50 Years of Nets History

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On Oct. 23, 1967, the Brooklyn Nets franchise played its first game as the New Jersey Americans. A Brooklyn basketball junkie who was friendly with coach Max Zaslofsky and several players, Herb Turetzky was asked shortly before tip-off to serve as official scorer. As the franchise celebrates its 50th anniversary, Turetzky remains the official scorer, working the table at Barclays Center every game. Over the course of the season, we’ll check in with Herb for a Q&amp;A of his memories of significant moments in franchise history.

In this edition, we look back at the 2002-03 season. After their breakthrough run to the NBA Finals, the Nets traded starters Keith Van Horn and Todd MacCulloch to Philadelphia for Dikembe Mutombo. That cleared room in the starting lineup for second-year forward Richard Jefferson. The Nets returned to the NBA Finals, winning 10 straight playoff games before dropping Game 1 against the Spurs. San Antonio went on to win the series, 4-2, erasing a fourth-quarter Nets lead in Game 6 at the Meadowlands.

What was it like on opening night in 2002 when they raised the conference championship banner?

We had people. We had gotten used to having people in the stands. It was nice. It was also warmer. When you have people in the stands the whole building gets warmer and it was easier. The fans have always been good people. They gravitate to the players, they gravitate to everybody working with the team. We get to know who they are. It was always nice. Here we have Mr. Whammy. We had other people back then who were at every game. 

What impact did Richard Jefferson have moving into the starting lineup?

I loved his athleticism. When he came in as a rookie you could see he was special. His body was right. He was a prototypical small forward. But he was only 6-5, 6-6. Now your prototypical small forward is 6-9. His shot wasn’t as good the first year as it got to be the second year. It became more dependable. He always made the right cuts. He had a good background from high school to college at Arizona as to what to do. And he stayed with the program. He wasn’t someone who looked to be a star. He wanted to be part of it. With Jason (Kidd) running it, life is easy. 

Was it a different vibe around the team that year?

A little more confident. There was more that was expected. They’d been to the Finals. They were no longer deer looking at a car’s headlights. They were expected to win games. I don’t think they expected necessarily to get to the Finals again. They expected to be competitive. And they were.

What happened in the Finals against San Antonio?

San Antonio was a good team. They were beatable. They really were. That was also the year I felt that Jason should have been the MVP. He came in second to (Tim) Duncan. I didn’t think it was right. I felt we had a chance. When we were 3-2 going into Game 6 and we had them on the ropes in the fourth quarter. I think it was maybe a 16-0 run, it broke my heart. I was looking forward to Game 7, going home and watching that and seeing what we could do with that. It didn’t happen.

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Nets History with Herb: Back to the Finals in 2003

In this edition, we look back at the six players that have had their jersey numbers retired by the franchise: Julius Erving, John Williamson, Drazen Petrovic, Bill Melchionni, Buck Williams and Jason Kidd. Herb offers his recollections of seeing these legends up close.

Dr. J literally changed the game of basketball. He was a transition between Elgin Baylor, Hawk (Connis Hawkins). The way he did it was so graceful. Such class and style. And those are the only words I can think of. Everything he did was right. And he was in control of everything; of everything he had to do and he was in control of every player he was with. They revered him. And no one would ever do anything he didn’t want done. Every night with him was like being on a road trip with the Rolling Stones. He gave you something different every single night. You knew what he was going to do. He knew what he was going to do. And as he was doing it, he changed it. The hands, the fingers allowed him to do such things with the ball. And the air time he spent up there was just amazing. The 3-point shot he developed over those years made it even easier, so he didn’t have to work quite as hard. And when he wanted to get 15 rebounds a night, he got 15 rebounds a night. There was really nothing he couldn’t do.

The most confident player I’d ever seen. More so even than Doc. Soup believed that nothing could stop him and that if the situation needed something, he’d get it done. And that’s what happened in the fourth quarter (of Game 6 of the ABA Finals). Doc was great. But Soup just went off. But that’s how he was in life. The story is true: he invented the name Super John. It wasn’t given to him. He called himself Super John. He believed no one could stop him. And as strong as he was, there really were very few people who could. He had no problem just blowing right through someone to go to the basket. And he had a little bit of grace. He had that step-back at the foul line with the left foot up, like a climb the ladder move, and he was really very good at it. Very few guys had that with his size.

