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A Soaring Success With "Dr. J," Nets Have Struggled Since

The New Jersey Nets franchise has endured its share of difficulties since it first took the floor in 1967. One of 11 original American Basketball Association teams, the club has played in six arenas in the New York metropolitan area. Along the way, the franchise soared to the top of the ABA on the back of Julius "Dr. J" Erving, then fell to the cellar upon entry into the NBA. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the Nets' slow rise to respectability in the NBA's Eastern Conference and, following a 43-39 mark in 1997-98 and an appearance in the playoffs, the franchise appears to be back on solid ground.

The franchise was the result of the ABA's desire to field a team in New York City, the nation's media center and glamour capital. Having a team in the Big Apple would provide the league with some desperately needed legitimacy. What it ended up with was the New Jersey Americans, a ragtag team that played in a converted armory in Teaneck, New Jersey. It was neither what the league nor owner Arthur Brown had in mind, but it was the best Brown could do after a frantic search for an arena in Manhattan had turned up nothing.

Brown tabbed Max Zaslofsky as his head coach. Zaslofsky had starred for the Chicago Stags, the New York Knicks, and the Fort Wayne Pistons from 1946 to 1955. At the start of 1967 he had been coaching the team fielded by Brown's trucking company.

Brown gave Zaslofsky a makeshift bunch to work with. Center Dan Anderson came to the Americans from the Akron Goodyears, an industrial team playing under the auspices of the AAU; forward Tony Jackson was a 26-year-old graduate of St. John's playing his first professional season; the other starting forward, Hank Whitney, was a 28-year-old rookie. The rest of the team featured the likes of Bruce Spraggins, Mel Nowell (who had played with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek at Ohio State), Bobby Lloyd, John Mathis, and Dexter Westbrook. Only a handful of players lasted more than a year in the pro ranks, and none had careers that stretched beyond two seasons.

1967-68: Free Throws Don't Equal Wins

Zaslofsky found the team a challenge to coach. "We really had semipro players," he remembered 15 years later. "They were not the caliber of players in the NBA, but each of them felt like a superstar. They were all prima donnas."
The Americans took the floor for the first time on October 23, 1967, against the Pittsburgh Pipers. Yogi Berra tossed up the first jump ball, and attendance was somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 fans.

The Americans posted a 36-42 record that first season and were led in scoring by Levern Tart, who was acquired from the Oakland Oaks in January. Tart averaged 23.6 points, third best in the ABA. On the boards, the Americans were paced by Whitney, who pulled down 12.9 rebounds per game. The club had the third-worst defense and scored the fourth-fewest points in the league. The only part of the court where the team from Teaneck really excelled was at the charity stripe. Three of the league's top five foul shooters came from the Americans, and the team's .743 free throw percentage was second best in the circuit.

But good foul shooting was not enough to lure basketball fans out to Teaneck, New Jersey; the Americans averaged fewer than 1,000 spectators per game.

1968: The Playoff Game That Never Happened

New Jersey's 36-42 finish earned the team a tie with the Kentucky Colonels for the fourth and final playoff spot in the ABA's Eastern Division. A single-game playoff was scheduled to determine which team would advance to face the Minnesota Muskies in the first round of postseason play. Unfortunately for the Americans, the Teaneck Armory was booked for a circus on the scheduled date. Owner Arthur Brown scrambled to find an alternate site and managed to reserve Commack Arena in the Long Island, New York, town of the same name.
When the teams showed up for the game, however, they found that the court was in unplayable condition, with floorboards loose, bolts unscrewed, and basket stanchions unpadded. The Colonels refused to play. ABA commissioner George Mikan ruled the game a forfeit, with Kentucky the winner. The Americans' first taste of postseason action had ended without so much as an opening jump ball.

1968-69: Brown Finds New Home But Fails To Land Alcindor

Brown kept busy during the offseason. Despite the playoff fiasco, he decided to move the team to Commack Arena for the 1968-69 season, a decision that enabled him to use "New York" in the team name. He then dropped "Americans" in favor of "Nets" after a reporter's facetious suggestion that he find a name that rhymed with Mets and Jets.
Brown's attempt to find a new home for the Nets succeeded, but he failed in his second important objective for the offseason, which had implications not only for his franchise but for the ABA as a whole. The league granted the draft rights to UCLA standout Lew Alcindor (the future Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to the newly renamed New York Nets, reasoning that Alcindor had grown up in New York and the ABA needed to generate some interest and excitement in the prime New York market. Alcindor told the ABA and the NBA that he would accept one sealed bid from each league for his services. The Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA submitted a higher bid than did Brown. When Brown and the ABA learned they had been outbid, they went back to Alcindor with a higher offer, but he turned down the Nets and signed with Milwaukee.

The failure to sign Alcindor was a big blow to the Nets. During the 1968-69 season, 23 players wore Nets uniforms, and only 6 spent the entire season with the club as the franchise made 10 trades. Walt Simon led the team in scoring with an average of 21.1 points per game, and Bobby Lloyd established an ABA record by nailing 49 straight free throws. But overall the team was hapless, generating less offense while allowing more points than any other Eastern Division team. The Nets' 17-61 record was the worst mark in the ABA.

