On this day in 1976: Moses Malone and Adrian Dantley debut together for Buffalo — and Malone is gone three days later

Fifty years ago next Wednesday, two future Hall of Famers made their NBA debuts in the same uniform on the same night. On Thursday, October 21, 1976, the Buffalo Braves opened their season with a 133-112 win over the Milwaukee Bucks at the MECCA Arena, and their box score included rookie Adrian Dantley and a 21-year-old center named Moses Malone.

Dantley played 40 minutes and grabbed 19 rebounds. Malone played four minutes and did not score. Three days after that, Buffalo traded him to Houston, and the Braves never saw him in their colors again.

• Result: Braves 133, Bucks 112 — Thursday, October 21, 1976, MECCA Arena, Milwaukee. Buffalo’s season opener, in the first NBA season after the ABA merger.
• By quarter: Buffalo 30-41-26-36; Milwaukee 22-30-18-42. The Braves led 71-52 at halftime and 97-70 after three quarters.
• Adrian Dantley (Buffalo): 15 points (3-15 FG, 9-11 FT), 19 rebounds, 3 blocks and 1 assist in 40 minutes — NBA debut, and a team-high in minutes.
• Moses Malone (Buffalo): 0 points (no shots), 1 rebound and 1 foul in 4 minutes — NBA debut, three days after the Braves acquired him.
• Braves leaders: John Shumate 23 points and 15 rebounds; Ernie DiGregorio 22 points and 8 assists; Johnny Neumann 21 points off the bench in 19 minutes; Tom McMillen 14.
• Bucks leaders: Brian Winters 21; Bob Dandridge 16; Quinn Buckner 15; Swen Nater 10 points and 12 rebounds off the bench. Second-year forward Alex English added 4.
• The difference: Buffalo made 35 of 44 free throws to Milwaukee’s 20 of 29 and out-rebounded the Bucks 57-42.

A rookie straight from Montreal

Dantley arrived in Buffalo with a gold medal. A two-time first-team All-American at Notre Dame, he left school after his junior year and spent the summer of 1976 leading the U.S. Olympic team in Montreal, where he scored 30 points in the 95-74 final against Yugoslavia. The Braves took him sixth overall in the June draft with a pick they had acquired from Phoenix.

His first night was a grind. He made only three of 15 shots, but he lived at the free-throw line and on the glass, and his 19 rebounds led both teams. Two nights later, in the home opener against Philadelphia at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, he had 17 points and 11 rebounds as the Braves won again, 108-105.

He kept that pace all winter. Dantley played 77 games, averaged 20.3 points and 7.6 rebounds, shot 52 percent and won Rookie of the Year. Buffalo traded him anyway: on September 1, 1977, the Braves sent him and Mike Bantom to Indiana for Billy Knight.

Six days in Buffalo

Malone’s road to that opening night was stranger. He had gone straight from Petersburg High School in Virginia to the ABA’s Utah Stars in 1974, made the ABA All-Star team as a 19-year-old and then landed with the Spirits of St. Louis when the Stars folded. When the ABA closed, Portland took him in the August 5, 1976, dispersal draft.

The Blazers did not keep him. On October 18, three days before the season, they traded him to Buffalo for a 1978 first-round pick, with the Braves covering the $350,000 that Portland had paid for him in the dispersal draft. The deal left Buffalo with more big men than it needed, but Bob McAdoo, the league’s scoring champion three seasons running, was in the final year of his contract and missed the first four games of the season. Malone was seen as insurance.

The insurance lasted two games. Malone played four minutes in Milwaukee and two more in the 108-105 home win over Philadelphia, with no shots and one rebound in all. On October 24, the Braves traded him to the Houston Rockets for two first-round picks: Houston’s 1977 pick, later used on Wesley Cox, and its 1978 pick, later used on Micheal Ray Richardson. Buffalo’s owner, John Y. Brown Jr., kept selling: in December, McAdoo and McMillen went to the Knicks for John Gianelli and cash.

The one that got away

Malone made his Rockets debut on October 27, with six points in eight minutes in a loss to Philadelphia. By November 6 he was in Houston’s starting lineup when the Rockets visited Buffalo, and he put up 14 points and 13 rebounds in 24 minutes against the team that had just traded him, though the Braves won 117-102. Eleven days later, in Houston, he had 17 points and 12 rebounds in a 120-114 overtime win over Buffalo.

By the end of the season he had 437 offensive rebounds, the most in the league by more than 100, and 1,072 total rebounds, second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He averaged 13.2 points and 13.1 rebounds, finished sixth in the MVP voting, and helped Houston go 49-33, win the Central Division and reach the conference finals, where Julius Erving’s 76ers beat them in six games. Buffalo finished 30-52 and went through three coaches: Tates Locke, Bob MacKinnon and Joe Mullaney.

Two Hall of Fame careers

Malone went on to win MVP awards with Houston in 1979 and 1982, and a third in 1983 after moving to Philadelphia, where he also won the championship and Finals MVP. He led the league in rebounding six times, made 13 All-Star teams and finished his 21 pro seasons, ABA and NBA combined, with 29,580 points and 17,834 rebounds. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001, named to the NBA’s 75th anniversary team, and died on September 13, 2015, at 60.

Dantley became one of the most efficient scorers of his era. After stops in Indiana and Los Angeles, he spent seven seasons in Utah, won scoring titles in 1981 and 1984 and made six All-Star teams. He finished with 23,177 points in 955 games, a 24.3 average on 54 percent shooting, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008.

The Braves moved to San Diego in 1978 and later became the Clippers. Few teams have let two future Hall of Famers go so quickly. Buffalo gave up both of its opening-night debutants within a year: one after a Rookie of the Year season, the other after six minutes.