1973–74 Utah Stars season

The 1973–74 Utah Stars season was the fourth season of the Stars franchise in Utah and seventh overall in the American Basketball Association when including their few seasons they played in nearby California as the Anaheim Amigos and Los Angeles Stars. From January 21 to February 18, 1974, they won 14 straight games. However, a week after that, they began a 5-game losing streak, but the Stars still finished the season 18 games above .500 and as the best team in the Western Division. The Utah Stars were 8th in points scored at 105.1 per game and 4th in points allowed at 104.7 per game during this season. In the playoffs, the Stars went all the way to the ABA Finals for the second time in four seasons (third time in five seasons if you include their surprise appearance during their final season as the Los Angeles Stars before the franchise moved to the state of Utah). However, unlike their first season under the Utah Stars name, they would lose the chance to be named ABA champions once again, this time to the New York Nets (now being led by Julius Erving as their main star), in five games. As it later turned out, it would not only be the last winning season in franchise history for the team, but it'd also be the last time they'd appear in the ABA Finals altogether; unbeknownst to most fans at the time, team owner Bill Daniels would spend the 1974 year trying and failing to become the governor of nearby Colorado, with him losing his spot in the Republican National Committee that year to Governor John Vanderhoof, which later ended with Vanderhoof losing the governorship race to Democrat candidate Richard Lamm near the end of that year. His failed political bid led to him being in serious financial troubles during the franchise's final two seasons after this season ended; while Daniels tried his best to find new owners to help save the franchise for at least the short-term, to the point of even considering a merger with the eventual Spirits of St. Louis ABA franchise near the end of 1975, the failed political bid would ultimately help spell the end for the Stars franchise and their chances of making it to the 1976 ABA-NBA merger entirely.