The Exchange
Basketball-Reference's Pacers and ABA transaction ledgers agree that Indiana sent cash to the Virginia Squires for Don Buse in August 1972. The important source conflict is the day: the canonical import carries August 10, while Basketball-Reference lists the trade under August ? and then records Indiana signing Buse on August 15. The archive therefore keeps the established canonical date but does not present that day as independently verified. No reviewed source supplies the cash amount, so Virginia's consideration remains real but unpriced.
Immediate Pacers Return
Buse joined Indiana immediately and played 77 games as a rookie in 1972-73, averaging 5.4 points, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals in 19.3 minutes. The Pacers went 51-33 and won the ABA championship, and Buse appeared in 14 playoff games during that title run. He was not yet the team's central star, but the rights purchase already produced a useful rotation guard on a champion in its first season. That alone gives Indiana a concrete return that cannot be matched to any identified basketball asset on Virginia's side.
Development Into a Star
The long-term payoff made the transaction exceptional. Buse grew from reserve guard into one of the ABA's best defenders and playmakers. By 1974-75 he was an All-Defensive First Team selection. In 1975-76 he started all 84 games, averaged 12.5 points, 8.2 assists and 4.1 steals, earned All-Star and All-ABA recognition, and again made the All-Defensive First Team. His 689 assists led the ABA. Indiana had acquired the rights to that production for an undisclosed cash payment four years earlier.
NBA Merger Value
The value survived the ABA-NBA merger. In 1976-77 Buse started 76 of 81 games for the NBA Pacers, averaged 8.0 points, 8.5 assists and 3.5 steals, made the NBA All-Star team and the All-Defensive First Team, and led the entire NBA in both assists and steals. Basketball-Reference credits him with 685 assists and 281 steals that season. That combination matters for hindsight grading because the transaction did not merely buy a short ABA stint; it secured a guard who remained elite after the league context changed.
Virginia Return
Virginia received cash, but the amount is unknown and no reviewed source ties it to a later player, pick or traceable basketball return. That does not make the consideration literally worthless, and the archive does not invent a dollar value or assume the Squires spent it poorly. It does mean the measurable comparison is dramatically one-sided. Indiana received five seasons of Buse before trading him to Phoenix in 1977, including an ABA championship season, multiple All-Defensive selections and league-leading playmaking and steals production. Virginia's side has no comparable documented basketball asset.
Final Verdict
Pacers Win, A/F. Indiana receives an A because a cash purchase of player rights produced a championship contributor who developed into an ABA All-Star, All-ABA guard, repeated All-Defensive selection and then an NBA All-Star who led the league in assists and steals. Virginia receives an F because its return is only an unpriced cash payment with no identified downstream basketball asset in the reviewed record. Confidence is medium-high on the transaction structure and career outcome, with the exact August day preserved as a source-date caveat. The verdict reflects only verified transaction terms and realized team value.