The side name of the book they put out last year on him was the Mozart of basketball. That’s really what he was. He was like a composer out there. I’ve seen tapes of him when he was younger and the development he showed and the work he put in, it was his career from when he was 12 years old. And it was going to be his career for the rest of his life. He worked very hard. Nothing came easy. He had to work very, very hard. His game was to put the ball in the basket. He wasn’t a great defender. He was a good passer, he was a good ball-handler, not great. He could penetrate and take the bang as much as anybody.

He was on the ’67 championship team with the Sixers. He was a great college player. Very fluid, very smooth, very smart. Again, a great guy. He fit in perfectly. Billy could find open people. He was a good shooter; he wasn’t a great shooter. But he was able to get by. He was very slight —6-2, maybe 175 pounds. He didn’t take banging well. Terrific passer, very solid ball-handler.

Consummate worker. Talk about a blue-collar worker; that was Buck. With his lunch pail every night. And he knew why he was there. And he worked, and he worked and he worked. Every off-season he went home and he would come back with a new offensive move. Right-handed jump hook. Left-handed jump hook. A 12-foot bank jumper from the right side. Never did something he couldn’t do well. He wasn’t taking an 18-foot jump shoot and look silly doing it. And he sure wasn’t taking a 3-pointer. But he perfected his art. As a rebounder he was really as good as they come. He knew the angles to play, the people to bang, and how to get to where he wanted to be.

He had an uncanny knack for what had to be done to get the ball in the basket. Not by his hands, by somebody else’s. And he was with a group of guys that could run that floor with him like a herd of deer. And they knew if they would get open, he was going to find them. Richard Jefferson, Kerry Kittles, Kenyon Martin, later on Vince Carter. Even Jason Collins got down the floor. He had an uncanny knack for finding them in the right spots. And the ball came just at the right time. He was for that one stretch of time what Russell Westbrook is now, Mr. Triple Double. You expected it. He had such big strong hands. It was very hard for someone to take the ball away from him. When he got his hands on the ball, it was like putting a vice on it. Like a plumber on a construction job with a big wrench. When Jason got his wrench on it, no one’s getting it away from him. He rebounded, a 6-4 guard, very strong. He wasn’t particularly fast, but very quick. 

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Nets History with Herb: Jerseys in the Rafters

In this edition, we look back at the franchise’s first season. Trucking magnate Arthur Brown was running an AAU team called the ABC Freighters when the ABA launched. Brown took the New York franchise in the new league, and hired his ABC Freighters coach, former St. John’s and NBA star Max Zaslofsky, as coach. Unable to secure a home court in the city, though, the team played its first season in New Jersey’s Teaneck Armory. Former Thomas Jefferson HS and St. John’s star Tony Jackson led the Americans in scoring. Yogi Berra tossed up the first ball at the opening game. Joe Namath came to see buddy Art Heyman, the former Duke All American guard who was partners in Namath’s bar, Bachelors III. And at the end of every game, the players rushed for the showers — sometimes fighting over them — before the hot water ran out. The inaugural season ended with a forfeited tie-breaker game that cost the Americans a playoff spot.

What did you think when you heard this new league was starting up?

I thought it was great. Because we grew up watching these guys play in tournaments at the Brownsville Boys Club. The Easter tournaments at the Brownsville Boys Club were incredible. You had all the fellas who had played college ball, played Eastern League ball, some NBA veterans, and they were all playing. As kids we would sit there in the stands and watch them play and it was fantastic. We knew all of them. And the ABA really started with mostly Eastern League players, guys who played in these tournaments. They were second chance guys who were thrilled to get a chance to play. They were playing in the Eastern League, $50, $100 a game. Now if they were lucky they might get twice that … if the checks would clear. But they had a chance to play. Instead of driving to every game they would bus it, sometimes they would even fly. It was exciting. And having known most of the guys, we couldn’t wait to see it because we were basketball junkies.

