March 19, 1969: For much of its early history, the National Basketball Association didn't exactly do things in a major league way. Why would you decide the top pick in your league's draft with a coin flip?
The Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns had both come into the NBA as expansion teams for the 1968-69 season. Like most expansion teams, both of them struggled: The Bucks finished last in the Eastern Division with a record of 27 wins and 55 losses, while the Suns finished with the worst record in the entire league, at 16-66. By all rights, they should have had the top pick in the 1969 NBA Draft.
And everyone knew who that top draft pick was going to be: Lew Alcindor. The center had led UCLA to a record of 88-2, and winning the National Championship all 3 seasons (freshmen were not eligible until the 1972-73 season), and winning the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament all 3 times. He was 7-foot-2, his "skyhook" was an unstoppable shot, and the NCAA had outlawed the dunk solely because of him. It would be reinstated a few years later. He was, and remains, the greatest player in the history of college basketball.
From 1956 through 1965, NBA teams could use a "territorial pick," in which they forfeited their 1st Round selection in order to choose a player from their immediate area. The player presumably had a strong local following to boost fan interest. Territorial picks were eliminated in 1966, replaced by a coin flip for the rights to the 1st overall pick. The idea was that a team trying to lose in order to get the top pick might end up losing it to the team with the 2nd-worst record.
And so, on March 16, 1969, with the Bucks and the Suns having the 2 worst records, Commissioner J. Walter Kennedy picked up the telephone, and held a conference call with the general managers. The Suns' GM was Jerry Colangelo, who was only 29 years old, but was now with his 2nd expansion team: In 1966, he became the 1st marketing director of the Chicago Bulls. The Bucks' GM was Ray Patterson, and he was older, having played professional basketball in the 1940s.
Kennedy had the coin ready. He flipped it. Colangelo called, "Heads!" It came up "Tails." The Bucks would get the 1st pick, the Suns the 2nd. Naturally, the Bucks picked Alcindor. The Suns picked another center, Neal Walk of the University of Florida.
Younger fans might not be familiar with either name. Alcindor had already converted to Islam, and, after the 1971-72 season, he announced that he had changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Walk's name would be unfamiliar because he didn't have much of a pro career, playing 5 seasons in Phoenix, becoming an original member of the New Orleans Jazz (now the Utah Jazz) in 1974, and playing 1 more season with the New York Knicks, before playing a season in Italy and, being Jewish, playing 3 seasons in Israel's league.
Lew/Kareem immediately turned the Bucks from a 27-55 team into a 56-26 team, and a Division Champion. In the 1970 off-season, the Bucks made a trade with the Seattle SuperSonics, acquiring guard Lucius Allen, Kareem's UCLA teammate, whom the Sonics had made the 3rd pick in the '69 Draft. Now, the Bucks had 2 of the top 3 picks. And they acquired Cincinnati Royals star Oscar Robertson, perhaps the best all-around player the game had ever seen. They went 66-16, and won the NBA Championship, in only their 3rd season, beating the Baltimore Bullets in the Finals. They returned to the Finals in 1974, losing to the Boston Celtics.
In 1975, thinking that Milwaukee had become too small for him, or perhaps that he was too big for it, Kareem demanded a trade. For most athletes, this would be considered a very arrogant thing, but he had proved that he was now too big for them. And so, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he would win 5 more Championships, and become the NBA's all-time leading scorer.
The thing is, while the Suns missed out on Kareem, they didn't suffer much. They made the Playoffs in 1970, anyway. The NBA then had a realignment, and despite winning 48 games in 1971 and 49 in 1972, they didn't make the Playoffs either time. They had 3 losing seasons, and the loss of the coin flip was looking like the kind of moment people could point to, years later, and say, "This team is cursed, and that was where it started."
And yet, in 1976, the Bucks' 1st season without Kareem, the Suns made the NBA Finals for the 1st time. Into the late 1970s, and through the 1980s and 1990s, and up until 2001, when the Suns won 51 games and the Bucks reached the Eastern Conference Finals, both teams were usually good enough to make the Playoffs. And yet, another trip to the Finals by the Suns in 1993, losing to the Bulls, was the only Finals berth for either team after 1974.
It would take until 2021 for the Bucks to win another Championship, and who did they beat in the Finals? The Suns. To this day, the Suns have never won an NBA Championship. They've usually been a good team, but they haven't gone all the way.
Colangelo briefly served as the Suns' head coach, and, in 1987, he led a group that bought the Suns. In 1995, he was awarded another expansion team, for baseball: The Arizona Diamondbacks. Their stadium was built 2 blocks from the Suns' new downtown arena, and in 2001, they did something the Suns hadn't done: They won a World Championship. He sold both teams in 2004.
Kennedy died in 1977, Patterson in 2011, Walk in 2015. As of March 19, 2022, Abdul-Jabbar, Robertson, Allen and Colangelo are still alive.
UPDATE: In 2023, LeBron James surpassed Kareem on the NBA's all-time points scored list.
The Suns have a Ring of Honor. It includes Colangelo, Dick Van Arsdale, Connie Hawkins, Alvan Adams, Paul Westphal, Walter Davis, Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle, Tom Chambers, Charles Barkley, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion and Amar'e Stoudemire; head coaches Cottom Fitzsimmons, John MacLeod and Westphal; team trainer Joe Proski; and broadcaster Al McCoy.
The Suns have retired the uniform numbers of Van Arsdale, 5; Davis, 6; Johnson, 7; Majerle, 9; Nash, 13; Chambers, 24; Marion, 31; Stoudemire, 32; Adams, 33; Barkley, 34; Hawkins, 42; and Westphal, 44. And Van Arsdale, Adams, Colangelo, McCoy, Barkley, Fitzsimmons, MacLeod, Majerle, Chambers and Westphal have been elected to the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.
The Bucks do not have a team Hall of Fame. They have retired numbers 1 for Oscar Robertson, 2 for Junior Bridgeman, 4 for Sidney Moncrief, 8 for Marques Johnson, 10 for Bob Dandridge, 14 for Jon McGlocklin, 16 for Bob Lanier, 32 for Brian Winters, and 33 for Kareem. Robertson, Bridgeman, Moncrief, Johnson, McGlocklin and former owner and U.S. Senator Herb Kohl have been elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. Kareem has not.
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March 19, 1969 was a Wednesday.
Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 130-120 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena) in Baltimore.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls, 93-92 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The San Diego Rockets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 128-108 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).
* And the Atlanta Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 128-115 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California.
There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association:
* The New York Nets lost to the Indiana Pacers, 143-114 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Indiana Farmers Coliseum) in Indianapolis. Mel Daniels scored 56 points and had 31 rebounds. In case you're wondering, the ABA record for points in a game turned out to be 67, by Larry Miller of the Carolina Cougars, against the Memphis Pros on March 18, 1972.
* The Denver Rockets beat the Miami Floridians, 123-119 at the West Palm Beach Auditorium in West Palm Beach, Florida.
* And the Dallas Chaparrals beat the Oakland Oaks, 117-112 at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas.
And there were 5 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 7-5 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 1-1 at the St. Louis Arena.
* The Detroit Red Wings and the Oakland Seals played to a tie, 4-4 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
* And the Philadelphia Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings were not scheduled.
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