1969-70: New Owner Names Carnesecca Head Coach

Arthur Brown gave up on the ABA after the 1968-69 season. On May 26, 1969, he sold the franchise to a wealthy businessman named Roy Boe. One of the new owner's first moves was to announce that the New York Nets would play at the Island Garden in West Hempstead, a Long Island town much closer to Manhattan than Commack. He also named St. John's University Coach Lou Carnesecca as the Nets' general manager and head coach. But Carnesecca had one year left on his contract before he could leave St. John's, so York Larese was hired as the Nets' new coach.
The team added some punch on the court by signing Lloyd "Sonny" Dove, its first-round draft choice in 1967. A St. John's graduate, Dove had spent the previous two seasons with the NBA's Detroit Pistons, where he had seen very little playing time. Another key addition was 6-1 guard Bill Melchionni, who had averaged 4.6 points for the Philadelphia 76ers the season before.

Melchionni joined Levern Tart in the Nets' backcourt. Tart had played with Oakland and New Jersey during the 1967-68 campaign and for the Nets, Houston, and Denver during 1968-69. He spent all of 1969-70 with the Nets and led the team in scoring (24.2 ppg). Melchionni finished second in the ABA in assists (5.7 apg), while Dove chipped in 14.4 points per game.

The now-competitive Nets finished with a 39-45 record and made the playoffs for the first time. With a stronger team playing in an arena closer to the city, attendance tripled. New York gave the 45-39 Kentucky Colonels a tough series in the opening round of the playoffs, but the Nets fell, four games to three.

1970-72: Nets Become Scary With Barry

Carnesecca took over as head coach before the start of the 1970-71 season, and the Nets engineered a major coup by signing Rick Barry on September 2. Barry had played for the Oakland Oaks during 1968-69 and had reluctantly stayed with the franchise when it moved to Washington for the 1969-70 campaign. But when owner Earl Foreman announced that the Washington Capitols would become the Virginia Squires to start the next season, Barry made it clear he would not stay with the team.
With Carnesecca running the show and Barry filling up the basket, the Nets had to be taken seriously. Finally, the league had a competitive team with a superstar player in the country's biggest market.

The Nets made another important acquisition before the new season began by picking up rookie Billy Paultz from Virginia for cash and a draft choice. Paultz, a 6-11 center affectionately known as "the Whopper," had played for Carnesecca at St. John's.

Barry missed 25 games during the 1970-71 season with a knee injury, but he battled with Kentucky's Dan Issel for the league's scoring title. In the end, Barry scored 29.4 points per game, finishing second to Issel, who prevailed with a 29.8 scoring average. Bill Melchionni led the ABA in assists with 8.3 per game. Paultz put up good numbers in his rookie year, crashing the boards for 11.3 rebounds per game while averaging 14.7 points on the strength of a .524 field-goal percentage, the second-highest mark in the league.

Coach Carnesecca guided the Nets to a 40-44 record and a third-place finish in the ABA's Eastern Division. New York went up against Virginia in the first round of the playoffs and was ousted in six games during a high-scoring, closely played series. After falling behind two games to none, the Nets came back with a 135-131 victory in Game 3 and a 130-127 win in Game 4. But the Squires took Game 5, 127-124, and then took the series with a 118-114 victory in Game 6.

The Nets continued to improve in the 1971-72 season. Although Sonny Dove was lost for most of the year with an eye injury, the Nets found an adequate replacement in Thomas "Trooper" Washington, a much-traveled ABA veteran, who held down the power forward position for New York with 11.0 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Melchionni led the league in assists (8.4 apg) for the second year in a row. Rick Barry enjoyed an injury-free season after three years of knee problems and led the league in free throw percentage (.878); his average of 45.2 minutes per game paced the circuit. Barry pumped in 31.5 points per game and finished second in scoring to Charlie Scott (34.6 ppg), who played most of the season with the Virginia Squires before defecting to the NBA.

In February the franchise shifted venues for the fourth time in five years. The new home was Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. For the first time in franchise history, the team posted a winning record, at 44-40. The Nets' first-round playoff opponent was Kentucky, a team that had posted the best record in ABA history, winning 68 games. But New York went to Louisville and routed the Colonels in Games 1 and 2 to take the series lead. Kentucky never recovered and was eliminated, four games to two.

The Nets faced Virginia in the second round and survived a 138-91 blowout in Game 1 and a 115-106 defeat in Game 2 to oust the Squires in seven games. That set up an ABA Finals matchup between the Nets and the Indiana Pacers. Indiana took the first game easily, but New York bounced back with a two-point win in Game 2. After four games, the series stood tied at two wins apiece. Indiana went on to win the championship by scratching out a one-point victory in Game 5 and a three-point win in Game 6.

The 1972 Playoffs gave the ABA a great deal of credibility. New York averaged better than 12,000 fans per game at the Nassau Coliseum during the team's playoff run, and the Nets and Pacers combined to draw more than 70,000 spectators for the ABA Finals. The exciting postseason finally attracted the attention of the New York media, which until then had shown only marginal interest in the franchise.

1972-73: No Barry? No Chance!

The Nets fared well in the 1972 ABA Draft, selecting and then signing All-American Brian Taylor from Princeton and Jim Chones from Marquette. But the club suffered a major setback when Rick Barry received a court order to return to the NBA and report back to the Golden State Warriors. Without Barry, the Nets stumbled to 30-54 in 1972-73, then tumbled out of the playoffs in the first round at the hands of the Carolina Cougars.
Everything changed for the franchise during the offseason. The Nets obtained Julius Erving, the league's biggest star, and Willie Sojourner from the Virginia Squires for George Carter, the draft rights to Kermit Washington, and cash. The Nets also added a pair of promising rookies in Larry Kenon and John Williamson.

