Friday, June 14, 2002
Red, white and black-and-blue Nets memories
By CHRIS SHERIDAN
AP Basketball Writer
LOS ANGELES — Back in the summer of 1976, there was a certain 11-year-old boy who was convinced his favorite team was going to conquer the NBA.
Julius Erving and the New York Nets had just won the last ABA title, the two leagues had merged and the future looked promising.
Then the unthinkable happened: Dr. J was sold to the Philadelphia 76ers.
When the Nets took the court Wednesday night for Game 1 of the NBA Finals, it marked the first time they were playing for a championship since the days when they used a red-white-and-blue basketball in the old ABA.
Misery and misfortune have defined the Nets in the 26 years since, from the banishment of Michael Ray Richardson to the death of Drazen Petrovic to the drafting of Yinka Dare to the career-ending injury to Jayson Williams.
But the Nets' decent into darkness actually began in that Bicentennial summer when the greatest basketball player of his time was sold off for $3 million. Team owner Roy Boe made the move because he needed to raise money to pay territorial indemnity costs to the New York Knicks.
“Everybody talks about the jinx of Dr. J like it's the Babe Ruth thing in Boston,” team president Rod Thorn said.
Yes, Rod, it was similar.
But to this reporter, it was even worse.
The allegiance of an 11-year-old boy cannot be measured in adult terms. At that age, the degree of devotion and hero-worship was all-encompassing.
I have no recollection of what I did on July 4 of that summer when the nation celebrated its 200th birthday, although I fondly recall the evening of Sept. 10 when I learned that my favorite team had acquired Tiny Archibald from Kansas City for Brian Taylor, Jim Eakins and a pair of No. 1 draft picks.
Tiny A. and Dr. J.
Nobody would beat the Nets.
I remember watching some program on CBS in early October when the network touted its upcoming NBA TV schedule. On opening night of the season, the Nets would be playing the Golden State Warriors live from the Cow Palace at 11:30 p.m. One month ahead of time, I asked my parents for permission to stay up late and watch it.
The previous season, that dreaded curfew had kept me from watching a quadruple-overtime 176-166 victory over the San Diego Conquistadors. Dr. J scored 63 in that game.
The curfew had been waved in the spring of '76 for Game 6 of the ABA Finals, which allowed me to listen to John Sterling (the current radio voice of the Yankees) yell and scream that the Nets had defeated the Denver Nuggets to win the title. I still remember that Rich Jones scored the last basket of that game, and the final 2 seconds were not played because the fans at Nassau Coliseum had already stormed the court.
Fast-forward to Oct. 20, 1976, when that same 11-year-old boy learned the hard truth that money ruins sports.
That was the day that Dr. J was sold to the Sixers.
Soon after, CBS dropped its plans for that Nets-Warriors telecast.
By mid-January, 1977, the Nets had lost 13 straight on their way to a record of 22-60. On Jan. 31, they traded Super John Williamson to the Indiana Pacers.
The following fall, the franchise moved to New Jersey and played at Rutgers University while the Meadowlands was being built.
It's hard to remember exactly when, but the Nets lost a fan before that decade was over.
They eventually changed their uniforms and their identity many times, setting out upon a 2 1/2-decade run of futility.
Broken hearts never mend, and the Nets never will be forgiven for what they did 26 years ago. But when they play Game 3 Sunday night at the Meadowlands and a certain 3-year-old watches the game wearing a Jason Kidd No. 5 jersey (he chose it over his Shaq shirt), perhaps the Nets will make up for past transgressions and give John Sheridan a defining Nets moment to remember for the rest of his life.
When he's older, his old man can tell him about the player who used to wear No. 32 before the Nets broke his heart.
———
EDITOR'S NOTE: Chris Sheridan has been the NBA writer for The Associated Press since 1996.
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Red, white and black-and-blue Nets memories