What do you remember about Arthur Brown? What was your impression of him?

Had a beautiful Rolls Royce. Parked it outside of the Teaneck Armory at every game. He was a man who had money. And he treated the game as if it were a pro operation. There was no press room there so they used the officer’s club upstairs at the armory. And they outfitted it every night after the game — it wasn’t before the games like we have here — but after the game every event, it was almost like going to an affair, bar mitvah, Sweet 16. Hot and cold stations. Waiters. Open bar. And so we were up there after the games with writers, with players, with friends. It was a great place to go to.

Max was a little bit of a character. He had led the BAA in scoring in ’45-46 right before the NBA officially became. And he was good. I saw Max he was shooting baskets at the boys club. He was a great shooter. He was a good guy. He wasn’t full of himself, because basketball wasn’t what it is now. They weren’t making a lot of money playing. There was no place to get it. So he would work wherever he could. He worked for Arthur Brown’s company. Arthur Brown liked to hire former players. In later years Max worked for the Syms clothing company, because again Syms liked to hire former athletes. But Max was a good guy. His wife Elaine was very nice. He had a daughter, Joanne, who was our age. We became friendly with her, and his son was Jeffrey. We spent time with them.

How was the atmosphere that first season?

The stands were basically empty. If we got 500 to 1,000 people each night, it was a good crowd. They were sitting on movable chairs and the bleachers they just put up for each game. The armory was a vast building. It housed tanks and trucks. It was huge. And they put the court down. I think it was the old Boston Garden court that they had gotten. Lot of empty space around it. You look past the basket you see 200 feet beyond it because they only put stands on one side. They didn’t really build up a fan base, because they weren’t winning either.

Tony Jackson, up until the evolution of Ray Allen and, my goodness Stephen Curry, Tony Jackson was the purest jump shooter I’ve ever seen in my life. In high school at Madison Square Garden in the playoffs, he scored 54 against New Utrecht one game. John Condon was announcing the game. He would go, ‘Tony Jackson … ah, that’s him again. That’s him again. Another one by TJ.’ He was that good. At St. John’s as a sophomore he joined a team that had four senior starters — Alan Seidman, Gus Alfieri, who was Kenny Atkinson’s high school coach, Lou Roethel and Dick Engert. They were a good team. Tony came in and they became an All American team. Tony was the MVP of the Holiday Festival at the Garden. He was the MVP of the NIT at the Garden, which at that point was the biggest tournament in the country. St. John’s won both of those. Tony became a first team All American for two years. He could shoot from the deep corner — there were no three-pointers in those years — but he could shoot it from as deep as you could do it. His release on his jump shot, he was off the ground about three feet before he let it go. And squared to the basket every time. He wasn’t much of a driver to the basket; he didn’t like getting hit. But Tony could shoot the ball. I’ve seen very few; Ray Allen, and now Steph Curry. Beyond that I’ve never seen anyone who was as good a jump shooter.

What happened with the forfeited tie-breaker at the end of the season?

We went to Commack Arena for the playoff game. We tied the Colonels for the last playoff spot. We got to the arena in Commack. The floor was horrible. I recall seeing holes in the floor that were big enough for guys’ feet to fit into. They studied it for about an hour-and-a-half. (Commissioner) George Mikan was there. I was on the phone … we tried to get coach (Lou) Carnesecca at St. John’s to see if somehow we could switch the game to St. John’s to get over there. Coach wasn’t in and we couldn’t find anybody to give us clearance for the arena. We wound up where Mikan finally said we had to forfeit.

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Nets History with Herb: The First Season

Brooklyn Nets

Prior to the 1973-74 season, the Nets acquired Julius Erving. Dr. J had left the University of Massachusetts after his junior season two years earlier, signing with the Virginia Squires. After he led the league in scoring in 1972-73 with 31.9 points per game, Erving was traded to the Nets, primarily for cash considerations. Over the next three years Erving won three ABA MVP awards and led the Nets to two ABA championships, including the league’s final title in 1976. Two days before the Nets’ first NBA season was to begin in 1976, Erving was sold to the Philadelphia 76ers.

