Nets Top 25

Tom Dowd

The selections for the Nets All-Time Top 25 Team were made by the author, with no input from the Brooklyn Nets organization. Selections were based on a combination of individual performance, team success and their contribution to it, and longevity with the franchise.

For the second time in the team’s history, a single trade changed everything for the Nets.

Jason Kidd’s arrival in the summer of 2001 was transformational for a team that had won just 26 games the season before. Over his 6½ seasons with the Nets, Kidd would be named to two All-NBA First Teams and one Second Team, six NBA All-Defensive Teams and five NBA All-Star games. The Nets would reach their first NBA Finals in 2001-02 and then return the following year, going on to six straight playoff appearances.

Kidd’s playmaking genius made the Nets one of the NBA’s most exciting teams, with a free-flowing, balanced offense and a dynamic transition game. He averaged 14.7 points and 9.9 assists per game in that first season – ironically the only time in a six-season span he did not lead the NBA in assists – and finished second in the NBA MVP voting.

It was apparent quickly that something was different with the Nets under Kidd’s control. They won seven of their first eight games and went on to finish 52-30 for their first Atlantic Division title.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Nets survived a best-of-five series against Reggie Miller and Pacers. The decisive Game 5 went to two overtimes before the Nets won 120-109 as Kidd scored 31 points with seven assists and eight rebounds. Wins over the Charlotte Hornets and Boston Celtics delivered Kidd’s Nets to the franchise’s first NBA Finals, where they became the final victim of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Shaq/Kobe threepeat.

Kidd’s second season with the Nets brought something the franchise hadn’t seen for much of its NBA history – great expectations. If anything, Kidd was better than he had been the year before. He increased his scoring average by four points to a career-high 18.7. His field goal, 3-point field goal and free throw percentages all rose, and he once again led the NBA in assists with 8.9 per game.

After winning their second straight division title, Kidd and the Nets peaked in the playoffs. With sweeps of the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons, they won 10 straight games going into an NBA Finals matchup with the San Antonio Spurs. In the six-game series loss, Kidd averaged 19.6 points, 7.8 assists and 6.0 rebounds with a 30-point game, a 29-point game and two double-doubles.

In 2003-04, Kidd was named to the All-NBA First Team for the second time as a Net after averaging 15.5 points and a league-leading 9.2 assists.

In 2005-06, Kidd led the Nets to their fourth division title in five years, and in 2006-07 he was named to the NBA All-Star Game for the fourth time as a Net in his final full season with the franchise.

In 506 games with the Nets, the 2018 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame selection averaged 14.6 points, 9.1 assists and 7.2 rebounds. He is the franchise’s all-time leader in assists (4,620), assists per game (9.1) and 3-point field goals (813).

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Nets All-Time Top 25: No. 1 Jason Kidd

For three seasons with the Nets, Julius Erving was more than just a franchise player. With his skywalking style and awe-inspiring dunks, the man they called Dr. J carried a league and became a cultural touchstone. He reinvented the notion of what was possible on a basketball court.

“More than any single player, though, Erving transformed what had been a horizontal game (with occasional parabolas) into a vertical exercise,” wrote Frank Deford in a Sports Illustrated retrospective at the close of Erving’s final season in 1987. “Basketball is now a much more artistic game than it was before — than any game was before — because of Julius Erving.”

The Erving legend grew on the playground at Harlem’s Rucker Park. Onlookers and announcers cycled through nicknames before Erving mentioned that friends back home on Long Island had called him “Doctor.” Before long, Dr. J. was christened.

But Erving was still little known when he turned pro out of UMass, despite averaging 20-plus points and rebounds for his college career. He tore through the ABA from the start, averaging 27.3 points and 15.7 rebounds as a rookie with the Virginia Squires, then leading the league in scoring with 31.9 points the following year.

In the summer of 1973, Erving came back to New York as a pro, traded to the Nets for forward George Carter and “a lot of cash,” according to Virginia owner Earl Foreman. While the ABA struggled to survive, Erving became its signature player, for both his substance and style.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter Carry visited with Erving in his ABA days and recalled a transcendent talent in that 1987 retrospective.

“There was never anything like the young Julius in the open court—huge strides eating up the hardwood, mammoth hands swallowing up the ball before slamming it through the hoop.”