1973-75: "Dr. J" Rescues The Franchise

The New York press turned Julius Erving into an overnight media sensation, and "Dr. J" turned the Nets into a championship-caliber club and a box-office bonanza. He was surrounded by a young but talented supporting cast. Erving was only 23 years old; his cohorts in the starting lineup were rookies Kenon (age 22) and Williamson (21), and second-year guard Brian Taylor (22). The "old man" of the starting five was center Billy Paultz, a four-year veteran at 25. The grateful recipient of this plethora of talent was Kevin Loughery, who replaced Lou Carnesecca as the team's head coach.
Loughery guided the 1973-74 Nets to a 55-29 record and a first-place finish in the ABA's Eastern Division. Erving won the league scoring title, finished sixth in assists, and was third in both blocked shots and steals. The league thanked him with its Most Valuable Player Award.

The playoffs were a cakewalk. In the opening round the Nets clubbed the Virginia Squires, four games to one, then swept the Eastern Division Finals, winning by an average of almost 12 points per game against Kentucky. The Nets moved on to the ABA Finals to face the Utah Stars. New York took Game 1 behind a 47-point performance by Erving; Game 2 was a rout; and Game 3 was an overtime win for the Nets, but it took a three-pointer at the buzzer from Taylor to send the game into an extra period. The Stars staved off elimination by winning Game 4, but the Nets came back with a home-court win before 15,934 fans to capture the 1974 ABA Championship. Suddenly, Erving and the Nets were every bit as popular in New York as the NBA's New York Knicks.

The only offseason change for the Nets was in the front office, where former New York Knicks star Dave DeBusschere took over as general manager. The defending NBA-champion Nets came back for the 1974-75 season with the same starting five that had earned the title the year before. Erving set an ABA record by scoring 63 points on February 14, 1975, in a four-overtime game in San Diego. He led the Nets in scoring for the second year in a row (27.9 ppg) and paced the team in rebounding (10.9 rpg) and assists (5.5 apg).

New York finished with a 58-26 record, but a four-game losing streak late in the season, coupled with Kentucky's nine-game winning streak, allowed the Colonels to catch the Nets down the stretch. The Colonels made it 10 in a row with a win over the Nets in a one-game playoff that earned Kentucky the Eastern Division title.

In the first round of the playoffs the Nets faced the Spirits of St. Louis, a team that had posted a 32-52 record, lost 11 straight to New York, and was accorded no chance to advance. The Nets took Game 1 without a struggle, but the young St. Louis team roared back to win the next four and send New York home for the year.

After the disappointing postseason, the Nets made wholesale changes. The club first sent Larry Kenon to San Antonio for Swen Nater. Later, Billy Paultz was also shipped to the Spurs. In return the Nets received four players, including Rich Jones and Kim Hughes. Nater was a washout for New York. Slowed by a knee injury, he spent half a season with the Nets before being traded to Virginia.

1975-76: Nets Are Best In ABA's Last Season

There were off-court changes as well. After one year as the Nets' general manager, DeBusschere became the ABA Commissioner. Also, in a surprise move only one month before the 1975-76 season began, Denver and New York, the ABA's two strongest franchises, applied for admission to the NBA. An antitrust suit filed against the NBA forced the league to table the two applications, but the overriding impression was that the ABA was making its last hurrah.
Once the regular season got underway, the Nets performed well. Erving led the league in scoring at 29.3 points per contest. The starting backcourt of Brian Taylor (16.7 ppg) and John Williamson (16.2) provided Dr. J with competent help. The Nets won 55 games during 1975-76 to finish five games behind Denver. New York faced San Antonio in the league semifinals, and the Spurs extended the series to seven games despite losing starting guard James Silas in the first outing to a broken ankle. On April 24 the Nets beat the Spurs, 121-114, in front of a sellout crowd at Nassau Coliseum to close out the series.

The ABA Finals opened in Denver on May 1. A crowd of 19,034 filled McNichols Sports Arena and set an ABA attendance record. They were treated to a spectacular performance from Julius Erving, who piled up 45 points (including a jump shot at the buzzer) to give the Nets a 120-118 win. An even larger crowd was on hand for Game 2 as the Nuggets knotted the series at one game apiece, despite a 48-point performance from Erving.

Playing back at Nassau Coliseum, the Nets nailed down Game 3, with Erving scoring 8 consecutive points in the game's final minute and a half. New York then went up three games to one with a win in Game 4. Back in Denver, the Nuggets remained alive with a 118-110 victory in Game 5. David Thompson of the Nuggets provided the fireworks in Game 6, firing in 42 points as the Nuggets built a 22-point lead in the third quarter. But the Nets outscored Denver by 20 points in the fourth period to record a 112-106 victory and earn a second ABA Championship in three years. Erving averaged 34.7 points during the playoffs and was named the series MVP. He was also given his third ABA regular-season MVP Award.

With that championship the Nets' glory days came to a crashing end. On June 17 the long-awaited merger of the NBA and the ABA was made official, and New York, San Antonio, Denver, and Indiana were granted admission into the new league. It cost the Nets $8 million: $3.2 million went to the NBA, and another $4.8 million went to the Knicks as compensation for allowing the Nets to continue as competitors in the same territory.

