List of ABA champions

The American Basketball Association (ABA) Finals were the championship series of the ABA, a professional basketball league, in which two teams played each other for the title. The ABA was formed in the fall of 1967, and the first ABA Finals were played at the end of the league's first season in the spring of 1968.^[1]^[2] The league ceased operations in 1976 with the ABA-NBA merger and four teams from the ABA continued play in the National Basketball Association.^[3]

All ABA Finals were in best-of-seven format and were contested between the winners of the Eastern Division and the Western Division finals. The only teams to win the championship more than once were the Indiana Pacers and the New York Nets. The Indiana Pacers initially played in the ABA Finals in 1969, which they lost to the Oakland Oaks, but they won the championship the next year against the Los Angeles Stars.^[4]^[5] They won in the ABA Finals again in 1972, their first after moving to the Western Division, against the New York Nets and won their final ABA championship against the Kentucky Colonels in 1973.^[6]^[7] The New York Nets won their first championship in 1974 against the Utah Stars, and their second against the Denver Nuggets in 1976.^[8]^[9]

The last ABA Finals were in 1976, after which the ABA-NBA merger took place; three of the four teams that continued into the NBA made it to or won the ABA Finals.^[3]

Key 1
Champions 2
Results by teams 3
Notes 4
See also 5
References 6
External links 7

Key

Bold	Winning team of the ABA Finals
^†	Had or tied for the best regular season record for that season
Team (X)	Denotes the number of times the team has won

Champions

Year	Western Champion	Result	Eastern Champion	Reference
1968	New Orleans Buccaneers	3–4	Pittsburgh Pipers^†	^[2]
1969	Oakland Oaks^†	4–1	Indiana Pacers	^[4]
1970	Los Angeles Stars	2–4	Indiana Pacers^†	^[5]
1971	Utah Stars	4–3	Kentucky Colonels	^[10]
1972	Indiana Pacers (2)^[a]	4–2	New York Nets	^[6]
1973	Indiana Pacers (3)	4–3	Kentucky Colonels	^[7]
1974	Utah Stars	1–4	New York Nets^†	^[8]
1975	Indiana Pacers	1–4	Kentucky Colonels^†	^[11]
1976	New York Nets (2)	4–2	Denver Nuggets^†	^[9]

Results by teams

Teams	Finals appearances	Championships	Runners-up	Years won	Years runners-up
Indiana Pacers	5	3	2	1970, 1972, 1973	1969, 1975
New York Nets	3	2	1	1974, 1976	1972
Kentucky Colonels	3	1	2	1975	1971, 1973
Los Angeles / Utah Stars	3	1	2	1971	1970, 1974
Oakland Oaks	1	1	0	1969	—
Pittsburgh Pipers	1	1	0	1968	—
Denver Nuggets	1	0	1	—	1976
New Orleans Buccaneers	1	0	1	—	1968

Notes

^a The Indiana Pacers moved from the Eastern Division to the Western Division between the 1969–1970 and 1970–1971 seasons.^[12]

References

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External links

Professional Basketball Championships
ABA seasons

American Basketball Association seasons

Seasons	1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76

Playoffs	1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976

All-Star Games	1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976

Champions Awards and honors ABA–NBA merger (1976 ABA Dispersal Draft)

Categories

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List of ABA champions