At the start of 2000s New Jersey Nets were one of the most successful franchises in National
Basketball Association.
2 years in a row, they almost completed the quest to the championship, but at the end,
were bested in NBA Finals.
That was the peak of the New Jersey Nets franchise.
However in the early history of the team - when they were known as the New York Nets - the
team won 2 titles.
Now known as Brooklyn Nets, the team hasn’t even been close to the playoffs.
Hey everyone.
I’m PRPLPRNCH and today I want to tell you the full history of the Brooklyn Nets franchise.
The initial franchise was established in 1967 by trucking magnate Arthur J. Brown.
The team was supposed to be called New York Americans and the home building would’ve
been the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, but the pressure from New York Knicks forced
the new team to choose a different location.
It was difficult to find another location in New York because a lot of places were already
booked and some places didn’t want to madden the Knicks.
The team ended up playing as New Jersey Americans in Teaneck, New Jersey.
Their first season in ABA was fairly successful.
36 wins and 42 losses.
The team didn’t make the playoffs, but it was pretty encouraging to see the team win
almost half of their games in their first season.
The franchise played 8 more years in ABA with some great success.
In those 8 years the team then already known as New York Nets made the ABA Finals 3 times
and won 2 of them thanks to some great plays from Julius Erving.
After 9 seasons in ABA, in the summer of 1976 the ABA-NBA merger happened.
As a part of the merger agreement, 4 teams from the ABA, including the Nets joined the
NBA.
Before the season Nets traded 2 picks to acquire guard Nate Archibald,
but everything was not smooth though.
NBA forced the Nets to pay additional $4.8 million to the Knicks for “invading” the
New York area.
The team already had paid $3.2 million to join NBA, so they were short on cash.
Nets ended up selling their franchise player Julius Erving to Philadelphia 76ers for $3
million dollars.
First season in NBA was a waste, especially when Archibald broke his foot.
Nets finished with the worst record in the league.
The low attendance numbers, in part because the franchise player in Julius Erving left
and because the city of New York already had Knicks, forced the franchise to be moved back
to New Jersey.
But even that didn’t go without obstacles.
Knicks threatened to block the move because that would infringe on their exclusive territorial
rights to New Jersey.
Nets sued the Knicks and after the lawsuit was settled Nets paid $4 million dollars to
the Knicks once again to acquire rights to move the franchise.
With the move to New Jersey officially made the team was officially named the New Jersey
Nets and that’s how it was known for the next 30+ years.
The first 4 years in new jersey were rough.
The team failed to win even 50 percent of their games, but somehow with a 37 - 45 record
they managed to get to the 1979 NBA playoffs where they lost in the first round.
1981-1982 season marked some progress for the New Jersey Nets franchise .
The team moved to Meadowland to a new arena and they hired a new head coach in the person
of Larry Brown.
The team was looking solid and they made the 1982 NBA playoffs where they once again lost
in the first round.
The 1982-1983 NBA season was the best ever in the franchise history, however the end
of the season was awful.
The Nets had a record of 47 wins and 29 losses, but while still coaching the Nets,
Larry Brown accepted the head coaching job at the University of Kansas.
The situation happened just 6 games before the end of the season.
Brown was suspended and the team got handed over to Bill Blair.
The damage was done though.
Nets won only 2 of their last 6 games and got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
New Jersey Nets bounced back after the disappointing end to the 1982-83 season.
They had some real good players in Darryl Dawkins, Buck Williams and Micheal Ray Richardson.
They made the playoffs, eliminated defending NBA champions the 76ers, but lost in the second
round to the Milwaukee Bucks.
For the next 2 seasons the New Jersey Nets would make the playoffs but get eliminated
in the first round.
The end of the 80s was a hard period for the franchise.
Not only they would battle with injuries to their top players,
but one of their top scorers Michael Ray Richardson also would get banned from the league for
failing drug test for the third time.
All these issues played a role in one of the worst periods for the Nets franchise.
For the next 5 seasons Nets would miss the playoffs every year and winning no more than
26 games in the regular season.
The start of the 90s was once again promising.
Nets drafted Derrick Coleman with the first pick of the 1990 NBA draft , then traded for
Drazen Petrovic and drafted Kenny Anderson with the 2nd pick of the 1991 NBA draft.
The nets started to win again.
For the next 3 years they would win at least 40 games in the regular season, but everytime
got bounced out in the 1st round of the playoffs.
After the 1993 season one of the best Nets players Drazen Petrovic was killed in auto
accident.
The team never recovered.
The nets did win 45 games in the season after but then it was just a downward spiral.
Coleman started to get into trouble on to his way to become the Ultimate NBA Criminal.