1976-78: New Jersey Acquires "Tiny," But Club Starts Out On The Wrong Foot

The New York Nets expected to enter the NBA as a solid contender, and they acquired Nate "Tiny" Archibald from Kansas City to improve the team's backcourt. The franchise fell apart, however, before the season began, when a salary dispute erupted between Erving and Roy Boe. The Nets' owner ended the dispute by selling his star player to the Philadelphia 76ers for $3 million. All remaining hope for the Nets evaporated in January when Archibald broke his foot.
The 1976-77 Nets chalked up the worst record in the NBA with a mark of 22-60. They were the only team in the league to score fewer than 8,000 points for the season. The club's leading scorer (among players who finished the season) was a 6-4 guard named Robert "Bubbles" Hawkins, who averaged 19.3 points in 52 appearances. Bubbles had averaged only 3.9 points with Golden State the season before; he went on to play a total of 19 more games during the next two years before his career came to an end.

The Nets' inaugural season in the NBA was the first of five lean years for the franchise. Boe moved the team to New Jersey in the offseason and settled into Rutgers Athletic Center, where the club played for four years while waiting for a new arena to be built at the Meadowlands. The Nets' new home was 40 miles from New York City, and the franchise's financial problems went from bad to worse.

The team's on-court performance during the 1977-78 campaign was no worse than the season before, but it was certainly no better. The Nets (now the New Jersey Nets) were once again the weakest team in the league, winning only 24 games. What the team did have was rookie forward Bernard King, a 6-7 Tennessee graduate who averaged 24.2 points and 9.5 rebounds.

1978-81: Owner Boe Sells Team

Some of the franchise's fiscal uncertainty was resolved during the offseason, when Boe sold his interest in the club to a partnership headed by Joseph Taub and Alan Cohen. The 1978-79 Nets featured a high-scoring tandem in King (21.6 ppg) and guard John Williamson (22.2). Veteran center George Johnson was second in the league in blocked shots (3.24 per game), and second-year guard Edward "Fast Eddie" Jordan ranked second in steals (2.45 per game).
New Jersey improved by 13 wins over the previous season, posting a 37-45 record in 1978-79. The Nets made the NBA Playoffs for the first time but were swept in a best-of-three first-round series by Philadelphia. At the very least, New Jersey enjoyed the satisfaction of finishing with a better record than the rival Knicks.

New Jersey had a pair of first-round choices in the 1979 NBA Draft and selected Calvin Natt with the No. 8 pick and Cliff Robinson at No. 11. With Natt on board, the Nets traded King, along with John Gianelli and Jim Boylan, to the Utah Jazz for Rich Kelley.

Natt averaged 19.7 points in 53 contests for the Nets. On February 8 the team traded him to Portland for a pair of first-round draft picks and Maurice Lucas, who provided New Jersey with a menacing presence inside. Mike Newlin, a ninth-year guard acquired from Houston prior to the season, turned in his finest campaign, averaging 20.9 points. The Nets finished with a 34-48 record, and the trades may have saved the team from falling even further. But New Jersey was left with an aging cast of players and dim prospects for the future.

The Nets went for size in the 1980 NBA Draft, selecting 6-7 forward Mike O'Koren with the sixth pick and 6-11 center Mike Gminski with the seventh selection. That gave the team a young frontcourt (the other starting forward was second-year player Cliff Robinson) and a glimmer of better things to come. Head Coach Kevin Loughery, however, paid for the team's inexperience with his job. Loughery, who was piloting the Nets for his eighth season, resigned in mid-December and was replaced by assistant coach Bob MacKinnon. In March the franchise announced that Larry Brown, a three-time ABA Coach of the Year, would assume the helm at season's end. New Jersey finished the 1980-81 season with a 24-58 record, good for last place in the Atlantic Division.

1981-83: Brown Plays "Let's Make A Deal"

Brown made wholesale changes for 1981-82. He brought in an entirely new backcourt, trading for Otis Birdsong and picking up Ray Williams, a free agent who had spent the previous four seasons with the Knicks. The most important switch was at the power forward position, where first-round draft pick Buck Williams had a banner season, pulling down 12.3 rebounds per game (third best in the league) and adding 15.5 points per contest. The numbers were good enough to earn Williams the league's Rookie of the Year Award.
Playing in the brand-new Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Nets got off to a 3-12 start in 1981-82. But the club went 41-26 the rest of the way to finish with a mark of 44-38, a 20-game improvement from the previous year. New Jersey advanced to the playoffs but was swept by Washington in a best-of-three first-round series.

The 1982-83 season saw a virtual revolving door at guard. Ray Williams was dealt to Kansas City in a trade that brought Phil Ford to the Nets. Ford then was traded for Wallace Edgar "Mickey" Johnson, who led the team to an 11-game winning streak from December 23 to January 12. Three weeks later, Johnson and first-round draft pick Eric "Sleepy" Floyd were sent to Golden State for Micheal Ray Richardson.

The other new face on the club was 6-11 center Darryl Dawkins, who came to New Jersey in the offseason after spending seven seasons with Philadelphia. "Chocolate Thunder" (as Dawkins was called) gave the team 12.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. He also set a new league record with 379 personal fouls and fouled out of an NBA-high 23 games.

