Denver Nuggets: 15 best draft picks of all-time
By John Buhler
Center Dave Robisch had a solid 13-year professional basketball career from 1971 to 1984. The former star for the Kansas Jayhawks in the Big Eight went to the Denver Rockets No. 45 overall in the 1971 ABA Draft. Keep in mind that Robisch played five of his 13 professional basketball seasons in the ABA before the merger in 1976-77.
Robisch would play for the Rockets/Nuggets over two stints. His first stint came strictly in the ABA, where he would played with the Rockets/Nuggets from 1971 to 1975. He would spend his last ABA season split between the San Diego Sails and the Indiana Pacers. Robisch would stick with the Pacers after the merger before being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in December 1977.
Nearly three years later, Robisch would be traded back to the Nuggets in 1980 after brief stints with the Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Six years to the day after being traded from the Pacers to the Lakers, Denver would waive Robisch. He would sign a 10-day contract with the San Antonio Spurs and then go on to play the rest of the 1983-84 NBA season with the Kansas City Kings before retiring.
Robisch spent part of eight AB/NBA seasons with the Rockets/Nuggets in Denver. He would average 12.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 24.6 minutes per contest over 500 career games with the Denver professional basketball franchise. Though never an All-Star, Robisch was a productive player for the Nuggets over two stints in the 1970s and 1980s.