I actually made a video about Derrick Coleman’s mishaps, which you could check later.
Coleman and Anderson were traded and the Nets got bad again.
7 seasons, only 1 playoff appearance with a first round loss and 4 head coach changes.
The start of 2000s marks the best period in New Jersey Nets history.
On the night of 2001 NBA draft Nets acquired Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brandon
Armstrong.
The day after the draft the Nets traded for Jason Kidd who would become the leader Nets
franchise sorely needed.
The 2001-2002 season was the best in Nets history.
They finished regular season with 52 wins but compared to other seasons, this time they
were good in the playoffs.
New Jersey Nets made the NBA Finals In the finals unfortunately they were severely overmatched
by Shaquille O neal, Kobe Bryant and Los Angeles Lakers.
Lakers swept the Nets to win the NBA championship.
Next year, the Nets were good again and reached the NBA finals for the second consecutive
season.
Unfortunately, this time they were bested by San Antonio Spurs in 6 games.
After the season Jason Kidd resigned with the Nets and the team also acquired Alonzo
Mourning.
But that experiment failed as Mourning was dealing with kidney ailment.
New Jersey Nets lost to Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
In 2004 Nets acquire All-Star Vince Carter and now they had a great trio in Kidd, Carter
and Jefferson, however all they had was early playoff exits.
Injuries and mediocre play contributed to 4 playoff appearances with 3 of them ending
in Eastern conference semis.
The core was going nowhere and it was getting old.
During the 2007-2008 season Jason Kidd was traded to Dallas Mavericks.
After the season, Richard Jefferson was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks and in 2009 offseason
Nets also got rid of Vince Carter.
Now they had Brook Lopez and Devin Harris.
That was enough to only win 12 games in the 2009-2010 NBA season which still is one of
the worst seasons in NBA History.
Next 2 years weren’t much different.
Nets acquired Deron Williams, but won only 24 and 22 games respectively and weren’t
even close to making the playoffs.
2012 marked a new era for the franchise.
The team moved to Brooklyn and on April 30, 2012 the team was officially named the Brooklyn
Nets.
As a help for their all-star point-guard Deron Williams Nets also traded for an all-star
shooting guard Joe Johnson and resigned Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace.
Nets won 49 games, but lost early in the first round of the NBA playoffs and then the deal
was made.
The deal that still bites Nets to this day.
They pretty much traded all their draft picks for the old core of Boston Celtics.
Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry were now a part of Brooklyn Nets.
You could say that the Nets went all-in…. and lost.
Miserably.
On top of that they had a rookie head coach Jason Kidd - Nets legend as a player, but
as a coach?
Kidd had no experience, and in his first season he had to manage all the stars and different
personalities.
The season wasn’t abysmal, but it wasn’t what everyone expected.
Brook Lopez played only 17 games before going out with a season ending foot surgery.
Deron Williams played in 64 games, Garnett played in 54 games and other key contributors
also dealt with some injuries.
In the end - Nets got to the playoffs but lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals
to the Miami Heat.
After the season Nets traded Jason Kidd - I know sounds weird, but they traded Kidd for
two second-round draft picks.
Paul Pierce left the team to join Washington Wizards.
Jason Terry left for Houston Rockets.
All the Nets had left was old Kevin Garnett and no draft picks.
The Nets made the playoffs with a losing record in 2015, but they were quickly eliminated
in the first round of the playoffs.
During the season, the last big part of the 2013 trade left - Garnett was traded to his
roots - the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Next year Nets got rid of all their mistakes.
They waived Joe Johnson and Deron Williams.
Fired head coach Lionel Hollins and got a new general manager.
The rebuilding process was started.
In the last 3 seasons Brooklyn Nets have won 21, 20 and 28 games.
They finally got rid of every bad deal and they will finally have draft picks.
Currently the franchise has the 4th worst win-loss record in NBA History with 1 408
wins and 1988 losses giving them a 41.5% winning percentage.
That should improve in the following years.
So how does the future looks for the Brooklyn Nets?
It actually looks OK now.
It seems that the new GM knows what he is doing.
They have some young pieces in DiAngelo Russell, Spencer Dinwiddie and Rondae Hollis Jefferson.
So far, their draft picks have been ok as well.
But the biggest questions is, who’s gonna be the Nets saviour?
I don’t see anyone on the current roster who could really be that star player for the
nets and that bait to attract other good players for the organization.
I don’t know what the future holds for the Nets, but I know that now they at least have
one because they actually have draft picks to pick some young prospects.
What do you think guys?
Who will be the saviour for the Brooklyn Nets?
Can they draft a superstar?
Maybe they already have one?
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This was PRPLPRNCH, and I’m out!