The 1982-83 season marked the franchise's high-water mark since joining the NBA. Led in scoring by Buck Williams and Albert King, both of whom averaged 17.0 points, the team posted a 49-33 record. But the club's playoff hopes were dashed in the waning days of the regular season. With two weeks left to go, Coach Larry Brown resigned to take the coaching job at the University of Kansas. The team collapsed and was swept by the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

1983-84: Albeck Makes A Big Promise

The Nets had a new coach-Stan Albeck-for the 1983-84 campaign, but for the first time since joining the NBA they made no changes in the starting lineup between seasons. Once again, Dawkins fouled out of more games (22) than anyone else in the league; he also put up the best numbers of his career, averaging 16.8 points and 6.7 rebounds. Buck Williams finished among the NBA's top three in rebounding (12.3 rpg) for the third consecutive season and became the ninth player in NBA history to pull down at least 1,000 boards in each of his first three seasons. Otis Birdsong represented New Jersey at the 1984 NBA All-Star Game in Denver. The only disappointment for the Nets was Micheal Ray Richardson, who missed almost half the season as he battled a drug problem.
The Nets went 19-6 down the stretch, and Albeck promised the New Jersey fans a playoff victory. The promise looked like sheer bravado as the team drew the defending NBA-champion Philadelphia 76ers in Round 1, but Albeck looked good after his club took the first two games of the best-of-five matchup. The 76ers evened the series at two games apiece, but the Nets came back in Game 5 with a three-point victory. It was the first playoff-series triumph for the franchise since joining the NBA.

New Jersey tangled with Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. After squaring the series at two games apiece, the Nets lost the next two games, including a one-point defeat in Game 6, and were eliminated.

1984-86: Team Struggles Without Darryl And Micheal Ray

A plague of injuries descended upon the Nets during the 1984-85 campaign. Darryl Dawkins missed 43 games with a back injury, Albert King was lost for 40 games, Mike O'Koren was sidelined for 39, and Otis Birdsong suffered a knee injury and missed 26 contests. Head Coach Stan Albeck was forced to use 13 different starting lineups during the regular season. One player he could count on was Buck Williams, who appeared in all 82 games and led the league with 3,182 minutes played.
Albeck also got a sterling performance from Micheal Ray Richardson. After missing almost half of the 1983-84 season, Richardson came back the following year to play in every game. He had the best season of his career, averaging 20.1 points, 8.2 assists, and 5.6 rebounds.

Even though his team was plagued by injuries, Albeck coaxed a winning season out of the club. The Nets posted a 42-40 record and finished above .500 for the fourth straight season. In the playoffs, however, New Jersey was swept in the first round by a fast-rising Detroit Pistons ballclub.

Albeck stepped down as head coach during the offseason and Dave Wohl was named as his replacement. The Nets jumped out to a 23-14 record, but the 1985-86 season quickly unraveled after Richardson earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first player ever to be banned from the NBA for violating the league's drug policy for the third time. The team was hurt again when Dawkins's back problem flared up and forced him to miss all but one of the season's final 32 games.

New Jersey did make the playoffs with a 39-43 record, and Wohl had Buck Williams and Mike Gminski to thank. Williams made his third All-Star appearance and went on to average 15.9 points and 12.0 rebounds for the season. Gminski performed well as the team's starting center, leading the club with 16.5 points per game and chipping in 8.2 rebounds per contest. The Nets' visit to the playoffs in 1986 was a brief one as Milwaukee eliminated them in the first round with a three-game sweep.

1986-88: A Seven-Year Drought

The 1985-86 season was the first of seven straight in which the Nets failed to crack the .500 mark. Injuries were to blame during 1986-87. Dawkins lasted six contests before back problems all but ended his career. Otis Birdsong was lost for the season after just seven games. Buck Williams was the only player to appear in all 82 contests. Orlando Woolridge, who came to New Jersey from Chicago as a free agent, led the team in scoring with 20.7 points per game. The Nets tied the Knicks for last place in the Atlantic Division, with both teams posting 24-58 records.
The injury jinx continued to hex the Nets through the 1987-88 season. The club set an NBA record as its players missed more games because of injury than any other team in league history. Even Buck Williams was bitten by the injury bug. For the first season in his career he missed at least one game. Despite playing in only 70 contests, he led the team in scoring, rebounding, average minutes, and field goal percentage.

1988-89: Can Nets Succeed With Reed?

The Nets opened 1987-88 with a 2-13 record, and Dave Wohl was released as head coach. Assistant General Manager Bob MacKinnon stepped in and guided the team to a 10-29 mark before giving way to Hall of Famer Willis Reed, who didn't fare any better-the squad posted a 7-21 record after he took over. The Nets finished with a 19-63 record; only the Los Angeles Clippers, with a mark of 17-65, won fewer games.
The 1988-89 team had seven new names on its roster, including Joe Barry Carroll, Lester Conner, and Mike McGee, all of whom came to the club in the offseason and were inserted into the starting lineup by Coach Reed. The Nets actually went 5-3 to start the season and were hovering around the .500 mark at the end of November when Carroll went down with an injury. The team sputtered to a 26-56 record; an expansion team in Charlotte saved the Nets from repeating as the cellar dwellers in the Atlantic Division. Buck Williams led the team in rebounding but averaged just 9.4 boards per game, the first time in his career that he did not reach double figures.

1989-90: Fitch Named New Head Coach

After just over one season at the helm, Reed moved up the ladder in the Nets organization to become senior vice president in charge of basketball operations. Bill Fitch became the new head coach. During the offseason New Jersey traded away its best player, Buck Williams, to Portland, for oft-injured center Sam Bowie and the No. 12 pick in the 1989 NBA Draft. The team used the draft choice to select point guard Mookie Blaylock, who had a decent rookie year but missed 32 games with a broken finger. Bowie led the team in rebounding with 10.1 boards per game.
Fitch's first season with the Nets was a trial. The team won only 17 games, fewer than any other team in the NBA, which that season included a pair of first-year expansion teams in Orlando and Minnesota. New Jersey did manage to embarrass Boston on January 9, 1990, by holding the Celtics to only six points during the second quarter.

