New Jersey Nets

The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Franchise history

1967 to 1976 - The ABA Years
The franchise was established in 1967 as part of the American Basketball Association, with trucking magnate Arthur Brown as the owner. He had intended to call the team the New York Freighters, playing at the 69th Regiment Armory on Manhattan's east side, but pressure from the New York Knicks forced the Armory to back out three months before opening day. The team was forced to move to the Armory in Teaneck, New Jersey, and changed its name to the New Jersey Americans. It would not be the last time that the Knicks would directly affect the future of the franchise.

The Americans did fairly well in their first season, tying the Kentucky Colonels for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Division. However, the Armory was booked, forcing the Americans to scramble for a last-minute replacement. They found one in the Long Island Arena in Commack, New York. When the Americans and Colonels arrived for the game, they found the playing floor unfit for play due to numerous missing boards and bolts. League commissioner George Mikan forfeited the game to the Colonels.

For the second season, the team opted to stay on Long Island, where it changed its name to the New York Nets. The team was renamed to "Nets" to rhyme with the two other professional sports team in New York that played on Long Island at the time; Major League Baseball's New York Mets, and the American Football League's New York Jets.

The team finished last in its first New York season and drew a paltry 1,108 a game - about half of what it had drawn a year earlier. Brown sold the team to clothing manufacturer Roy Boe after that season. Boe got busy right away during the 1969 off season. After failing in their pursuit for UCLA stud Lew Alcindor, who was drafted and then signed by the National Basketball Association's Milwaukee Bucks, the team acquired Rick Barry from the Virginia Squires and the Island Garden in West Hempstead became their new home. The Nets finished in third place and in the playoffs in 1969-70, and attendance went up threefold to 3,504. After two years at the Island Garden, the team moved to the new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale for the 1971-72 season.

In 1972, two years after the acquisition of Barry, the Nets advanced to the ABA finals. However, they could not overcome the Indiana Pacers and lost the series four games to two. Barry left after that postseason, sending the Nets into rebuilding mode. The 1972-73 season was one of disappointment, as the Nets only won 30 games.


New York Nets logo, 1969-1977The 1973-74 season saw the Nets finally put all the pieces together. The key event of the season though would come in the 1973 offseason, however, as the Nets acquired Julius Erving from the Virginia Squires. With Erving, who was affectionately known as "Dr. J", the Nets ended the season with a franchise record 55 victories. After Erving was voted the ABA's MVP, the Nets advanced in the playoffs and won their first title, defeating the Utah Stars in the 1974 ABA Finals.

The success continued into the 1974-75 season as they topped the previous season's win record by winning 58 games--a record that still stands to this day. The Nets, though, were eliminated four games to one, by the Spirits of St. Louis in the first round of the 1975 ABA playoffs.

The Nets continued their winning ways in the 1975-76 season--the final season for the ABA, with Erving leading them to a successful 55-win season; he also was named MVP again that year. After a grueling series with the Denver Nuggets, the Nets won the last ABA championship series in league history in six games, giving the Nets their second championship in three years.

1976 to 1980
Move to the NBA and back to New Jersey
During the summer of 1976, the ABA and NBA merged. As part of the merger agreement, four teams from the ABA--the Nets, Nuggets, Pacers and San Antonio Spurs--joined the NBA. The Nets and Nuggets had actually applied to join the NBA in 1975. Prior to their first NBA season, the Nets traded two draft picks to the Kansas City Kings for guard Nate Archibald. The Nets appeared to be poised to pick up where they left off in the ABA.

However, they got a rude surprise when the Knicks forced them to pay $4.8 million for "invading" the Knicks' NBA territory. Coming on the heels of the $3 million that the team had to pay for joining the NBA, this left Boe short of cash, and he was forced to renege on a promised pay raise for Erving. Erving refused to play for the Nets under these conditions, leaving Boe no choice but to sell Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers for $3 million. Without Erving, the Nets wrote off the season as a lost cause. However, they lost all semblance of respectability when Archibald broke his foot in January. The team finished at 22-60, the worst record in the league. The team did set one record of sorts; in November 1976, they became the first NBA team ever to have an all-left-handed starting lineup, with Tim Bassett, Al Skinner, Bubbles Hawkins, Jan van Breda Kolff, and Kim Hughes.


Prior to the 1977-78 season, Boe moved the franchise back to New Jersey, renaming the team the New Jersey Nets. While the team awaited the completion of a new arena at the Meadowlands Sports Complex, they played four seasons at the Rutgers Athletic Center (later renamed the Louis Brown Athletic Center) on the campus of Rutgers University. In 1978, Boe sold the team to a group of seven local businessmen (led by Joe Taub and Alan N. Cohen) who became known as the "Secaucus Seven". The first four years in New Jersey were disappointing, as the Nets suffered through four consecutive losing seasons.