What was your impression of Julius Erving when you first saw him with Virginia before he came to the Nets?

He wanted to come to the Nets from UMass. Coach (Lou) Carnesecca wouldn’t do that. He felt it was wrong. He didn’t agree with that. He felt it was against the regulations. He was a college coach, felt he belonged in college for the four years. So he went to Virginia. I remember seeing him and he reminded a lot of the inner city players that I had grown up watching at the Brownsville tournaments, at St. John’s recreation center, up in Rucker Park. The difference was, he had the biggest hands I’ve ever seen. And he would hold the ball and glide through the air with it. He was Baryshnikov in shorts. Every game I’m watching was like going to a circus. Because he did something different every night. Whenever they were on the road every city they went to they were like the Rolling Stones on tour. But it was all to see Doc. He had to have a press conference before every city. He was eloquent, he was well-spoken. He was reverent. He knew what was right and what wasn’t right. He handled himself perfectly.

When the Nets acquired Julius, this was a big deal?

He was special. That was ’73. That was the year (Super John Williamson) and Larry Kenon were rookies. They blended with him so well. Soup didn’t play much the first week or two of the season. We lost a few games. And he went to Kevin Loughery and he said to him ‘coach, you got to start me.’ Kevin took a shot, they won three or four in a row and they stayed with him. John and Billy Mel, they were great together. Kenon, they tried to play him off as Mr. K. It really didn’t work. Dr. J was Dr. J. Larry was his own person. He wasn’t the showman that Doc was. He had some of the same skills. He had a long, lengthy body. Had big hands. He could shoot the ball highly extended. He could jump. But he wasn’t the showman that Doc was. He got things done. He was a very good complement. But he wasn’t Doc. No one was Doc. Doc was the best player in the game no matter what league he was in. He was the best out there. And every night he gave the fans what they came to see. And he loved being with the fans. Had no problem talking to people, signing autographs and answering questions. Whatever it was.

Is there one special memory you have of Julius Erving?

It’s not on the court. After the last game, ’76, we beat Denver. The players were very jubilant. Nobody knew what was happening. Nobody knew what the future was. The league was unstable. We’d gotten down to seven teams. Were we going to be playing again in September, October, no one was sure. We’re in the locker room, champagne all around, everyone’s happy. And they put me into the showers in my red blazer, my attaché, standing there getting soaking wet. I was starting to get upset, but all of a sudden I looked in front of me and down on the floor, leaning against the wall with the water running on him was Doc. I said, ‘Doc, what’s up?’ He said, ‘No one can come in here and bother me right now. I’m just gonna relax.’ And for about five or eight minutes, I stood under the water, he sat down on the floor, and we talked about what we had just been through. Winning the game. Might be the last ABA game ever.

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Nets History with Herb: Dr. J

In this edition, we look back at the franchise’s move to Brooklyn. After 35 years in New Jersey, the Nets tipped off a new era at Barclays Center on November 3, 2012. The Nets won their Brooklyn debut against the Toronto Raptors, 107-100 and finished the inaugural season in Brooklyn with a 49-33 record.

When the idea of moving to Brooklyn first came out, what did you think?

I was convinced, when I heard that we were moving to Newark, that that was going to be the end of my career. I was not going to add the extra 15 or 20 minutes on to go to Newark. And then came word that Newark was a two-year deal and after Newark was Brooklyn. I was like the horse that had a carrot in front of him. My ears perked up, my face lit up in a smile, and I could not think of retiring before coming home to Brooklyn. To me, it was the greatest thing ever. Even now, we drive in every day and every night coming here I smile. It’s romantic, thinking of where we’re going. Seeing the changes in the borough, as we’re driving through Williamsburg and Greenpoint and down Flatbush Avenue. New high rises. New restaurants. This is about eight or nine subway stops from where I grew up as a kid. If this was ever here when we were young, it would have been the greatest thing in the world.

What was you reaction when you first saw the new arena?

I thought the building was terrific. It was a little different styling. We walked in and the people that we met right away, all so warm. The people that work in this building, they’re like your neighbors. They’re young people from Brooklyn, different neighborhoods, and they’re all as warm as could be. They treat us, (my wife) Jane and myself, like we’re the king and queen of the building. 