1990-91: "D. C." Earns An "A" In Rookie Season

After bottoming out during the 1989-90 season, the team began a slow rise out of the netherworld of basketball mediocrity. The first step came on draft day. Wielding the No. 1 pick in 1990, the Nets drafted Syracuse forward Derrick Coleman, then bolstered their backcourt with the addition of veteran Reggie Theus and strengthened the bench by plucking Drazen Petrovic from the Portland Trail Blazers.
Coleman proved that he was the best player in the draft by earning NBA Rookie of the Year honors during his first season. Theus paced the club in scoring (18.6 ppg), narrowly edging out Coleman (18.4). The Nets led the league in blocked shots with 600. On March 16 the Nets beat Washington, giving Coach Fitch career win No. 800. New Jersey finished the 1990-91 season with a 26-56 record, two games ahead of the last-place Miami Heat in the Atlantic Division.

1991-92: Nets Acquire A Playmaker

Blessed for the second year in a row with a high pick in the draft, the Nets chose Kenny Anderson, a brilliant young point guard from Georgia Tech who had grown up in New York City. But a contractual dispute kept Anderson from joining the team until after the season was underway. New Jersey started slowly, losing 11 of its first 13 games and 18 of its first 25. From that point on, however, the team hit its stride, posting a 32-25 mark the rest of the way to finish at 39-43 and earn a playoff spot for the first time since 1986. The Nets were eliminated in the first round by the Cleveland Cavaliers but managed to win one game, the team's first postseason victory since 1984.
Despite their success, the 1991-92 season was anything but a smooth ride for Fitch and his young team. The Nets got solid performances out of Coleman, who averaged 19.8 points and 9.5 rebounds, and Petrovic, who led the team with 20.6 points per game while finishing second in the league with a .444 three-point field goal percentage. But Fitch, who was criticized throughout the year for choosing to play Blaylock over Anderson at point guard, was released at season's end.

1992-93: Injuries On The Court, Tragedy Off It

Willis Reed brought in Chuck Daly, former coach of the Pistons, to guide the franchise for the 1992-93 campaign. Shortly before the regular season began, Daly declared that Anderson would be his starting point guard, then reinforced that decision by trading Blaylock to Atlanta with Roy Hinson for Rumeal Robinson.
Daly succeeded with the team where Fitch had failed. By the end of February the team was cruising along with a 31-24 record. But Anderson broke his wrist in a February 28 game against the Knicks and was lost for the season. The Nets went 12-15 without their playmaker and finished with a 43-39 mark. Anderson had been blossoming into a star with averages of 16.9 points and 8.2 assists per game at the time of his injury.

Anderson had a lot of company on the injured list. The Nets entered the playoffs with both of the team's centers, Sam Bowie and Chris Dudley, out of action. New Jersey faced Cleveland in the first round, with Coleman fighting to fill the void in the middle. After averaging 20.7 points and 11.2 rebounds during the regular season, he boosted his numbers to 26.8 points and 13.4 rebounds during the five-game series against Cleveland. But it wasn't enough; the Cavs eliminated the Nets, three games to two.

Tragedy struck the team one month after the playoffs ended when Drazen Petrovic was killed in an automobile accident in Germany. "Petro" was coming off his best season in the NBA, having led the team in scoring with 22.3 points per game. He was 28 years old.

1993-94: Nets Make Playoffs But Make A Quick Exit

The loss of Drazen Petrovic left a void that was difficult to fill. In 1993-94 the Nets continued to improve but were a few players short of mounting a serious challenge for the Atlantic Division crown. Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson, both All-Stars for the first time, each had an outstanding season. Coleman scored 20.2 points per game, 14th in the NBA, and grabbed 11.3 rebounds per contest for ninth in the league. Anderson ranked fourth in the league in assists (9.6 apg) and led all NBA point guards in scoring (18.8 ppg).
New Jersey posted a winning record in every month except November. From January 13 through the end of the year the Nets went 29-13. They finished at 45-37, the club's second-best victory total since it entered the NBA. The wins paid off at the box office, as the franchise drew a record 620,416 fans.

Facing New York in the first round of the playoffs, the Nets were confident, having defeated the Knicks in four of five meetings during the regular season. But a New York team headed for the NBA Finals dropped the Nets in four games. On May 26, 1994, Chuck Daly stepped down as head coach after two years. He was replaced by Butch Beard, a former NBA player who had been coaching at Howard University.

1994-95: Nets Endure Another Injury-Riddled Campaign

The New Jersey Nets entered the 1994-95 campaign with a string of three consecutive postseason appearances and high hopes for another. Their hopes were dashed when they finished the year out of the playoffs with a 30-52 record, 15 fewer wins than they had posted the previous season.
First-year coach Butch Beard had all that he could handle, struggling with disciplinary problems and injuries to key players. Thirteen different players were injured during the season, resulting in 320 player-games lost, the third-highest total in the NBA. Among the Nets' starters, Kevin Edwards missed 68 games, Benoit Benjamin 21, Derrick Coleman 26, Kenny Anderson 10, and Chris Morris 11. First-round draft choice Yinka Dare played just three minutes all season. Only Armon Gilliam, who had a fine year (14.8 ppg, 7.5 rpg), saw action in all 82 contests.

