1970-71 NBA Season
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40 free 1970-71 NBA Season trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The 1970-71 NBA season was a hinge between two eras. The league grew to seventeen teams, split itself into conferences and divisions for the first time, and watched a franchise barely three years old race to the championship behind a young center and a veteran guard who had waited a decade for a ring. This quiz covers the whole year: the Milwaukee title run and the playoff series around it, the three expansion clubs and their rough first winters, the award winners and statistical leaders, a draft class full of future Hall of Famers, and the courtroom fights over player freedom that were reshaping the sport. It is written for fans who remember the era and for anyone curious about how the modern league took shape. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will finish knowing more than the final standings.
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Q 01Which team did the Milwaukee Bucks sweep in the 1971 NBA Finals, the first between two expansion teams?
Baltimore Bullets
The Baltimore Bullets had to open the Finals just 48 hours after winning a Game 7 on the road, and Milwaukee never let them catch their breath.
Q 02Which 10-year veteran guard did the Milwaukee Bucks acquire by trade in April 1970 to pair with Lew Alcindor?
Oscar Robertson
Oscar Robertson had never won a title in ten seasons with Cincinnati, and Milwaukee gave up only Flynn Robinson and Charlie Paulk to get him.
Q 03Which name did Bucks center Lew Alcindor begin using publicly in 1971, after winning his first NBA championship?
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had taken the name privately after converting to Islam in 1968, and asked to be called by it at a June 1971 press conference.
Q 04Which first-year NBA team, coached by Bill Fitch, opened the 1970-71 season by losing its first 15 games?
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers finished 15-67, the worst record in the league, and the franchise did not have another season that bad until 1981-82.
Q 05The Buffalo Braves debuted in 1970-71 and, two relocations later, became which NBA franchise?
Los Angeles Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers began as the Braves, who left Buffalo for San Diego in 1978 and moved up the coast in 1984.
Q 06The San Diego Rockets played their last California season in 1970-71 before new owners moved them to which city?
Houston
Houston investors bought the Rockets for $5.6 million in June 1971, five months after San Diego hosted its only NBA All-Star Game.
Q 07Which LSU scoring sensation joined the Atlanta Hawks as the third pick of the 1970 NBA draft?
Pete Maravich
Pete Maravich averaged 23.2 points as a rookie, though several veteran teammates resented the $1.9 million contract Atlanta had given him.
Q 08Which heavyweight boxing great did Lakers center Wilt Chamberlain challenge to a fight in 1971 before backing out?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali had just suffered his first professional loss, to Joe Frazier; the bout was set for the Houston Astrodome in July 1971 until Chamberlain pulled out.
Q 09The 1971 NBA Finals was the first since 1956 to feature neither Wilt Chamberlain nor which other 1960s superstar?
Bill Russell
Bill Russell had retired in 1969 after 11 titles with Boston, and Chamberlain's Lakers fell to Milwaukee one round short of the Finals.
Q 10Which Boston Celtics rookie shared the 1970-71 NBA Rookie of the Year award with Portland guard Geoff Petrie?
Dave Cowens
Dave Cowens went on to win the league MVP award two years later, and the 1971 vote was the first time the rookie honor had ever been shared.
Q 11Which defending NBA champion lost Game 7 of the 1971 Eastern Conference finals by two points at home?
New York Knicks
The New York Knicks saw the home team win each of the first six games of the series, then dropped the decider in front of their own crowd.
Q 12Dick Motta was named 1970-71 NBA Coach of the Year after guiding which fifth-year franchise to 51 wins?
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls leaned on Bob Love, Chet Walker and Jerry Sloan, and Motta followed with three more 50-win seasons in a row.
Q 13Which Los Angeles Lakers guard was lost to a season-ending injury with 13 games left in the 1970-71 season?
Jerry West
Q 21Milwaukee's Lew Alcindor and Lucius Allen had won national titles together at which college?
UCLA
UCLA went unbeaten with both on its freshman team, and Milwaukee reunited them by trading with Seattle for Allen before the season.