The 1980s

The team moved into the Brendan Byrne Arena (known as the Continental Airlines Arena in 1996, and renamed the Izod Center in October 2007[1]) in 1981 and experienced modest success with four consecutive winning seasons. In 1982-83, while coached by Larry Brown, the Nets were having their best season since joining the NBA. However, Brown accepted the head coaching job at the University of Kansas during the last month of the season and was suspended for the rest of the season. The Nets would never recover from the coaching change and would lose in the first round of the playoffs to their Hudson River rival New York Knicks.

In the 1983-84 season, the Nets fielded what was believed to be their best team since joining the league. Led by Darryl Dawkins, Buck Williams, Otis Birdsong, and Micheal Ray Richardson, the team won their first NBA playoff series, defeating the defending champion 76ers in the first round of the 1984 playoffs before falling to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals in six games.

Injuries plagued the team during the 1984-85 season, but the Nets still managed to win 42 games before being eliminated from the playoffs by the Detroit Pistons in three games. The Nets would not qualify for the playoffs for the next seven seasons (1991-92) and would not have a winning record for eight (1992-93).

The 1990s

Logo, 1990–1997During the early 1990s the Nets began to improve behind a core of young players, as New Jersey drafted Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson and acquired Drazen Petrovic in a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers. Despite a losing record during the 1991-92 season, the Nets qualified for the playoffs, losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round, three games to one.

The team improved significantly in 1992-93, led by the trio of Coleman, Petrovic and Anderson, and former head coach, Chuck Daly. However, injuries to both Anderson and Petrovic toward the end of the season sent the team into a 1-10 slump to end the regular season. The Nets finished the season at 43-39 and were seeded sixth in the Eastern Conference and faced the Cavaliers again in the first round. With Anderson recovered from a broken hand and Petrovic playing on an injured knee, the Nets lost a tough five-game series. However, the optimism of a team jelling was destroyed on June 7, when Petrovic was killed in an automobile accident in Germany at the age of 28.

Despite the devastating loss of Petrovic, the Nets managed to win 45 games during the 1993-94 season, losing to the New York Knicks the first round of the 1994 NBA Playoffs, three games to one. Daly resigned as head coach after the season and was replaced by Butch Beard.

The team struggled through the rest of the decade. During the mid-1990s the NBA's main image problem was that of the selfish, immature athlete and if one wanted to see a team that embodied that image, all one had to do was look at the Nets. In 1995, Coleman was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the poster child of the selfish NBA player, but with Anderson, Benoit Benjamin, Dwayne Schintzius and Chris Morris also on the roster, there were plenty of candidates for SI to choose from. The team's image was so poor that in an effort to shed its losing image, management considered renaming the team "Swamp Dragons" in 1995, but rejected the idea. In both the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons, the Nets finished with identical 30-52 records.

In an effort to start anew, Coleman and Anderson were both traded during the 1995-96 season and John Calipari replaced Beard as head coach at the end of the season. Kerry Kittles was selected in the 1996 NBA Draft and midway through the 1996-97 season, the team traded for Sam Cassell. After a 26-56 win-loss season, the Nets made a major draft-day trade in June 1997, acquiring Keith Van Horn, Lucious Harris and two other players for Tim Thomas. The only player from the early 1990s that the Nets retained was Jayson Williams, who was developing into a rebounding specialist.

The 1997-98 season was a lone bright spot for the Nets in the late 1990s. The team played well under Calipari, winning 43 games and qualifying for the playoffs on the last day of the season. The Nets were seeded eighth in the Eastern Conference and lost to the Chicago Bulls in the 1998 playoffs in three straight games. The Nets played well and came close to taking the first two games.

The "Secaucus Seven" sold the team in 1998 to local real estate developers, who the next year signed an agreement with New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to form YankeeNets, a holding company that would own the two teams along with increasing leverage in future broadcast contracts by negotiating together. After getting offers from numerous broadcast partners, including what was their current rights holder Cablevision, YankeeNets decided to launch a new regional sports television called YES Network.

The 1998-99 season was delayed for three months due to an owners' lockout of the players. When the abbreviated 50-game season began, the Nets were a fashionable choice by experts as a surprise team. However, Cassell was injured in the first game and the team started poorly. With the Nets underachieving at 3-15, the Nets traded Cassell to the Bucks, while the Nets acquired Stephon Marbury from the Minnesota Timberwolves. After two more losses, Calipari was fired as head coach with the team at 3-17. The team never recovered from its poor start to finish at 16-34. With the Nets already eliminated from playoff contention in April, Marbury collided with Williams in a game against the Atlanta Hawks -- Williams broke his tibia and would never play in the NBA again.