The Nets finished the season ranked last in the NBA in field goal percentage at .436. Gilliam was the only Nets player to rank among the NBA's top 40 in field goal percentage, placing 33rd at .503. The Nets recorded 544 steals, the lowest total in the league, and they forced fewer turnovers than any other team. Coleman led the team in scoring (20.5 ppg) and rebounding (10.6 rpg), while Anderson was second in the NBA in assists at 9.4 per contest.

1995-96: Out With the Old; In With the New

The 1995-96 Nets were a team definitely in transition. The season marked the end of the Coleman/Anderson era as both players were traded away midseason. In return, the Nets got younger, and definitely taller.
On Nov. 30, the Nets dealt Coleman, with Sean Higgins and Rex Walters, to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Tim Perry, Greg Graham and 7-6 third-year center Shawn Bradley. Then on Jan. 19, Anderson and Gerald Glass were dealt to Charlotte for guards Kendall Gill and Khalid Reeves.

In the absence of Coleman and Anderson, other Nets shined. Armon Gilliam became the first Net in two years to be named Player of the Week. Chris Childs came into his own, averaging 12.8 points and 7.0 assists per game. Jayson Williams proved to be one of the league's better rebounders, averaging 10.0 rpg and pulling down 25 on Jan. 30 against the Seattle SuperSonics. Bradley, the second overall pick in the 1993 draft, averaged 3.65 blocked shots and recorded two triple-doubles. Williams, Gilliam and Bradley combined to help the Nets lead the NBA in rebounding

Despite a talented nucleus, wins were hard to come by, particularly after the team lost Gill for the season when he suffered a broken hand on February 14. The team finished with a record of 30-52, sixth in the Atlantic Division, and out of the playoffs for the second straight season. After the season, Coach Butch Beard was relieved of his duties. The Nets dipped into the college ranks for his replacement, tabbing successful University of Massachusetts Coach John Calipari, and signing him to a five-year contract.

1996-97: Cal's Crew Builds Foundation

John Calipari's task of building the Nets into a winner took huge steps forward in 1996-97, even though the team took a small step backward in the standings, finishing 26-56 on the year.
The first step was the immediate emergence of rookie Kerry Kittles, who played in all 82 games and averaged nearly 37 minutes per game. Kittles, a 37.7 percent three-point shooter, was fourth among rookies in points (16.4), second in steals (1.9) and fifth in assists (3.0).

Two seven-year veterans, Kendall Gill and Jayson Williams, had breakout seasons for the Nets. Gill averaged a career-best 21.8 ppg (ninth in the NBA) and set or tied personal bests in rebounds, steals and blocked shots. Willliams averaged 13.5 rebounds per game, despite playing much of the season with a torn thumb ligament that limited him to only 41 games.

Just prior to the trading deadline, the Nets and Dallas Mavericks engineered one of the biggest trades in NBA history, at least in terms of the number of players involved. New Jersey sent point guard Robert Pack, guard Khalid Reeves, forward Ed O'Bannon and center Shawn Bradley to Dallas in exchange for forward Chris Gatling, guards Jimmy Jackson and Sam Cassell, center Eric Montross and swingman George McCloud. Days later, McCloud went to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Joe Kleine and a first-round pick in the 1997 Draft.

With a new nucleus featuring Gill, Kittles, Jackson and Cassell, the Nets' quickness gave some teams trouble. During a three-day span in March, the Nets posted consecutive wins over the eventual champion Chicago Bulls and their crosstown rivals, the New York Knicks. They handled the Knicks again later that month, and also posted wins over division winners Seattle and Miami.

Though the season ended with a 2-9 record in April, the Nets appeared to strike draft gold in Keith Van Horn after trading up to get second overall pick. In addition to a prominent new face, June brought the Nets a new look as the team adopted a futuristic logo and colors.

1997-98: Excitement Returns to the Meadowlands

For a few days in April, the youthful 1997-98 New Jersey Nets captured the attention of the basketball world as more than just foils for the mighty Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1998 NBA Playoffs. Though they didn't win a game, let alone the series, they played the Bulls tough in their first postseason appearance since 1994, capping a 43-39 season that brought excitement back to the Meadowlands.
The Nets began the season by winning their first four games, maintained a winning record through all 82 games for the first time in the franchise's NBA history, and clinched a playoff berth with a victory over Detroit on the final day of the season. The heart and soul of the Nets was loquacious center Jayson Williams, who averaged 13.6 rebounds, (2nd in the NBA), and 12.9 points per game. Williams became the first Net to appear in an All-Star Game since 1994, and did so at Madison Square Garden in his native New York.

Another Nets All-Star may not be too many years away. After missing the first 17 games of the season due to injury, rookie Keith Van Horn quickly acclimated himself to the NBA game and led the Nets in scoring at 19.7 ppg. Rounding out the frontcourt was forward Kendall Gill, who sacrificed his scoring average for the good of the team, and still put home 13.4 ppg.

Also stepping up were Sam Cassell and Kerry Kittles in the backcourt. Cassell ranked second on the team in scoring, just behind Van Horn at 19.6 ppg, and led the Nets in assists with 8.0 apg. Kittles, in his second NBA season, was third on the team in scoring with 17.2 ppg. Off the bench, the Nets weapons included Sherman Douglas (8.0 ppg, 4.0 apg) and Chris Gatling (11.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg), as well as Rony Seikaly, who joined the Nets in a five-player trade with Orlando on Feb. 19.

