Question: How would the 1971 Stars have fared against the 1971 NBA champion Bucks?
Answer: Tom Nissalke, an assistant coach on Milwaukee's title team, says it would have been a five- or six-game series.
"By no stretch of the imagination did the ABA take a backseat to the NBA. It was not a second-tier league at all. The Stars were very, very good," says Nissalke, who is the only man to have coached both the Utah Stars and Utah Jazz. "But I'd go with Milwaukee because we had more legitimate NBA-caliber players."
The Bucks, who were led by Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and future Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson, posted a league-best 66-16 record and defeated Baltimore 4-0 in the NBA finals.
"My guess is that as great a player as Zelmo was, they would have had a tough time with Jabbar," says Nissalke. "When (Kareem) was young he could really do things. A younger Zelmo would have been even more interesting."
The teams met in an exhibition game in the Salt Palace on Oct. 5, 1971, with Milwaukee prevailing 122-114. That Stars team, bolstered by the addition of guard Jimmy Jones, would have pushed the Bucks to a "very close" seven-game series, in Nissalke's opinion.