Nothin' But Nets
Fansided

Brooklyn Nets: Here is not a place Nets fans have been before

By Phil Watson

Brooklyn Nets Billy Paultz. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1971 NBAE (Photo by Paul Bereswill/NBAE via Getty Images)
Brooklyn Nets Billy Paultz. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1971 NBAE (Photo by Paul Bereswill/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Brooklyn Nets
Brooklyn Nets Billy Paultz. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1971 NBAE (Photo by Paul Bereswill/NBAE via Getty Images) /

The Brooklyn Nets have deals in place to sign Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant and more than 24 hours later, it’s still an adjustment for this long-time fan.

The reality is still setting in for long-time fans of the franchise that now is known as the Brooklyn Nets.

More from Nothin' But Nets

Kevin Durant, a former NBA MVP and a player named to the All-NBA first team last season, chose to play … for the Nets. Kyrie Irving, named to the All-NBA second team last season, chose to play … for the Nets.

Two of the top 10 players in the NBA — by definition by their places on the first two All-NBA teams — chose to play for the Nets?????

I went to my first Nets game almost 48 years ago, in November 1971, an early-season game against a long-forgotten ABA team known then as the Memphis Pros (which they — by definition — were, since they did get paid. Most of the time, anyway. The ABA was funny that way.)

That was at the beginning of the franchise’s fifth season in the ABA, its fourth on Long Island as the New York Nets. The team had a superstar in Rick Barry, a big young center in Billy Paultz and a playmaking guard in Bill Melchionni.

That team was memorable because for the first time since the franchise began play as the New Jersey Americans in 1967, the Nets finished the season with more wins than losses. They were only 44-40, but by golly, the period under “winning percentage” had a “5” after it.

That came after seasons of 36-42, 17-61, 39-45 and 40-44. That Nets team wound up making a shocking run to the ABA Finals before getting spit out by an Indiana Pacers team that won the second of its three titles in four seasons (they had also won in 1970 and would again in 1973).

Few in New York noticed, though.

The New York Knicks were in their heyday, such as it was, in between their first and second titles won in 1970 and 1973 (maybe that’s the problem in Manhattan … the Knicks can only win the NBA championship when the Indiana Pacers win the ABA title).

The ABA was an upstart league that played its games far off the beaten path, in cities such as Norfolk, Va., and Louisville, Ky., and Greensboro, N.C., and once even in Albuquerque, N.M.

The Nets were a founding member of that league and were going to be the presence of the ABA in New York.

Or so the ABA, franchise owner Arthur Brown and commissioner George Mikan thought …

Join me now on a chronicling of nearly a half-century of Nets fandom, a time of great highs and great lows … and greater lows …. and still greater lows …. and oh, my God, they did what? lows.