Opinion

Nets only moving back to where they belong

Eric McErlain Sports Blogger
Font Size:

As the New Jersey Nets fold up shop in the Garden State after 35 years and head back to New York, I think it’s worth the effort to take a look at how and why the franchise wound up playing in New Jersey in the first place.

The Nets were originally members of the American Basketball Association. A charter member of that renegade league created in 1967, the team was originally supposed to be called the New York Americans and play its games on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. When last-minute complications arose with their original home venue, the team was forced to relocate first to New Jersey and then to Long Island, where they changed their name to the Nets.

Eventually, the Nets moved into Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum in 1972. The Nets would call that arena home while they won a pair of ABA titles (1974 and 1976) behind Julius Erving, a true hometown hero who grew up in Hempstead, New York, only a few minutes’ drive from the Coliseum. But once the ABA and the National Basketball Association (NBA) merged in the summer of 1976, the wheels just about came off the bus for the Nets.

Before being allowed to officially join the league, the Nets were required to pay $3.2 million for the privilege. Over and above that, however, the team was also required to pony up an additional $4.8 million for violating the territorial rights of the New York Knicks. Like most ABA franchises, the Nets were cash-strapped, and hardly had enough money to pay the $3.2 million to enter the NBA, never mind another $4.8 million to placate the Knicks.

Looking to do a deal in order to keep control of his team, Nets owner Roy Boe offered to trade Erving to the Knicks to satisfy the debt. In one of the worst decisions in sports history, the Knicks said no. The Nets eventually sold Dr. J. to the Philadelphia 76ers in order to pay off the Knicks. While the 76ers would eventually win an NBA title with Erving in the lineup, the Nets quickly crashed to the bottom of the league in their first season. Attendance and revenues cratered too, forcing Boe to move the team back to New Jersey in time for the start of the 1977 NBA season.

Granted, Brooklyn is not much like the Long Island suburbs the Nets called home in the 1970s. Most Nets fans from New York have obviously moved on, but for someone like me who grew up rooting for them, seeing them return to New York seems like some sort of cosmic justice. So, as much as I might like Chris Christie, I for one am more than happy to see them return to New York. After 35 years, I’ve got my basketball team back, even though Dr. J. is long gone.

Eric McErlain blogs at Off Wing Opinion, a Forbes “Best of the Web” winner. In 2006 he wrote a “bloggers bill of rights” to help integrate bloggers into the Washington Capitals’ press box. Eric has also written for Deadspin, NBC Sports and the Sporting News, and covers sports television for The TV News. Follow Eric on Twitter.