Denver Nuggets: 15 greatest playoff moments of all-time

5. Nuggets literally end Colonels to reach ABA Finals

• 1976 ABA Semifinals, Game 7
• April 28, 1976 (McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, CO)
• Denver Nuggets 133, Kentucky Colonels 110

It was inevitable. The ABA and the NBA were going to merge, much like the AFL and the NFL did earlier in the 1970s. The ABA had a few interesting quirks that the NBA eventually adopted, including the 3-point shot, as well as several outstanding players.

1975-76 was the final season of the ABA. On the precipice of the merger, four franchises were allowed to join the NBA the following season. Those franchises were the Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, the then-New York Nets and the San Antonio Spurs. However, two of the final six ABA franchises sadly had to fold upon the merger. Those two franchises were the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis.

Of those six teams, all but St. Louis made the final ABA Playoffs. Denver would have the No. 1 seed and played the winner of the No. 4 versus No. 5 matchup featuring Kentucky and Indiana. After the Colonels dispatched the Pacers, they would take on the higher-seeded Nuggets in the semifinals.

With their literal existence as a franchise on the brink, Kentucky would take Denver a full seven games in the 1976 ABA Semifinals. Kentucky had many excellent players, highlighted by Artis Gilmore. However, it would be David Thompson and former Kentucky star Dan Issel that would bring an end to the Colonels as we know it.

Thompson had 40 points in that Game 7, as he continued to be the team’s go-to scorer in crunch time throughout his tenure with the team. That being said, Issel’s 24 points in the Nuggets’ 133-110 victory over Kentucky felt a bit more sentimental.

Issel not only played for the Colonels from 1970 to 1975, he is arguably the greatest player in Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball history. He was part of the Colonels’ 1975 ABA Championship team only a year ago. His No. 44 jersey has since been retired by both the University of Kentucky and the Nuggets organization. If the Colonels were still around, it would presumably be retired by them as well.

Denver would go on to lose to the Nets in the 1976 ABA Finals four games to two. The Nets were of course led by the iconic “Dr. J” Julius Erving. However, he would be traded to the Philadelphia 76ers around the time of the ABA-NBA merger. He would go on to play 11 seasons of Hall-of-Fame basketball in the City of Brotherly Love, winning an NBA Championship in 1983.

Though the Nuggets/Rockets had been around since 1967, the last ABA Finals remains their closest effort to winning a league championship. Denver was two games away from winning it all. Although they came up short, the Nuggets proved that they really belonged in the NBA with a great last final season in the ABA. They would make it to the Western Conference Finals only two years later with much of the same cast to essentially merit their inclusion into the NBA.