Beach this time around. The Floridians edged out the Carolina Cougars for the final playoff spot by one game, with their 116–115 overtime victory proving key to clinching the spot, as their record was 35–45 and the Cougars record was at 33–49, with the Floridians not only having two more games to play than the Cougars, but only needing to win once more to officially clinch, which they did four days later with a 118–107 win over the Memphis Pros. (If The Floridians had lost to Carolina, they would have had to play a one game playoff match to determine the final playoff spot instead had every other result remained the same by comparison.) The team's biggest winning streak all season was 4 games long, with their first half record being 19–23. They then went 17–25 in the second half of the season, with a season high six-game losing streak happening in that half. They finished eighth both in points scored at 112.8 per game and in points allowed at 114.3 per game. In the Eastern Division Semifinals, they were swept by the Virginia Squires, with Game 2 of that series match aired nationally on CBS. After their season ended, the team was ultimately disbanded due to attendance not improving within the state of Florida despite the owners trying everything they could have possibly thought of to appeal to the state. While the team was close to relocating to a different place a couple of times (notably out in Cincinnati, Ohio and then Omaha, Nebraska), they ultimately folded the franchise under the ABA's discretion before getting a deal to relocate the franchise become official on their ends. Pro basketball would not return to the Miami area until 1988 with the Miami Heat, who have worn throwback jerseys of the team on occasion as part of "Hardwood Classics Nights", doing so for the first time during the 2005–06 season. Another NBA team would be added in the state of Florida a year after the Heat were added with the Orlando Magic being created, with a third team temporarily being included in the state with the Toronto Raptors having home games played in Tampa due to the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020–21 season.

This draft was the first ABA draft to have a properly recorded historical note of every round in their draft available.

This draft would inadvertently be the penultimate draft that "The Floridians" would ever participate in as a franchise. The final draft they'd participate in would be done months before the 1972 ABA Dispersal Draft involving this franchise and the Pittsburgh Condors. During this specific draft, "The Floridians" would trade their first round pick to the Denver Rockets and their third round pick to a currently unknown team (though it could potentially have been the Kentucky Colonels due to them having a third round pick at the spot that "The Floridians" would have had it in, meaning "The Floridians" would be the only team to not have a third round pick in the 1971 ABA draft); outside of trading away those selections, "The Floridians" would use every single round of this draft otherwise.

1972 ABA All-Star Game selections (game played on January 29, 1972)

• Mack Calvin
• Warren Jabali

On June 13, 1972, months after participating in and completing the 1972 ABA draft, it was announced by ABA commissioner Jack Dolph that both The Floridians and Pittsburgh Condors franchises would go defunct for the 1972–73 ABA season due to neither team finding a viable location to help ensure their survival beyond the season, especially due to rumblings regarding a future NBA-ABA merger looking to not include either team alongside the Memphis Pros (who would soon afterward rebrand themselves into the Memphis Tams in an attempt to regain sustainability in the ABA) due to them all being considered the weakest links of the ABA at the time. For The Floridians franchise, they would fold operations in what was considered to be a tax write-off by the ABA after failing to secure a relocation deal to Cincinnati and various plans involving cities like Montreal (which would have being outside of the United States of America region for the ABA), Albuquerque, San Diego (who ironically would host their own ABA franchise later that year in the San Diego Conquistadors expansion franchise), and Omaha (who was slated to be sold to Peter Swanson of Swanson Foods had the ABA allowed for the initial sale to go through) ultimately fell through for varying reasons. In the final ABA draft The Floridians ever participated in, they selected Dwight Davis from the University of Houston, Mike Stewart from Santa Clara University, Scott English from the University of Texas at El Paso, Greg Starrick from Southern Illinois University (once again), Charlie Thorpe from Belhaven College, Dutch-born center Swen Nater from UCLA, Ron Thomas from the University of Louisville, Ernie Fleming from Jacksonville University, Sam Cash from UC Riverside, Tracy Tripucka from Lafayette College, Jerry Brucks from the University of Wyoming, Bobby Jack from the University of Oklahoma, Greg Flaker from the University of Missouri, Ray Golson from West Texas State University, Willie Cherry from the University of Denver, Arnie Berman from Brown University, Fred DeVaughn from Westmont College, and Bob Zender from Kansas State University with their final draft picks. The ABA would host its first ever dispersal draft a month later on July 13 involving former Floridians and Condors players, with every remaining ABA team at that point in time taking at least one player that was on The Floridians at the time of the draft. The following Floridians players or drafted players would be selected in this order by the rest of the ABA teams in this draft period.

• Round 1, Pick 2: Warren Jabali (Denver Rockets)

• Round 1, Pick 6: Mack Calvin (Carolina Cougars)

• Round 1, Pick 7: Willie Long (Denver Rockets)

• Round 1, Pick 8: Ron Franz (Memphis Tams)

• Round 1, Pick 9: Swen Nater (Virginia Squires)

• Round 1, Pick 10: Larry Jones (Utah Stars)

• Round 1, Pick 13: Dwight Davis (Indiana Pacers)

• Round 2, Pick 2 (#15): Scott English (Denver Rockets)

• Round 2, Pick 3 (#16): Mike Stewart (Carolina Cougars)

• Round 2, Pick 7 (#20): Ernie Fleming (Kentucky Colonels)

• Round 2, Pick 8 (#21): Dwight Jones (Indiana Pacers)

• Round 3, Pick 1 (#22): Sam Cash (Memphis Tams)

• Round 3, Pick 2 (#23): Al Tucker (Denver Rockets)

• Round 3, Pick 4 (#25): Jerry Brucks (Dallas Chaparrals)

• Round 3, Pick 5 (#26): Craig Raymond (Virginia Squires)

• Round 3, Pick 7 (#28): Lonnie Wright (Kentucky Colonels)

• Round 3, Pick 8 (#29): George Tinsley (New York Nets)

• Round 3, Pick 9 (#30): Tracy Tripucka (Indiana Pacers)

• Round 4, Pick 1 (#31): Ron Thomas (Memphis Tams)

• Round 4, Pick 2 (#32): Greg Starrick (Carolina Cougars)

• Round 4, Pick 3 (#33): Bobby Jack (Dallas Chaparrals)

• Round 4, Pick 6 (#36): Greg Flaker (Kentucky Colonels)

• Round 5, Pick 2 (#39): Greg Lowery (Virginia Squires)

• Round 6, Pick 1 (#41): Ray Golson (Memphis Tams)

• Round 6, Pick 2 (#42): Al Davis (Virginia Squires)

• Floridians on Basketball Reference

• RememberTheABA.com 1971-72 regular season and playoff results

• The Floridians page