Top 100 NBA Players: #43 - Dan Issel

Dan Issel

Teams

Kentucky Colonels (ABA) - 1970-75

Denver Nuggets (ABA/NBA) - 1975-85

Playoffs

Appearances - 13 (1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1982,1983,1984,1985)

Conference Finals - 7 (1971,1973,1974,1975,1976,1978,1985)

ABA Finals - 4 (1971,1973,1975,1976)

Championships - 1 (1975)

Awards and Honors

Rookie of the Year - 1971

MVP - 0 (1971)

All-ABA First Team - 1 (1971,1972,1973,1974,1976)

All-ABA Second Team - 4 (1971,1973,1974,1976,1980,1981)

Hall of Fame - 1993

*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)

All-Time Ranks

Total Points - #11

Total Rebounds - #31

Points Per Game - #33

Rebounds Per Game - #97

League Leads

Total Points (#1-1971,1972,1973, #2-1974)

Points Per Game (#1-1971, #3-1972,1973,1974)

Total Rebounds (#4-1976)

Field Goal Percentage (#2-1973)

Dan Issel is the all-time leading scorer for the University of Kentucky, and after a senior season where he averaged 33.9 points and 13.2 rebounds, he was drafted by the Kentucky Colonels in the first round of the ABA Draft. He was also drafted in the 8th round of the NBA Draft by Detroit, but it was known that he was going to stay in Kentucky.

In Issel's rookie season with the Colonels, he led the league in scoring with 29.9 points per game, grabbed 13.2 rebounds per game, and was named the Rookie of the Year. Mel Daniels of Indiana won the MVP that year with averages of 21.0 points and 18.0 rebounds, with the difference probably the fact that the Pacers had the league's best record, but Issel was the league's best player.

In the playoffs that year, Issel led the Colonels all the way to the ABA Finals, beating the Floridians and Virginia in 6 games each along the way, but Kentucky fell to Utah in the Finals in 7 games. All taken together, it was one of the best rookie seasons of any player in history.

Issel scored a career-high 30.6 points per game the next season, leading the league in total scoring again, though he was only #3 in average, due to the fact that he rarely missed a game, never missing more than 6 games in a season in his career. The same thing happened in his third season, when he scored more points than any other player, but came in third in the scoring race by average.

The Colonels had drafted Artis Gilmore after Issel's rookie season, placing him at starting center and forcing Issel to move to power forward. Issel's role on the team grew smaller each year, with Gilmore playing the starring role on the team that reached the 1973 finals, where they lost in 7 games to the Pacers. 

His numbers dropped clear down to 17.7 points and 8.6 rebounds per game in 1975, and it was the only season where he wasn't named to an All-ABA Team, but it was also the only season in which he would win a championship. Issel averaged 21.6 points and 12.0 rebounds in the Finals, but Gilmore was the star and Finals MVP.

Issel was traded to Baltimore for cash before the next season, but when Baltimore folded, and Issel was sent to Denver in the process. He averaged 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Nuggets that season, then helped the Nuggets beat his old team in the Conference Finals to reach his 4th ABA Finals in 6 years. They lost the series to Julius Erving and the Nets before the ABA was merged into the NBA.

Issel played 9 more seasons with the Nuggets in the NBA, scoring at least 20 points per game in 6 of those seasons. He was never named to an All-NBA Team, though he probably deserved it a couple of times, especially in 1980, when he averaged 23.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. 

He led them to the playoffs in their first 3 seasons in the NBA, but they won only 1 playoff series in that time, then had 2 straight seasons where they came up short of the postseason. The team turned things around when Alex English began to grow into a superstar, and they were able to make one more deep playoff run in 1985, losing to the Lakers in the Conference Finals in Issel's final season.

Issel was the #2 all-time scorer in the ABA, behind his former teammate Louie Dampier, though Issel only played 6 seasons in the ABA to Dampier's 9. When he retired from the NBA, he was #4 on the all-time scoring list, behind only Kareem, Wilt, and Julius Erving, and today he still stands at #11. He was a superstar from the day he became a pro, and though his team never won a title when he was the best player, he was a big part of a championship, and one of the greatest to ever play the game.