1969-70 Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns stumbled their way to a 16-66 record as an expansion team in 1968-69, then lost one of the most important coin flips in NBA history when the Milwaukee Bucks landed the top overall pick in the 1969 NBA Draft and selected Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The Suns did have a solid pair of young players to build around in 20-point-per-game scorers Gail Goodrich and Dick Van Arsdale and Phoenix used the No. 2 overall pick to take Florida center Neal Walk, who was no Kareem, but had five solid seasons for the Suns.
The bigger pickups for the Suns came in May, when they traded for power forward Paul Silas from the Atlanta Hawks, and in June, when they signed former ABA MVP Connie Hawkins as a free agent once his lawsuit against the NBA had been settled.
Valley of the Suns
Hawkins had been banned from the NBA over his association with a known gambler while still a high-schooler in Brooklyn, the same association that blackballed Larry Brown and Doug Moe.
Hawkins sued the NBA and was allowed to join the league as part of the settlement. He signed with Phoenix and averaged 24.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists a game. Goodrich and Van Arsdale each averaged 20 points a night and Silas came in and averaged 12.8 points and 11.7 boards as the Suns went 39-43 and grabbed the third spot in the Western Division, winning a tiebreaker with the Chicago Bulls and besting the Seattle SuperSonics by three games.
Jerry Colangelo, the NBA’s youngest general manager at 29 when the season began, fired former NBA Coach of the Year Red Kerr after a 15-23 start and took over as interim coach, leading Phoenix to a 24-20 finish.
In the playoffs, the Suns drew the mighty Los Angeles Lakers in the division semifinals with Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor.
The Suns stole Game 2 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and took a 3-1 series lead after winning Game 3 and 4 in Phoenix.
But the Lakers roared back, smashing the Suns 138-121 in Game 5 at home, winning at Phoenix 104-93 in Game 6 and slamming the door on the series with a 129-94 blowout in Game 7.
Hawkins put up 25.4 points a game in the series and Goodrich chipped in 20.3, while Van Arsdale and Silas were each better than 16 a night.
West scored 29.7 a game for the Lakers and Chamberlain added 23.7, though, and the Lakers went on to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the New York Knicks in seven games.
Phoenix, meanwhile, would miss the postseason for five straight seasons—despite winning 48 games in 1970-71 and 49 in 1971-72, still the best record in NBA history for a non-playoff team.
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