From 1990 to 1997 the Nets played on a parquet-designed floor similar to the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic and the Minnesota Timberwolves during their home games at the Continental Airlines Arena.

The 2000s

In 2000, the Nets hired as the team president Rod Thorn, a longtime NBA executive best known for drafting Michael Jordan while he was the Bulls' general manager. Immediately, he began to assemble the components of the most talented team since the ABA champions of the mid-1970s. He started by hiring Byron Scott as coach. With the first pick in the 2000 Draft, the Nets selected Kenyon Martin from the University of Cincinnati. On the night of the 2001 Draft, they traded the rights to their first round selection (Eddie Griffin) to the Houston Rockets -- Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong.

Just after the 2001 draft, Thorn made his boldest move. He traded all-star Marbury to the Phoenix Suns for all-star and all-nba point guard Jason Kidd. The move gave the team something it had been lacking for practically its entire NBA existence, a floor leader who also made his teammates better.

That season, the Nets had their best season in their NBA history. The team won its first Atlantic Division title, finishing the regular season at 52-30 and were seeded first in Eastern Conference and faced Indiana in the first round of the 2002 NBA Playoffs.

After losing the first game at home, the Nets then went on to win the next two games, before losing game four on the road. In front of a sellout crowd, the Nets played one of the more memorable games in NBA Playoff history in game five. The Nets led by nine points with five minutes remaining in regulation, however Reggie Miller made a 35-foot three-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime (as replays later showed, Miller's shot was actually after the buzzer and therefore should not have counted). After Miller sent the game into double-overtime with a driving dunk, the Nets pulled away for a 120-109 victory. It is the only game in NBA history to end every quarter—the first quarter, first half, third quarter, second half, and first overtime—tied.

In the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, they defeated the Charlotte Hornets four games to one to advance to the Eastern Conference Championship for the first time facing the Boston Celtics. After winning game one versus the Celtics, the Nets lost game two at home. In game three, the Nets led by 21 points going into the final period, but a tremendous Celtic comeback gave the Celtics a 94-90 victory and a 2-1 series lead. In game four played on Memorial Day afternoon in Boston, the Nets led most of the way but once again the Celtics found a way to tie the game with a minute remaining. However, in this game the Nets made enough plays at the end of the game to win it - Harris made two free throws with 6.6 seconds left and when Paul Pierce missed two free throws that would have tied the game with 1 second left, the series was tied at two games each. In game five, the Nets went on a 20-1 run early in the fourth period to coast to a 103-92 victory and a 3-2 lead in the series. In game 6, the Nets trailed by 10 at halftime, but rallied in the second half to take the lead. Van Horn's three pointer off a Kittles pass with 50 seconds left in the game clinched the Nets their first Eastern Conference Championship, four games to two.

In the 2002 NBA Finals, the Nets were swept by Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. New Jersey was the third straight victim to fall to the L.A. dynasty, who had dominated both Indiana and Philadelphia. Kidd and company were just too inexperienced, and ill-equipped to deal with Shaq.

Before the 2002-03 season, the Nets traded Van Horn and MacCulloch to obtain Dikembe Mutombo from the 76ers. The move to improve the team did not work out as Mutombo sat out most of the season with a wrist injury, but received little time in the playoffs due to differences with coach Byron Scott. Despite Mutombo's absence, the Nets finished with a 49-33 record and repeated as Atlantic Division champs. In the 2003 NBA Playoffs, the Nets won their second consecutive Eastern Conference championship. They defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs four games to two, then swept the Celtics and Detroit Pistons in consecutive series to advance to the 2003 NBA Finals, this time facing the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs. They split the first four games in the series, but the Nets played erratically in a Game 5 loss at home to go down in the series three games to two. In Game 6, the Nets led the Spurs by 10 points on the road with 10 minutes remaining, but the Spurs went on a 19-0 run to take the title in six games.

Following the 2003 Finals, Kidd became a free agent and the Spurs pursued signing him away from the Nets. However, Kidd re-signed with the Nets, stating that he had "unfinished business" in New Jersey. Another factor in Kidd's decision was the signing of free-agent Alonzo Mourning. But Mourning's tenure with the Nets would be disastrous, as he missed most of the 2003-04 season due to a kidney ailment.