Q 22Which team's 48-34 record in 1970-71 was then the best ever for a club that missed the NBA playoffs?
Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns had the league's fourth-best record but finished third in a loaded division, while Atlanta reached the postseason at 36-46.
Q 23Which newly created NBA division did Milwaukee and Detroit join when the league realigned for the 1970-71 season?
Midwest
Midwest Division teams sat in the Western Conference, and that spring Milwaukee became the first club from the new division to win the NBA title.
Jerry West was averaging 26.9 points when he went down, and the depleted Lakers lost the conference finals to Milwaukee in five games.
Q 14Wilt Chamberlain, at age 34, led the NBA in which statistical category for the Lakers in 1970-71?
Rebounding
Rebounding stayed Chamberlain's domain at 18.2 boards a game, while Lew Alcindor, ten years his junior, took the scoring title.
Q 15Which Seattle SuperSonics player-coach was named MVP of the 1971 NBA All-Star Game in San Diego?
Lenny Wilkens
Lenny Wilkens scored 21 points in a 108-107 thriller; in 1969 he had become only the second Black head coach in NBA history.
Q 16Which St. Bonaventure center did the Detroit Pistons select first overall in the 1970 NBA draft?
Bob Lanier
Bob Lanier averaged 15.6 points as a rookie while still recovering from the knee injury that had kept him out of the 1970 Final Four.
Q 17A 1970 antitrust lawsuit by players blocked the NBA's planned merger with which rival league?
American Basketball Association
The American Basketball Association had 11 teams when NBA owners voted 13-4 to merge in June 1970; the players' suit delayed the union until 1976.
Q 18Which young forward joined Seattle in 1970-71 and beat the NBA's four-year eligibility rule at the Supreme Court?
Spencer Haywood
Spencer Haywood had left college after his sophomore year, and his win let players enter the draft without waiting four years after high school.
Q 19Which Detroit Pistons guard made the 1970-71 All-NBA First Team and was later elected mayor of the city?
Dave Bing
Dave Bing averaged 27.0 points in the Pistons' first winning season since leaving Fort Wayne, then ran Detroit's city hall from 2009 to 2014.
Q 20Which Boston Celtics swingman averaged a career-high 28.9 points and led the NBA in minutes in 1970-71?
John Havlicek
John Havlicek played 45.4 minutes a night and also set career highs in rebounds and assists, yet Boston still missed the playoffs.
Q 24Which future Lakers coach did Portland pick in the 1970 expansion draft, then sell before opening night?
Pat Riley
Pat Riley had spent three seasons with the San Diego Rockets; Portland signed him in August 1970 and sold him to Los Angeles seven weeks later.
Q 25Which Boston Celtics legend was head coach of the Cincinnati Royals during the 1970-71 NBA season?
Bob Cousy
Bob Cousy built a young, fast-breaking team that scored 116 points a game but gave up 119, and it missed the playoffs.
Q 26Which future Hall of Fame guard, nicknamed Tiny, did Cincinnati take in the second round of the 1970 draft?
Nate Archibald
Nate Archibald went 19th overall out of Texas-El Paso, and in his third season he led the NBA in both scoring and assists.
Q 27Which former 76ers guard coached the Milwaukee Bucks to the 1971 NBA title three years after their debut?
Larry Costello
Larry Costello had been the Bucks' only coach since their 1968 debut, and his 1970-71 team lost its second game, then won 16 straight.
Q 28Which TV network, with Chris Schenkel and Jack Twyman calling the games, broadcast the 1971 NBA Finals?
ABC
ABC made the series Schenkel and Twyman's last playoff assignment, and lost the league's national contract to CBS two years later.
Q 29In which Wisconsin college town did the Bucks play home games during the 1971 playoffs because of arena conflicts?
Madison
Madison's University of Wisconsin Field House hosted all three Milwaukee home games of the opening round against San Francisco.
Q 30After 1970-71 the San Francisco Warriors moved to Oakland and replaced the city in their name with what?
Golden State
Golden State was chosen to suggest the team represented all of California, and the franchise kept the label even after returning to San Francisco in 2019.