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Stories, Photos, Videos, Podcasts, and Publications featuring National Basketball Association 1973 Season
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RetroSeasons
RetroSeasons recaps past sports seasons through stories, photos, videos, and stats from every team, league, and stadium in history. Coverage includes the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL, as well as vintage media from defunct teams and leagues.
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Recap
The 1972–73 NBA season was the 27th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the New York Knicks winning the NBA Championship, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals. This would be Wilt Chamberlain's final season playing in the NBA.
* The Cincinnati Royals relocated and became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, splitting home games between Kansas City, Missouri and Omaha, Nebraska.
* The relocated Kings were moved from the Central Division of the Eastern Conference to the Midwest Division of the Western Conference. The Phoenix Suns were moved from the Midwest Division to the Pacific Division, and the Houston Rockets were moved to the Central Division in the spot formerly occupied by the Royals, despite being farther west than all four teams (Kansas City-Omaha, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks) in the Midwest.
* The 1973 NBA All-Star Game was played at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, with the East beating the West 104-84. Dave Cowens of the Boston Celtics won the game's MVP award.
* The Atlanta Hawks played their inaugural season in the Omni Coliseum.
* The Baltimore Bullets played their final season in Baltimore, before relocating to the Washington, D.C. suburb of Landover, Maryland as the Capital Bullets for the following season.
* This was the final season of the NBA on ABC. However, the network would regain NBA coverage starting in the 2002–03 season.
* The Philadelphia 76ers finished with a 9–73 record. Their 0.110 winning percentage was the all-time worst mark in the NBA until the 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats finished a shortened season with a 0.106 winning percentage. It remains the worst record for an 82-game season. The 76ers also became the first team to lose 70 games in a season and the only team to win fewer than 10 games in an 82-game season.
* This was Wilt Chamberlain's final NBA season.
* At the end of three quarters of their game at the Boston Gardens on October 20, 1972, the Boston Celtics led the Buffalo Braves 103-60. The Braves then recorded an incredible turnaround, scoring 58 points in the last quarter to lose the game by just 8 points, 126-118. The 58 points scored by the Braves is still the NBA record for the most points scored by one team in any quarter of any game.
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