Last year I did my 1,300th straight game. It’s nice, 1,300 straight games is a lot. Two games later we were leaving the arena and Jane says to me, we have to wait over here for a minute. So I wait, and about five minutes later the stands emptied out. Seven ushers came down to see me after the game.  They presented me with a plaque thanking me for my dedication to the Nets, the people who help me in and out of chairs, move things around. They brought a plaque to thank me for doing 1,300 straight games. That’s the kind of people that work here.

What was opening night like for the first game in Brooklyn?

It brought me back to the beginning as to how it felt that October night in 1967. It really has brought me back and added years to my career.

The fans were having a great time. They’re cheering and they’re rooting for our guys. We’ve had some games that light the place up. The Joe Johnson game winners, you can’t beat those. We had those in Jersey and a few guys did them, the Jason Kidd nights. Being in Brooklyn is the key.

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Nets History with Herb: Hello Brooklyn

The 1970s opened with two major additions to the Nets franchise. Lou Carnesecca arrived as head coach and the team acquired Rick Barry.

At 22 years old, Barry had been the NBA’s leading scorer with 35.6 points per game before jumping to the ABA. But he’d had to sit out one season in a legal battle, played one year in Oakland before the team relocated to Washington, D.C., and now he was a Net.

“His shooting skills were tremendous,” said Herb Turetzky, then and now the Nets’ official scorer. “He could jump, rebound, pass beautifully. And again, for the red, white and blue ball, perfect. Perfect form and rotation. To watch that ball go off of his hands was magic.”

Barry is still the franchise’s career leader in scoring average with 30.6 points per game in his two years with the Nets before he jumped back to the NBA. In 1971-72 Barry and Carnesecca led the team to the ABA finals, where they lost to the Indiana Pacers in six games. That same season, the Nets left Island Garden to move into the brand-new Nassau Coliseum.

After that, Barry was gone. When the team dropped to 30-54 the following year, so was Carnesecca, back to St. John’s.

The team rebounded quickly under Kevin Loughery, the longest-tenured coach in team history with seven-plus seasons. With the acquisition of ABA scoring leader Julius Erving and rookies John Williamson and Larry Kenon, the Nets won 55 games and their first ABA title, defeating the Utah Stars in five games.

Erving led the league in scoring and went on to win three ABA MVP awards with the Nets. In 1974-75, the team won a franchise-record 58 games, but was upset in the playoffs by the Spirits of St. Louis. The Nets retooled for the 1975-76 season, dealing off Kenon and Billy Paultz.

“The key guys were really Soup (Super John Williamson) and Doc,” said Turetzky. “It was his game. Kevin would just give it to Doc to go. The second play was LA-23. That was Soup. John, you just take the ball and do what you want to do. One on one, it was his ball. That’s how they did it.”

As the Nets charged toward their second ABA title in 1975-76, the league was crumbling around them. Two of the 10 teams folded before the season began; another dropped out during the year.

As he had two years earlier, Erving turned in an epic playoff performance. He averaged 37.7 points in the six-game championship series win against the Denver Nuggets. The Nets came back from 22 points down in the second half to clinch Game 6, with Williamson scoring 24 points in the second half and 16 in the fourth quarter.

During the finals, Virginia folded, leaving six ABA teams. Four of them — the Nets, Pacers, Spurs and Nuggets — were accepted into the NBA.

The Nets fortified themselves for the new challenge with the acquisition of point guard Tiny Archibald, who a few years earlier had led the NBA in both scoring and assists. But just days before the season opener, with owner Roy Boe facing huge costs due to the NBA and the Knicks, the Nets sold Erving to Philadelphia.

“We had a team that as it was structured then if it had gone to the NBA, we were a competitive team,” said Turetzky. “We could have fought for a championship with the Celtics and the other people. Until we traded Doc.”

Archibald was limited to 34 games with an ankle injury, Williamson was traded to Indiana, and the Nets finished 22-60 in their first NBA season, which was also their last on Long Island.