Seikaly played in only nine games for New Jersey because of a nagging injury to his right foot. Injuries became an epidemic for the Nets, who entered the playoffs with several stars nursing wounds. In Game 1 against Chicago, Cassell nursed a strained groin and Williams played (and had 21 rebounds) despite a broken thumb. The Nets nevertheless forced overtime at the United Center before falling by a score of 96-93. The Bulls ultimately swept the series, but the Nets' valiant effort suggested a team on the rise in the East.

1998-99: Marbury Trade is Silver Lining

The Nets had the NBA's highest-scoring duo, the league-leader in steals and one of the top rebounders in the game. But, due in large part to injuries and a slow start to the lockout-shortened season, New Jersey finished 16-34 and missed the playoffs.
New Jersey struggled to a 3-17 start under coach John Calipari, but the team rallied to go 13-17 after Don Casey took the reins. The Nets were particularly strong at the end of the season, winning 11 of their last 21 games. Stephon Marbury averaged 36.5 points in the final four games, including a career-high 41 against Milwaukee in the season finale.

The Nets acquired Marbury on March 11 in a three-team, eight-player blockbuster that sent Sam Cassell from New Jersey to Milwaukee. Marbury averaged 23.4 points and 8.7 assists in 31 games with the Nets, and for the season he posted 21.3 points and 8.9 assists per game.

Keith Van Horn (21.8 ppg) and Marbury were fifth and eighth, respectively, in the NBA's scoring race. Marbury was third in assists and Kendall Gill was tops in the NBA with 2.68 steals per game.

Gill was also the only Net to play all 50 games. Injuries hit New Jersey's centers the hardest, as Jayson Williams (20 games), Rony Seikaly (38) and Jim McIlvaine (27) all missed significant time. Williams sustained a season-ending broken leg on April 1. He was the NBA's second-leading rebounder (12.0 rpg) at the time.

Injuries also affected the point guard rotation. Because of a sprained ankle, Cassell only played four games before being traded. Backup Eric Murdock missed 35 games with knee and groin injuries.

1999-2000: Marbury and Gill Reach Milestones

During the 1999-2000 season, Stephon Marbury dished out his 2,000th assist and Kendall Gill scored his 10,000th career point, but the team finished 31-51 and missed the playoffs for a second consecutive year.
To say that the New Jersey Nets season was an emotional roller coaster ride would be a vast understatement. After starting the season at 2-15 - a franchise record low - few thought the team would ever come close to making the playoffs. But they did. And though the team fell short in the end, the Nets were still alive in the playoff race at the beginning of April with three weeks left in the season. Once again, injuries hurt the team down the stretch. After the first week of April, the team was without their leading scorer and assist man, Stephon Marbury (knee), tough rookie Evan Eschmeyer (ankle), and starting shooting guard Kerry Kittles (knee).

The Nets were officially eliminated from playoff contention on April 7 after a 103-85 loss to the Miami Heat. The team lost their final 11 games of the year.

Stephon Marbury led the team in scoring (22.2 ppg) and Kendal Gill led the team in total steals (139), ranking him ninth in the league.

2000-01: Marbury voted an All-Star; No. 1 pick proves worthy

In his NBA head-coaching debut, Byron Scott certainly did not have the type of season he had hoped for. Injuries hampered the team right out of the gate, having to start the season without three of their players (Kerry Kittles, Jamie Feick and Keith Van Horn). From there, the chemistry of the team fluctuated as they tried to make adjustments each time a new player was injured. The team finished with a 26-56 record and missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season.
Individually, rookie Kenyon Martin was outstanding in his NBA debut and point guard Stephon Marbury was voted to the All-Star Team for the first time in his career. Reserves like veteran Johnny Newman and Lucious Harris stepped up in their roles as starters, while sophomore Evan Eschmeyer showed great effort at his starting center position. But the injury quotient (345 games lost to injury) provided distraction and disruption, depriving Coach Scott of a consistent, healthy lineup. The potential success of a team that featured Marbury, Van Horn, Martin and Kittles was never able to materialize.

2001-02: Nets go all the way to the NBA Finals

The New Jersey Nets experienced a franchise-best season during their 2001-02 campaign. With a club-record 52-win season, the Nets were Atlantic Division Champions and Eastern Conference Champions and made their first appearance in the NBA Finals. The good fortune began with the trade for All-Star point guard Jason Kidd in July 2001 and escalated from there.
Sophomore Kenyon Martin continued to show why he was a number one draft pick the season before, while rookie Richard Jefferson caught the attention of many with his excellent play during his first year. Jason Kidd moved into the NBA's top 5 list of all-time for triple-doubles. Kidd finished the regular season with 46.

After defeating Indiana, Charlotte and Boston, respecitvely, the New Jersey Nets lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. Even with the loss, 2001-02 was a magical season and will go down in Nets history as the best ever.

2002-03: Nets make consecutive trip to NBA Finals

For a second consecutive season, the New Jersey Nets found themselves in the NBA Finals. The Nets swept both the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons before falling 4-2 to the San Antonio Spurs in the Championship round.
Despite their loss in the Finals, New Jersey celebrated another successful season, winning 49 games. Sophomore Richard Jefferson emerged as a rising young star in his starting role at small forward, while Kenyon Martin continued to be one of the most dominant power forwards in the East. The team leader, Jason Kidd, was his usual magnificent self, guiding his team all the way to the Finals.

The team was never able to experience the impact of newly acquired Dikembe Mutombo after the center injured his wrist early on and missed the majority of the regular season. Regardless, the Nets were able to stay atop the Eastern Conference and finished just one win short of the best record in the East.