Sports Reference Blog

ABA Game-Winning Buzzer-Beaters Added to Basketball Reference

Posted by Mike Lynch on August 29, 2020

In February Basketball-Reference added a list of every Game-Winning Buzzer-Beater in NBA history. Today, we're happy to announce that we've also added a list of every Game-Winning Buzzer-Beater in ABA history.

The ABA had a total of 54 buzzer-beaters in its 9-season run from 1967-68 to 1975-76. To no surprise, Julius Erving (likely the greatest player in ABA history) is the leader with 3 buzzer-beaters, while Rick Barry, James Silas, Bobby Jones, George Thompson, Mack Calvin, John Brisker and Steve Jones had two apiece. Also of note, combining NBA and ABA totals gives Erving, Barry and Cliff Hagan 5 career game-winning buzzer-beaters apiece, which puts them among the all-time leaders.

It should also be noted that Jerry Harkness's 92-footer on November 13, 1967 is easily longer than any game-winning buzzer-beater in NBA history. It happened so early in the ABA's run that many players on the court didn't instantly realize that the shot was worth 3 points and therefore won the game rather than forcing overtime.

We hope you enjoy this addition to the site.

Related posts:

  1. 1943-1998 College Basketball Stats, 8000+ Team Seasons
  2. Every Buzzer-Beater in NBA History Added to Basketball-Reference
  3. Adjusted Shooting Stats Added to Basketball Reference
  4. Stat Questions: Why Do Pre-1970s Team Rebound Totals Not Match the Sums of Individual Players?
  5. “Own Goals” Added to NBA/ABA Box Scores

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 29th, 2020 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Announcement, Basketball-Reference.com, Data, Statgeekery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “ABA Game-Winning Buzzer-Beaters Added to Basketball Reference”

  1. Sean Says: September 1st, 2020 at 4:55 pm

    Thank you for that.  Before we had an aggregate to look at, Norm Van Lier's 84 foot shot for the Bulls at the San Antonio Spurs on January 19, 1977 was the longest I'd heard of.

    Considering that the dimensions of the NBA court are 94 foot long, couldn't expect a much longer shot than Harkness', and this also suggests that the dimensions of the ABA court were the same as those of the NBA.