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Accolades: One ABA title, one ABA Playoffs MVP, one All-ABA 1st Team, four ABA All-Stars, ABA Rookie of the Year
Another player out of the ABA, 2-guard Warren Jabali played in the now-defunct league from 1968 through 1975, earning MVP votes right away in his first campaign when he won Rookie of the Year while leading the Oakland Oaks to an ABA championship. Jabali also took home Playoffs MVP honors for 1968.
In the postseason that year, Jabali was unstoppable, averaging 28.8 points and 12.9 rebounds as Oakland went 8-1 in the Division Finals and Finals, a championship series against Roger Brown and the Pacers.
Naismith Hall of Famer Rick Barry, who was a teammate of Jabali’s on that championship 1968-69 Oakland team but missed most of the season, including the playoffs, due to injury, had the following to say on the Wichita State product:
“He’s unbelievable. As a guard, he’s in a class by himself. I’ve never seen a player his size with so much strength. As great as Oscar Robertson is, well, he couldn’t come close to matching [Jabali] in jumping and rebounding. Nobody can. He can out-jump and out-score the Warriors’ Al Attles. He’s stronger than I am; stronger than Robertson. He’s so powerful that even at 6-2, he can come in and rebound with 6-7 forwards. And you should see him drive into the basket. No doubt he’s one of the best guards I’ve ever played with – or against. Just wait till he gets more experience – nobody will be able to stop him.”
After that phenomenal rookie year, Jabali would go on to make four ABA All-Star appearances and earn 1st Team All-ABA honors once, though his career ended pretty early as Jabali only played until his age-28 season. What’s more, his athletic peak was cut short due to back and knee injuries that greatly slowed him down when he looked set to embark on a superstar career as a rookie.
However, on top of the injuries, Jabali developed a reputation as a trouble-maker stemming from fights early in his career and his leading a boycott by the Black players of an ABA All-Star game, which also played a part in his playing career ending when it did. The book Loose Balls, written about the history of the ABA, details that a bit.
Jabali once stomped the head of an opponent, he was cut by the Denver Rockets in 1973-74 despite being an All-Star and leading the league in assists at the time – no other team picked him up, which spoke volumes – and was all-around feared even by people on his own team. Still, Jabali took umbrage with being called a “thug” in the book Loose Balls, saying:
Jabali takes issue with being characterized as a “thug” in Terry Pluto’s book Loose Balls, an oral history of the ABA (there is a Bob Ryan quote on page 286 referring to Jabali and John Brisker as “thugs” and the chapter titled “The Meanest Men in the ABA” is about Jabali and Brisker). “To now start categorizing it as a result of the thug life – it wasn’t a result of the thug life,” Jabali says. “I wasn’t a thug. It was a result of political thoughts. The thing that had me thinking the way that I was thinking was not being a thug and robbing or stealing or anything like that. It was that these people who were in control of the league were messing me around. Why is it that I don’t get a foul called when there is a foul? And here’s a person (Jim Jarvis) who is trying to take advantage of the fact that he knows that they won’t call a foul. So he’s going to come and assault me because he knows that he can get away with it.”
So yeah, Jabali had the level as a player to be in the NBA and maybe even an NBA great, at least pre-injury, but his body breaking down on him and his own attitude very much got in the way of that. Even so, he should be remembered as one of the best basketball players to never reach the NBA.