With Erving, the Nets were transformed. After finishing 30-54 in 1972-73, they rounded into form after a tough early-season stretch, ripping off 19 wins in 22 games and closing the regular season by winning 10 of 11 to capture the ABA’s Eastern Division with a 55-29 record.

Erving won the first of three straight ABA MVP Awards after averaging a league-leading 27.4 points, 10.7 rebounds. 5.2 assists, 2.4 blocks and 2.3 steals per game. He led the Nets on a tear through the playoffs, where they won 12 of 14 games, including a five-game victory over the Utah Stars for their first ABA title.

Over his three seasons with the Nets, Erving averaged 28.2 points, 10.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.3 steals and 2.1 blocks per game. He led the team to its second title in three years – and the ABA’s final championship – in 1976, averaging 37.7 points in the finals and 34.7 over 13 playoff games. The final game in ABA history was also Erving’s last as a Net. The merger with the NBA and Erving’s sale to the Philadelphia 76ers in the days before the start of the 1976-77 season marked the end of an era.

“Erving’s valedictory, the ’76 series in which he led his New York Nets past the Denver Nuggets for the league’s final championship, may be the least-seen great achievement in sports,” wrote Alexander Wolff in Sports Illustrated in 1994.

Erving would go on to be named NBA MVP in 1981 and win an NBA title in 1983. He was named to the All-NBA first team five times and led the Sixers to four NBA Finals appearances. An all-time great in any league or any uniform, the legend of Dr. J is crystalized with a red, white &amp; blue ball and star-spangled jersey, soaring to the rim.

“What people call the show, well, that’s the best way I can see to get the bucket,” Erving told Sports Illustrated during the 1976 ABA championship series. “I’ve been doing it all my life, and I say when something works, don’t change it.”

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Nets All-Time Top 25: No. 2 Julius Erving

Over his first six seasons as a Net, Buck Williams missed a game.

If Julius Erving etched his Nets legend soaring through the air, Charles Linwood “Buck” Williams built his with rugged reliability and dogged persistence, leaving a greater impact on the franchise than any other player the team has drafted in its four decades in the NBA.

Nearly 30 years after his Nets tenure ended with a trade to Portland, where he helped the Trail Blazers reach two NBA Finals in three seasons, Williams remains etched in premier spots atop the franchise’s career leaderboards. He remains the Nets’ franchise leader in games played (635) and rebounds (7,576) and is second in points (10,440), with his name and No. 52 etched on a well-deserved banner in the Barclays Center rafters.

From the moment the Nets drafted him third overall out of the University of Maryland in 1981, Williams was the franchise’s indispensable foundation.

At Maryland, he had twice been named All-ACC, and was selected for the 1980 U.S. Olympic basketball team that lost its chance to play for the gold with the boycott of the Moscow games.

For the Nets, he played 34.5 minutes per game as a rookie, averaging 15.5 points and 12.3 rebounds per game, earning the first of three NBA All-Star Game selections and taking home the league’s Rookie of the Year Award.

With Williams’ arrival, the Nets made their second NBA playoff appearance in 1982 after reaching the postseason just once in their first five years in the league. It was the first of five straight playoff appearances, and in 1984 they knocked out the defending champion Philadelphia 76ers.

Following his second season, when he averaged 17.0 points and a career-high 12.5 rebounds per game while shooting 58.8 percent from the field, Williams was named to the All-NBA Second Team.

Each year, Williams added a new piece to his offensive game, and his production rose steadily, peaking at a career-high 18.3 points per game during the 1987 season. Everything else about his game was rock-solid reliable. He averaged 12-plus rebounds per game in each of his first six seasons until 1987-88 – when he averaged 11.9. Williams never shot lower than 52 percent from the field as a Net and never averaged fewer than 33 minutes per game in a season, playing in all but 21 games the Nets played over his eight years.

In 1988 he earned his first NBA All-Defensive Team honor, with Second Team recognition.

In his eight seasons with the Nets, Williams averaged 16.4 points and 11.9 rebounds while shooting 55 percent from the field in 36.4 minutes per game. He has six of the top 10 single-season field goal percentage marks in team history.

With the Portland Trail Blazers, he went on to earn three more NBA All-Defensive Team honors, with two First Team selections, and play in two NBA Finals. He retired following the 1997-98 season.