In 2004, the Nets again won the Atlantic Division title, and after sweeping the crosstown rival Knicks. In the first round, their run of conference championships was halted in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals by the eventual NBA champion Detroit Pistons. After the teams split the first four games, each one large routs at home, the Nets took Game 5 in Detroit in triple-overtime, only to fall short in Game 6 in New Jersey. The Pistons won Game 7 in a rout and took the series 4 games to 3. Jason Kidd, playing on an injured knee that eventually required surgery after the season, was held scoreless in Game 7.

After the season, the Nets were forced to trade Kerry Kittles and Kenyon Martin, to the Clippers and Nuggets respectively, because new owner Bruce Ratner was unwilling to pay the remainder of their contracts. They received only draft picks in return for two key players in the team's recent success. Unbeknownst to New Jersey however, was the fact that Kittles went under the knife for the fifth time to correct his knee, and Martin would need microfracture surgery in both knees. The 2004-05 seasonlooked gloomy for the Nets. Their star Kidd was recovering from his own microfracture surgery and the young Richard Jefferson was handed the reins for New Jersey. After a losing Richard Jefferson to injury for the season, the Nets acquired disgruntled star Vince Carter from the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Mourning, who was released by the Raptors (and subsequently rejoined the Miami Heat), Eric Williams, Aaron Williams and draft picks. Mourning himself had become disgruntled, saying the Nets "betrayed" him and that New Jersey's progress to that point was not what he "signed up for".

Teamed with Kidd, Carter rallied the team from being more than 10 games out of the playoffs to gain the final seed in the Eastern Conference with a win in the last game of the season. However, the Nets could not overcome O'Neal again even with Jefferson back from his injury and were swept by the Heat in the First Round of the 2005 NBA Playoffs.

During the offseason of 2005, the Nets actively pursued a starting-quality power forward through free agency. They had drafted Antoine Wright, a 6' 7" swingman because all the talented power forwards were taken in the draft, and still needed to fill the void left by Kenyon Martin.

Eventually settling on Shareef Abdur-Rahim, they actively courted him and gained his approval even though they could only offer him the mid-level exception. In order to get him a larger, more lucrative contract, the Nets pursued a sign-and-trade with Portland. There, negotiations hit a snag because Portland demanded a first-round draft pick, which the Nets adamantly refused to part with. Eventually, the Nets agreed to give Portland a protected first-round pick and their trade exception acquired from the Kerry Kittles trade. This allowed the Nets to keep their mid-level exception for signing other players. However, Thorn decided to void the Abdur-Rahim trade when he failed his physical examination because of a pre-existing knee injury. Abdur-Rahim would vehemently deny any injury and said he felt like "damaged goods". He would need surgery at the end of the '07 season. To fill Abdur-Rahim's slot on the roster, the Nets acquired Marc Jackson from the Sixers.

They used part of the remaining mid-level exception to re-sign Clifford Robinson for two years in response to Brian Scalabrine's departure. A back-up to Kidd was also sought and they actively courted free agents such as Keyon Dooling before turning their attention to talented, but aggravating (at times) Jeff McInnis, whom they eventually signed and was a non-factor in the Nets Season due to injury and eventually was traded.

The Nets started the 2005-06 season slowly, struggling to a 9-12 record in their first 21 games. However, behind strong play by Carter, Kidd & Jefferson the team won their next 10 games (their final 8 games in December and first two games in January) to surge to top of the division. After the winning streak, the Nets returned to their earlier mediocre play (winning only 13 of their next 29 games), but starting on March 12 the Nets won their next 14 games in a row - the longest winning streak in the NBA this season and matching the franchise record set in 2004. The streak ended on April 8, 2006 when the Nets loss to the Cavaliers 108-102 at home. They set a team record with 20 road victories this season.

The Nets finished the 2005-06 regular season with a 49-33 record. They clinched their 4th Atlantic Division championship in the last five seasons and the 3rd seed the Eastern Conference playoffs, playing the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the 2006 NBA Playoffs. It seemed they had returned to their elite status of a few years back. They defeated the Pacers and advanced to the second round where they played the Heat, in a rematch of 2005's first round Eastern Conference loss. On May 16, 2006, the Nets lost the best-of-seven series 4-1 to the Heat. Nets fans were left to wonder what might have been as Cliff Robinson, one of the team's key defenders against Shaq, was suspended following Game 1 of that series for failing a drug test.

Highlights of the season include the naming of Vince Carter to the All-Star Team in 2006. Originally named as a reserve, an injury to Jermaine O'Neal elevated Carter to a starting position. Kidd, meanwhile, was named to the NBA All-Defensive team at the end of the season.

**WIKIPEDIA.ORG