Breaking News
Home / Sports News / The Brooklyn Nets are the nomads of professional sports and cellar dwellers after messing up many a trade since they began in the mid 60s

The Brooklyn Nets are the nomads of professional sports and cellar dwellers after messing up many a trade since they began in the mid 60s

Now, four years after thinking they had made a big deal with the Boston Celtics, they still have a 2018 No. 1 draft pick to give, and the Celts will turn it over to Cleveland

Arnie Leshin

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

When the number one nomads of professional sports make the news, it often bring a few chuckles, sometimes a lot of laughs. They just know how to mess things up.

This one is about one of the most notorious trades in NBA history. It began when the Nets had been a tenant for three years in the sparkling-new Barkley Center. They thought a deal with the Boston Celtics would bring more victories, playoffs, more fans.

So it was a deal that looked good to the cellar dwellers. The Celts traded their one-two punch, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, and shooting guard Jason Terry, for some Nets’ reserves and a load of draft picks. Pierce was 36, Garnett was 37, and Terry 34.

Pierce was there one season, the Nets gained the playoffs and did win a first-round test in seven games against the Toronto Raptors, with game seven in the Canadian city. After losing to the Miami Heat in the second round, the trade became history.

Terry also stayed that one season, and Garnett was traded to his original team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, halfway through the next campaign.

Pierce, who didn’t hesitate to speak out against the Nets organization, made two more stops and is now retired. Garnett is now retired and is an NBA annalist on TNT and a league consultant. Terry played ball overseas but is still trying to get back into the NBA.

If you are following this, you will see it was a brutal trade. Not even making the playoffs could change this.

When it came to the yearly college draft, the Nets watched other teams pick up the draft choices they provided. Everybody got better and the Nets just got worse. They even ran out of draft picks, except for one.

And that’s where the fun began. The Celtics still had the Nets’ No. 1 pick for 2018, and so they included it in the recent trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers. More misery as the Nets and their fans didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

As the nomads, they traveled like no other franchise.

Just follow the bouncing ball and you will see how much I traveled while covering this franchise.

It were actually born as the New York Tuck Tapers and lasted one season in the American Industrial Basketball League, playing in the 69th Regiment Armory in lower Manhattan. It was damp, cold, old and empty. Former New York Knick Max Zaslofsky was the head coach, parking in the streets was the thing, so was vehicle looting, and once in the arena you just parked yourself wherever you wanted.

Tuck Taper owner Arthur J. Brown then received an offer from the brand-new American Basketball League, home of the red, white and blue basketball. So the next stop was the ice-cold, uncomfortable Teaneck Armory in New Jersey as the Jersey Americans.

Traveling man Brown was not happy playing in a place where players and fans were uncomfortable, had to dress warm, and parking usually brought no-parking zone tickets. Plus, the new 11-team ABA would not allow the Americans to play there until ample parking was added, the place cleaned up, and the heating system working.

But Brown was one step ahead. He decided on remaining in the new league, and with his desire to play in a better arena, have heat, and attract more fans, he renamed the club the New York Nets and selected the Commack Arena in Long Island as the new home. But that had an embarrassing ending.

The Nets were scheduled to play the Kentucky Colonels in a one-game playoff there to determine the final playoff spot. They won the coin flip and became the home team. But when the teams showed up for the game, it was discovered that the facility was in unplayable conditions (the floorboard was loose, bolts unscrewed, basketball stanchions were unpadded, and the court had some warped spots).

In other words, it was good enough for the regular season, but no dice for the playoffs and ABA commissioner George Mikan, instead of moving the game to Kentucky, handed the Colonels a forfeit after they refused to play at this facility.

Bye, bye Nets, again. And when the nearby Hempstead Arena offered its court at a bargain rate, Brown took his team there, yes for one season, and the next move was to the brand-new 16,000-seat Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island. The Nets were now owned by businessman Roy Boe and he brought in Hall of Famers Rick Barry and Julius Erving.

First Barry led the team into the ABA finals when it lost in six games to the Virginia Squires, then when he was dealt to the Oakland Oaks (to play for his father-in-law), in came Erving and the Nets twice won the league championship, and after the second one, the ABA announced its days were over and several of its teams were headed for the proven NBA.

The Nets were one of them, but again had no place to play as its contract with the Nassau Coliseum expired, and the rental fee got higher. So they again went across the Hudson River and settled on the Rutgers’ court in Piscataway. Larry Brown was now the head coach, and after two years, the brand-new 19,000-seat Brendon Byrne Arena up north in East Rutherford, was to become their new home.

There, the attendance figures were dismal. It was a nice place, right off the Jersey Turnpike, but didn’t fill the house until back-to-back seasons in the NBA finals, where it lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in four and the San Antonio Spurs in six. That was a roster highlighted by Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Richard Jefferson, and Kerry Kittles.

Then the new arena in Newark became the next move. The Nets figured it would draw better because of plenty of parking and accessible buses, and the Amtrak stadium within walking.

But when the new state-of-the-art 20,000-seat Barkley Center in the downtown borough of Brooklyn beckoned, the Nets moved in. The crowds have been decent, especially when the team made the playoffs, but it isn’t Madison Square Garden, and when the Nets host the Knicks, the fans are mostly for the Knicks, and the place was packed.

How long will they play there, who knows? But they are still there. Hopefully, things will improve in the borough of churches and the nomads will stay put. But that’s been heard before.

So that’s a grand total of eight arenas they have played in. That’s Long Island twice, Teaneck, Piscataway, East Rutherford, Newark, and now Brooklyn, but it all began in Manhattan.

Yes, they are truly the nomads, but play as the Nets.

Check Also

All in the world of sports

By Arnie Leshin  The world champion United States women’s soccer team wins on the field …