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Nets All-Time Top 25: No. 3 Buck Williams

The stunning mid-season acquisition of Vince Carter in December 2004 brought one of the NBA’s elite scorers and most entertaining stars to the Nets right smack in his prime.

Energized by the trade, Carter took off on a tear, averaging 27.5 points for the Nets in 57 games through the end of the season. It turned out to be the highest single-season scoring average for a Net in the franchise’s NBA era – and Carter would go on the notch a few more spots on that list before his time was done. He’s got the top three marks with 25.2 points per game in 2006-07 and 24.2 points per game in 2005-06.

In that 2005-06 season, Carter teamed with Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson to form a dynamic perimeter trio that led the Nets back to the Atlantic Division title with a 49-33 record, tied for the second-best mark in the team’s NBA history.

Carter never averaged fewer than 20 points per game in his four-plus seasons with the Nets before being traded to Orlando after the 2008-09 season. He represented the team in three NBA All-Star Games, and over 374 games averaged 23.6 points – the third highest mark in team history and No. 1 during the NBA era – along with 5.8 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.

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Nets All-Time Top 25: No. 4 Vince Carter

No other player has had a Nets career quite like Brook Lopez, who bridged eras during a transitional time for the franchise to became the face of the team and a signature player in Nets history.

Lopez’s nine seasons with the team are the most of any player in franchise history, although due to injuries that cost him most of two seasons Buck Williams remains ahead of him in total games played. In his final game as a Net though, a 25-point effort against the Boston Celtics, Lopez did eclipse Williams as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, finishing with 10,444 points as a Net.

Drafted 10th overall out of Stanford in 2008, Lopez made a strong impression as a rookie, stepping right into the starting lineup and averaging 13.0 points and 8.1 rebounds and shooting 53 percent to earn a spot on the NBA All-Rookie First Team. With the trade of Vince Carter that season, Lopez moved into a leading man role for his second season and averaged 18.8 points, though the team struggled to a 12-70 record.

In his third season, as the Nets left the Meadowlands for the Prudential Center and the second of Lopez’s three home arenas as a Net, he upped his average again to 20.4 points, starting all 82 games for the second straight year and playing all 82 for the third consecutive season. But the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season was over quickly for Lopez, who played just five games due to foot injuries.

As the Nets moved to Brooklyn for the 2012-13 season, Lopez returned in prime form, earning his only NBA All-Star Game selection before finishing the season averaging 19.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 52 percent. The very next season, though, another broken foot limited Lopez to just 17 games after he had gotten off to a scorching start with 20.6 points per game on 56-percent shooting through late December.

Lopez returned to help the Nets to their third straight playoff appearance in 2015-16, and averaged 20-plus points per game in each of his final two seasons in Brooklyn. Over nine seasons and 562 games as a Net, Lopez averaged 18.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game, shooting 50.6 percent from the field. In addition to points, he is the franchise’s all-time leader with 972 blocks and is third in franchise rebounding with 4,005.

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Nets All-Time Top 25: No. 5 Brook Lopez

Drazen Petrovic’s time with the Nets was brief, but unforgettable.

Over two-and-a-half seasons and 195 games, the sharpshooting guard lit up the Meadowlands with his scoring prowess, averaging 19.5 points per game and shooting 51.1 percent overall and 43.7 percent from 3-point range. His 3-point shooting percentage with the Nets matches his career average, which is still the third-highest in NBA history, 25 years after his last game.

When he was traded to the Nets in January 1991, Petrovic was still a bit of a mystery. He’d been drafted in the third round in 1986 and joined the Portland Trail Blazers three years later. Petrovic was a sensation in Europe, but the flow of foreign players to the NBA was still in its infancy. With the Blazers, he had averaged 7.0 points in 95 games, and played in less than half of Portland’s first 40 games to start the 1990-91 season before being traded to New Jersey.

His game quickly trended upward over the final 43 games of the season with the Nets, but it was just a taste of what was to come.

In the 1991-92 season, Petrovic broke out while playing all 82 games and leading the Nets to their first playoff appearance since 1986. He averaged 20.6 points per game while shooting 50.8 percent overall and 44.4 percent from 3-point range, second in the league.