On their way to New Jersey’s Rutgers Athletic Center, the Nets grabbed Bernard King in the first round of the 1977 NBA Draft. The only Hall of Famer drafted by the franchise was the Nets’ first NBA draft pick.

King averaged 24.2 points as a rookie and 21.6 the following year before being traded to Utah. Williamson was reacquired and averaged 29.5 points in 33 games in 1977-78. But the Nets did not crack .500 in their first three NBA seasons. Midway through the 1979-80 season, Williamson, the last link to the ABA championship team who averaged 17.8 points in his Nets career over parts of seven seasons, was traded away.

The Doctor transformed the franchise when he arrived before the 1973-74 season. Over his three seasons with the Nets, Erving led the ABA in scoring twice, averaged 28.2 points, 10.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.3 steals and 2.1 blocks per game, and won three ABA MVP awards. He led the Nets to ABA championships in 1974 and 1976, with epic playoff performances in both years. Over 16 seasons in the ABA and NBA, Erving averaged 24.2 points and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993.

The ferocious guard was called “Super John” and he was an explosive wingman to Dr. J on two ABA championship teams. A rookie in 1974, his dominant second half helped the Nets rally to clinch the title against Denver in 1976. The last player from the 1976 ABA champions to play a game for the Nets, Williamson averaged 17.8 points for the team over parts of seven seasons.

The Hall of Famer was maybe the biggest NBA star to jump to the ABA in its earliest days, leaving the San Francisco Warriors to sign with the Oakland Oaks. Acquired prior to the 1970-71 season, Barry played two seasons for the Nets and is the franchise’s career leader in scoring average with 30.6 points per game. After leading the Nets to the 1972 ABA finals, Barry returned to the NBA, winning the 1975 NBA title with the Warriors.

The ABA Rookie of the Year after averaging 15.3 points per game in 1973, Brian Taylor played four seasons with the Nets, winning two ABA titles and earning All-Star Game selections in the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons. Taylor led the league in steals with 2.8 per game in 1975. He averaged 14.0 points per game with the Nets before being dealt in the Tiny Archibald trade before the 1976-77 season. Taylor played in the NBA through the 1981-82 season.

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The 70s: Dr. J and Dynasty Days

The first season in Nets franchise history started with Yogi Berra tossing up a red, white and blue ball at an old armory in New Jersey and ended with a forfeit on Long Island.

Yogi and the basketball were part of the plan. The Teaneck Armory, the forfeited game and a lot of other things that happened in between? Not so much.

The 1967-68 season tipped off a nine-year journey in the ABA before the franchise became one of four teams accepted into the NBA. Over the final few years of the ABA, the New York Nets became one of the league’s most stable franchises, a signature team led by Julius Erving.

But in the first few years in the 1960s, the franchise had the same shifting foundation and uncertain future as the rest of the teams in the upstart league. Over its first three seasons, the franchise had two owners, three home courts and 50 different players.

The story starts with the home court they never got to play on. Trucking magnate Arthur J. Brown was running an AAU team called the ABC Freighters when the ABA launched. Brown took the New York franchise in the new league, and hired his ABC Freighters coach, former St. John’s and NBA star Max Zaslofsky, as coach. But when a plan to play at Manhattan’s 69th Regiment Armory fell through, Brown had to take his team — now the New Jersey Americans — to play at the Teaneck Armory.

The inaugural season tipped off on Oct. 23, 1967, with a 110-107 loss to the Pittsburgh Pipers. The roster included former St. John’s stars Tony Jackson and Bob McIntyre and Rutgers’ Bobby Lloyd. Dan Anderson, out of tiny Augsburg College, scored 41 points in the first game. There was also Art Heyman, a former college player of the year at Duke who had lasted a few seasons in the NBA. Levern “Jelly” Tart was a fan favorite who was acquired at midseason and played parts of the first four seasons with the Nets.

“The ABA really started with mostly Eastern League players,” said Herb Turetzky, who has been the team’s official scorer for 50 years, since that very first game. “They were second-chance guys who were thrilled to get a chance to play. They were playing in the Eastern League, $50, $100 a game. Now if they were lucky they might get twice that … if the checks would clear. But they had a chance to play.”

