YouTube Gold: George McGinnis

The ABA had financial and organizational issues from the beginning but despite those issues, the league managed to gain a lot of talented players that played an exciting brand of basketball. A number of the stars later became quite prominent in the NBA after the merger: Rick Barry returned to league, Julius Erving, David Thompson, Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore to name a few.

Then there was George McGinnis.

After growing up in Indianapolis, McGinnis went to Indiana, leaving in 1971, the year before Bob Knight arrived, which was fortunate, because they would have driven each other nuts. He was an outstanding player for the Indiana Pacers, leading them to two ABA titles.

When he got to the NBA, he joined the Philadelphia 76ers and the Sixers shortly thereafter also acquired Erving for one of the most fun teams in NBA history. Aside from those two, Philly also had Darryl Dawkins, World B. Free and Doug Collins.

They played Bill Walton’s Portland Trailblazers for the 1977 title, losing 4-2. McGinnis played the last part of the series with a severe groin pull that greatly limited him.

He was probably one of the last NBA players who smoked, which obviously limited his stamina and most likely shortened his career.

One of the most fun things about McGinnis was his wildly unorthodox shot, as you’ll see here. He had a sort of hesitation move and shot with just one hand, which suggests that he had extraordinarily strong fingers.

At the end of his career, he was traded back to his hometown team and played for the Pacers for his last two seasons.

McGinnis died in 2023 from heart issues. His effective but deeply unorthodox shot – no one would have ever taught that – made him a very memorable player.