The Anaheim Amigos were founded by Art Kim, a Hawaii native who had long been active in basketball as a player, Amateur Athletic Union administrator and owner.

The Amigos lost $500,000 in their first season, largely due to poor attendance; they only averaged 1,500 fans per game in a 7,500-seat arena.

The Stars finished fourth in the Western Division with a record of 43–41, earning the first winning season in franchise history and a playoff berth.

Despite a promising young roster, the Stars were more or less an afterthought in a market whose first choices were the Los Angeles Lakers and UCLA Bruins; they only averaged 2,500 fans per game.

[2] Zelmo Beaty suited up for the team and they finished second in the Western Division with their best record yet at 57–27 (.679), one game behind the Indiana Pacers.

In 1973–74 the Stars finished with a record of 51-33 and won first place in the ABA's Western Division for the third straight year under new coach Joe Mullaney.

Daniels was almost broke due to a series of failed business ventures and an unsuccessful run for governor of Colorado.

The Stars made a high-profile personnel move that season by signing high school player Moses Malone to play for them.

[8][9][10] The Stars finished the season in fourth place in the Western Division and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Denver Nuggets, 4 games to 1.

However, this was undone when the ABA–NBA merger closed in June 1976 and the Spirits and the Kentucky Colonels were the only two teams left out of the merged league.

(The Virginia Squires were folded shortly after the end of the regular season due to their inability to make good on a required league assessment, though there was no chance of them being part of a merger deal in any event.)

Professional basketball finally returned to Salt Lake City when the NBA's New Orleans Jazz relocated there in 1979.

In their first season in Salt Lake City, the Stars dominated their way to a 57–27 record and a 2nd-place finish in the Western Division standings, a game behind the Indiana Pacers.

[12] As the game ended, hundreds of Stars fans rushed the court, lifting players onto their shoulders in a jubilant celebration.

In the very last game ever played between ABA and NBA teams, the Stars defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 106–101 in Salt Lake City on October 21, 1975.