Jackson was the team’s leading scorer in the first season, averaging 19.4 points per game. A two-time All-American at St. John’s out of Brooklyn’s Thomas Jefferson HS, Jackson’s association with early-60s gambling scandals had kept him out of the NBA, much like ABA stars Connie Hawkins and Roger Brown.

“He could shoot it from as deep as you could do it,” said Turetzky. “His release on his jump shot, he was off the ground about three feet before he let it go. And squared to the basket every time. He wasn’t much of a driver to the basket; he didn’t like getting hit. But Tony could shoot the ball. I’ve seen very few. Ray Allen, and now Steph Curry. Beyond that I’ve never seen anyone who was as good a jump shooter.”

Over that first season, players raced each other to the showers before the hot water ran out, Lloyd and Zaslofsky fought after a game, Turetzky found himself in a mini-controversy when he accidentally shorted the Minnesota Muskies a point that Zaslofsky told him not to correct when he discovered his error, and Heyman once casually paused during a game to flip off spectator Joe Namath, his partner in the Manhattan bar Bachelors III who had come by to heckle him during the game.

“The stands were basically empty,” said Turetzky. “If we got 500 to 1,000 people each night, it was a good crowd. They were sitting on movable chairs and the bleachers they just put up for each game.”

At the end, the Americans finished 36-42 and tied with the Kentucky Colonels for the fourth and final playoff spot. A tie-breaker game was required, but the Teaneck Armory was booked. Brown set up the game at Long Island’s Commack Arena, but upon arrival the court was unplayable, with holes in the floor. Commissioner George Mikan declared the game a forfeit for Kentucky, and the inaugural season concluded.

Naturally, the team moved to Long Island the following season and made Commack Arena its home court. In the process, Brown changed the team’s name to Nets, rhyming with the Mets and Jets that called Queens’ Shea Stadium home. The Nets cycled through 27 players while finishing 17-61.

Before the 1969-70 season, the Nets acquired point guard Bill Melchionni, who had played for the Philadelphia 76ers 1967 NBA championship team. More significantly, Brown sold the team to Roy Boe, who would own the Nets for the rest of their ABA tenure. Boe moved the team to Island Garden and planned to hire St. John’s Lou Carnesecca as coach. Carnesecca wanted to wait a year, however, so York Larese coached the team to a 39-45 record and its first ABA playoff appearance, a first-round loss to Kentucky.

The Nets were into the 1970s, with a new home and new stars on the horizon.

Brooklyn’s Tony Jackson starred at Thomas Jefferson HS and went on to become a two-time All-American at St. John’s. Implicated in the early-60s gambling scandals, Jackson was barred from the NBA. He played two seasons in the American Basketball League before joining the New Jersey Americans for the inaugural ABA season. Jackson represented the Americans in the first ABA All-Star game and finished the season as the team’s leading scorer with 19.4 points per game. 

Levern “Jelly” Tart was leading the ABA in scoring for Oakland when the Americans traded for him shortly after the inaugural All-Star Game. Tart played parts of four seasons for the franchise. Traded midway through the 1968-69 season, he played all of 1969-70 and half of 1970-71 with the Nets in his final pro season. A fan favorite, Tart averaged 19.4 points per game in his four ABA seasons, including a team-leading 24.2 per game for the Nets in 1969-70.

Bill Melchionni won an NBA title with the 1967 Philadelphia 76ers team that won a then-NBA-record 67 games. He signed with the Nets before the 1969-70 season and played seven seasons with the team, eventually having his number retired. Melchionni led the ABA in assists twice and was named first team All-ABA after averaging 21.0 points and 8.4 rebounds as the Nets reached the ABA championship series in 1971-72. He won championships with the Nets in 1974 and 1976.

