Spirits of St. Louis

A couple of off-court personalities from the team became well known as well. One of the coaches in 1975 was former NBA player [[Rod Thorn]], who became the NBA's vice president of basketball operations (in essence, the league's chief disciplinarian and the number-two man behind commissioner [[David Stern]]) for a number of years. On radio, the team featured [[Bob Costas]] as its play-by-play announcer on [[KMOX]]. Costas would go on to a highly successful career working for [[NBC]] television and radio.

A couple of off-court personalities from the team became well known as well. One of the coaches in 1975 was former NBA player [[Rod Thorn]], who became the NBA's vice president of basketball operations (in essence, the league's chief disciplinarian and the number-two man behind commissioner [[David Stern]]) for a number of years. On radio, the team featured [[Bob Costas]] as its play-by-play announcer on [[KMOX]]. Costas would go on to a highly successful career working for [[NBC]] television and radio.

After a slow start in their inaugural season (1974–75), the Spirits reached the playoffs with a late rush, then upset the defending ABA champion [[New York Nets]] in the first round of the playoffs. But the team squandered this good start the following year. Despite inheriting several players (including Malone) from the [[Utah Stars]] after that franchise failed in the middle of the season, the Spirits finished well out of playoff contention in 1975–76. Attendance in St. Louis fell through the floor; they were lucky to draw crowds of more than 1,000 people in an 18,000-seat arena and frequently drew crowds in the hundreds. At season's end, negotiations were under way to move the franchise to [[Salt Lake City, Utah]] as the [[Utah Rockies]] (to the point where the team's offices sometimes had calls where they preemptively addressed with the pre-planned early team name idea of the "Spirits of Utah" at first since people behind the scenes figured the team was going to move to Utah once the final ABA season concluded, assuming they were even going to play next season at all), though they were also open to moving the franchise to [[Hartford, Connecticut]] as a means to appease the [[NBA]] instead.

After a slow start in their inaugural season (1974–75), the Spirits reached the playoffs with a late rush, then upset the defending ABA champion [[New York Nets]] in the first round of the playoffs. However, after the Spirits lost to the eventual new champions of the ABA, the [[Kentucky Colonels]], they ended up squandering their promising showcase to start out the following year. Despite inheriting several players (including Malone) from the [[Utah Stars]] after that franchise failed in the middle of the season, the Spirits finished well out of playoff contention in 1975–76. Attendance in St. Louis fell through the floor; they were lucky to draw crowds of more than 1,000 people in an 18,000-seat arena and frequently drew crowds in the hundreds. At season's end, negotiations were under way to move the franchise to [[Salt Lake City, Utah]] as the [[Utah Rockies]] (to the point where the team's offices sometimes had calls where they preemptively addressed with the pre-planned early team name idea of the "Spirits of Utah" at first since people behind the scenes figured the team was going to move to Utah once the final ABA season concluded, assuming they were even going to play next season at all), though they were also open to moving the franchise to [[Hartford, Connecticut]] as a means to appease the [[NBA]] instead.

==NBA merger==

==NBA merger==