Brooklyn Nets: 10 best players from ABA era
By Phil Watson
147. . SG. Two different stints with Americans/Nets. Levern Tart. 6. player
Like many of the players in the early days of the ABA, Levern Tart emerged from the Eastern League, where he played three seasons with the Wilkes-Barre Barons after being cut by the Boston Celtics in 1964.
Tart was the ABA’s ultimate journeyman in the league’s first few years, playing for five teams in four seasons, includinf two stints with the New Jersey Americans and New York Nets.
His first go-around in Gotham began in January 1968, when the Americans traded guard Barry Liebowitz along with cash and a 1968 draft pick to the Oakland Oaks to get the newly named All-Star.
Tart averaged 19 points per game after coming to New Jersey and accompanied the club to Commack as one of the original New York Nets in 1968-69.
Tart had put up 14.7 points for a bad Nets club that season before he was traded to the Houston Mavericks in January 1969 along with Bob Verga and Hank Whitney in a deal that brought Willie Somerset and Leary Lentz to Long Island.
He would be back soon. Tart had been sent to the Denver Rockets shortly after arriving in Houston and the Nets purchased Tart’s contract from Denver in June 1969. As the Nets reached the postseason for the first time in 1969-70, it was Tart who led the way, earning an All-Star nod while scoring 24.2 points per game.
But Tart was on the move again in January 1971, dealt with big man Ed Johnson to the Texas Chaparrals to get center Manny Leaks.
In parts of four seasons with the club, Tart put up 20.4 points and 5.2 rebounds from his wing position. He retired after he was cut by the Chaparrals in the 1971 offseason, aside from a brief comeback in the Eastern League in 1974.