A star at Brooklyn’s St. Francis Prep (since moved to Queens) and St. John’s, Sonny Dove was the first draft pick in franchise history in April 1967. Selected fourth overall by the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Draft that same year, Dove played two years with Detroit before joining the Nets in 1969. He averaged 14.4 points that season and 13.5 the next before a leg injury ended his career.

the-60s-from-americans-to-nets-the-aba-journey-begins

The 60s: From Americans to Nets, the ABA Journey Begins

In this edition, we look back at the 2001-02 season. The Nets had won 26 games the year before, and over 25 seasons in the NBA had won just one playoff series. But with the offseason acquisitions of Jason Kidd and Todd MacCulloch, the return from injury of Kerry Kittles and the drafting of Richard Jefferson to go with Kenyon Martin and Keith Van Horn, the team was transformed. The Nets won 52 games and edged Indiana in the first round in an epic double-overtime win in the decisive Game 5. They went on to reach the NBA Finals, where they were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers.

The whole game changed. The way he played, hadn’t really seen it before. It was the West Coast, up-speed game. I had seen Jason in college when he was a freshman. He came in and I scored his game and he wasn’t that good. I wasn’t impressed with him. He was very special. He made the game change. He made everybody on the floor, he made every single one of them better. If Jason Kidd had a business, he would get a percentage of the money he made for all the other people in the game; Mikki Moore, Brian Scalabrine, every single one of them. It was crazy. If you could run, he was going to find you. We had guys that could run. Jefferson, Kittles, Kenyon Martin. Even “Twin,” Jason Collins, got down the floor. Some of the passes he made, it was crazy. All of a sudden it was Oscar Robertson reincarnated. A triple-double every other night, every third game. Just a common denominator. I hadn’t seen anything like it.

Did the organization feel like the team would improve that dramatically?

I don’t think anybody thought it would be that fast. They knew there would be a change. But I don’t think anybody could see how fast. It was a perfect blend of talent with personnel. They were like a herd of deer running down the floor. I loved watching it. 

What was it like watching the Game 5 win over Indiana?

Never seen a game like that. It was the greatest game I’ve ever seen. Literally ever seen, not just worked. Reggie Miller and Jason Kidd, how they were back and forth. It was the beginning of the computer game era. Reggie would make a 30-footer, Jason would drive the lane and make it. Jason would make a 28-footer, Reggie dunked to tie it. It was phenomenal. We won it and moved on to the next series. That was incredible.

The team won seven of its first eight. How fast did people seem to realize this was a pretty good team and maybe better than anybody thought?

I just remember how it was fun to watch. It was the most fun I had since ‘75-76. Watching Brian Taylor, Super John (Williamson), Doc, Larry Kenon going up and down the floor like that. These were gifted athletes with a very similar strain of athleticism that they could do that. Jason was no place near the athlete that Doc was, but his brain was incredible. He saw things two or three plays ahead. He knew it. You could see it.

When the playoffs came around, did you think they would go as far as they did?

I did. I was actually disappointed that we got swept by the Lakers. I remember in the second game in Jersey, I looked at Shaquille (O’Neal) before the game, he was a friend of mine. I put my hands up and he said, “Four.” He wouldn’t give us that third game. They just wanted to finish it up. They were so overpowering. 

What was the 2002 playoff experience like since they hadn’t gone that far in a while?

It was exciting. The crowds inside, the crowds outside. It was almost like a circus atmosphere outside the arena before the games. It was a lot of fun. I hadn’t seen it like that since ’76. The years at Rutgers were dull. The building was drab. The crowds were drab. The team, there was nothing going on. The early couple of years at the Meadowlands we were down at the bottom of the pack. Then all of a sudden here we were. We were live. And the promise of the future. This was a young team. A year or two like that, we could go five or six years and really have a dynasty, except for free agency and coaching changes and player changes. Those were all young guys.

What was it like when the Nets beat the Celtics to win the conference title?

It was run of the mill stuff at that point. They were playing so well that there was really no reason for anyone — a human team — to beat them. The Lakers unfortunately weren’t. They were really superhuman. They were loaded and they had, their agenda was very simple. Let’s get it done and move on. When they celebrated on the podium in front of our scorer’s table afterwards, it hurt to see it. They’re all good guys. I knew Shaq well, I knew Rick Fox pretty well, I knew Kobe (Bryant). They were nice fellas.