The following year, Petrovic upped his average to 22.3 points per game, shooting 51.8 percent from the field and 44.9 percent from 3-point range, third in the NBA. He scored a career-high 44 points against the Houston Rockets on Jan. 24, 1993, making 17 of 23 shots, including all three of his 3-point attempts. At the end of the season, Petrovic was named to the All-NBA Third Team.

While visiting Germany during the summer, Petrovic was killed in a car accident at just 28 years old.

Petrovic’s time in the NBA only added to his already legendary status at home. He captured two silver medals and a bronze in Olympic competition, as well as a FIBA World Cup and FIBA EuroBasket title. He was a groundbreaker, a star leading the first influx of European players to the NBA, and in 2002 he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

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Nets All-Time Top 25: No. 6 Drazen Petrovic

Rick Barry played just two seasons for the Nets, but the Hall of Famer brought the franchise its first taste of legitimacy and success.

The 6-foot-7 forward had led the NBA in scoring with 35.6 points per game in 1966-67, his second pro season. But when he attempted to jump to the ABA, he launched a twisting five-year chapter to a storied career.

First, Barry had to sit out a season when his ABA contract was challenged in court by the Warriors. After his first season with the ABA’s Oakland Oaks, the franchise moved east and played as the Washington Capitals in 1969-70. Before the 1970-71 season, he was traded to the Nets and averaged 29.4 points in 59 games.

In 1971-72, Barry averaged 31.5 points per game while essentially never coming out of the game. He averaged 45.2 minutes per game for the season. That was the same year the Nets debuted their iconic stars &amp; stripes uniforms and moved into Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in mid-season, opening the new arena with a Feb. 11, 1972 win over the Pittsburgh Condors. Barry went for 45 that night.

Despite finishing 24 games behind the division winning Kentucky Colonels, the 44-40 Nets knocked off the favorites in the first round of the playoffs. Barry scored 50 in the playoff opener and averaged 30.7 in 18 playoff games as the Nets advanced to the ABA championship series for the first time before losing to the Indiana Pacers in six games.

After the season, Barry returned to the Warriors and the NBA. He led Golden State to the 1975 NBA championship, averaging 30.6 points for the season. He played through the end of the 1979-80 season – the final two years in Houston – before retiring.

Barry was named to the All-ABA First Team in all four seasons he played in the league and five times in the NBA, in addition to one Second Team selection. He played in the NBA or ABA All-Star Game in each of his first 12 pro seasons and holds the ABA all-time record in averaging 30.5 points per game.

For the Nets, Barry averaged a franchise career record 30.6 points per game as well as 7.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists in his two seasons.

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Nets All-Time Top 25: No. 7 Rick Barry

Rod Thorn’s first big move in the summer of 2001 wasn’t the July trade for Jason Kidd, but the draft night deal that made Richard Jefferson a Net.

Originally armed with the seventh overall pick, Thorn selected local favorite Eddie Griffin out of nearby Seton Hall University. But he sent Griffin to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Jefferson, the 13th overall pick, plus two more first-round selections: No. 18 Jason Collins and No. 23 Brandon Armstrong. While Armstrong was little-used over three seasons, Collins would join Jefferson in making a significant impact dawning Net renaissance.

The retooled Nets of the 2001-02 season featured Kidd taking over at point guard, the return of Kerry Kittles from a knee injury, and the rookie Jefferson stepping directly into a sixth-man role. Over seven seasons with the Nets, Jefferson would grow into an ideal running mate for his legendary point guard and become a star in his own right, twice averaging 20-plus points per game for a season.

After helping the Nets to their first Eastern Conference championship as a rookie, Jefferson stepped into a starting role in year two, averaging 15.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and shooting 50 percent from the field as the Nets repeated as conference champs and made their second straight NBA Finals appearance before falling to the San Antonio Spurs in six games.

The 6-foot-7 swingman continued to elevate his game, averaging 22.2 points during a 2004-05 season shortened to 33 games by a wrist injury. The following year he helped the Nets to their fourth division title in his five seasons with the team.

After averaging a career high 22.6 points per game in 2007-08, Jefferson was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. He concluded his Nets career averaging 17.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game while shooting 47.5 percent in 489 games.

Jefferson is fourth all-time in minutes played as a Net, behind only Buck Williams, Jason Kidd and Brook Lopez. He’s also fourth in total points scored with 8,507, behind Lopez, Williams and Vince Carter.