50 Fun Facts About Brooklyn Nets

Under what name did the Nets franchise begin play in 1967?

New Jersey Americans lasted one season: a move to Long Island in 1968 made them the New York Nets, a name picked because it rhymed with the Mets and the Jets.

Which current NBA team arrived from the ABA in the same 1976 merger as the Nets?

Denver Nuggets: they had been the Denver Rockets until 1974 and renamed themselves ahead of a move to the NBA, where Houston already used that name.

Which Hall of Famer led the New York Nets to ABA championships in 1974 and 1976?

Julius Erving arrived by trade in 1973 and the Nets won 25 more games than the season before, taking the ABA title in his first year with them.

To join the NBA, the Nets had to pay an 'invasion fee' of $4.8 million to which team?

The New York Knicks' fee came on top of the NBA's own $3.2 million entry charge, and raising about $8 million in all forced the Nets to sell their best player.

Which team paid $3 million for the Nets' biggest star in 1976, sending the ABA champions to the NBA's worst record?

The Philadelphia 76ers bought him a day before the season opened, after a salary dispute with the cash-strapped Nets could not be settled.

By his own account, who gave 'Dr. J' his 'Doctor' nickname?

A high-school friend, Leon Saunders: he called Saunders 'the Professor', and Saunders answered by calling him 'the Doctor'.

Where did the Nets play for four seasons from 1977 while the Meadowlands arena was built?

Rutgers Athletic Center was a college arena: after leaving Long Island in 1977, the renamed New Jersey Nets shared the home floor of Rutgers University's own team.

Which Croatian sharpshooter starred for the Nets before dying in a car accident in Germany in June 1993?

Dražen Petrović was 28 and coming off his best NBA season; flying back from a Croatia game, he left the plane at Frankfurt to travel on by car and was asleep when it crashed.

What did team president Jon Spoelstra try to rename the Nets in 1994 to shed their bad image?

New Jersey Swamp Dragons, a nod to the Meadowlands marshes, passed the league's vote 26-1; the lone no came from the Nets' own ownership, which killed the idea.

Which power forward, the 1982 Rookie of the Year, was the Nets' rebounding mainstay through the 1980s?

Buck Williams made an instant difference: the Nets went from 24 wins to 44 in his rookie season, their first winning record since joining the NBA.

Whom did the Nets take first overall in the 2000 NBA draft?

Kenyon Martin was dealt away in 2004 for three first-round picks, and months later the Nets sent two of them on in the trade that brought Vince Carter.

The 2001 trade that brought Jason Kidd to New Jersey sent which All-Star point guard to Phoenix?

Stephon Marbury never reached the playoffs as a Net; with Kidd in his place the team went from 26 wins to 52 and its first NBA Finals in a single season.

Who swept the Nets in the 2002 NBA Finals?

The Los Angeles Lakers finished a three-peat in four games, led by a Finals MVP from the Nets' own state: Shaquille O'Neal was born in New Jersey.

Which team beat the Nets in the 2003 NBA Finals?

The San Antonio Spurs won in six games, then tried to sign Kidd away as a free agent that summer; he turned them down and re-signed with New Jersey.

Which team traded Vince Carter to the Nets in December 2004?

The Toronto Raptors' main return, Alonzo Mourning, refused to report and was bought out two months later without ever playing a game for them.

Which Mavericks guard came to the Nets in the February 2008 trade that sent Jason Kidd to Dallas?

Devin Harris came with a retired player: Keith Van Horn, out of the NBA since 2006, was signed and added to the deal in name only so the salaries would match.

Which real-estate developer bought the Nets in 2004 with the intention of moving them to Brooklyn?

Bruce Ratner wanted the team to anchor his Atlantic Yards project, but lawsuits and the financial crisis stalled the arena, and the move took eight years.

Which Russian billionaire bought a controlling stake in the Nets in a deal closed in 2010?

Mikhail Prokhorov ran for president of Russia against Vladimir Putin while he owned the team, finishing third in 2012 with about 8% of the vote.

Which rapper, a minority owner, announced in 2011 that the team would be the Brooklyn Nets?

Jay-Z gave up his small stake in 2013 because he was launching the agency Roc Nation Sports, and NBA rules bar a team owner from also representing players.

Where did the Nets play their final two New Jersey seasons, 2010–12?

Prudential Center in Newark, home of hockey's Devils, was a stopgap: lawsuits and the financial crisis had stalled the Nets' Brooklyn arena for years.

The Nets became the first major-league team in Brooklyn since which club left in 1957?

The Dodgers left for Los Angeles after the 1957 season, and the Nets later honoured them with grey alternate jerseys that spelled Brooklyn in Dodger blue.

Why was the Nets' first regular-season game at Barclays Center, against the Knicks, postponed?

Hurricane Sandy struck days before the planned opener, so the first Brooklyn game came two nights later against another team; the Nets beat the Knicks in overtime when the game was finally played.

Which Nets centre was lost for the year to a broken foot after playing just 17 games of the 2013-14 season?

Brook Lopez was done by Christmas, yet a team that stood 10-21 on New Year's Eve finished 44-38 under rookie coach Jason Kidd and won a playoff series.

Which Celtics star was drafted third overall in 2016 with a pick Brooklyn surrendered in the 2013 Garnett–Pierce trade?

Jaylen Brown came from Brooklyn's 2016 pick, and its 2017 pick was traded down for Jayson Tatum; together the two won Boston the 2024 title.

Which coach, hired in 2016, led the Nets' rebuild and left midway through the 2019–20 season?

Kenny Atkinson's first Nets team won 20 games and his third won 42 and made the playoffs, yet he was gone in March 2020, months after Durant and Irving signed.

Kevin Durant signed with the Nets in July 2019 having just suffered what injury in the Finals?

A torn Achilles came in the second quarter of his first game back from a calf strain, and it cost him the whole of his first season under contract in Brooklyn.

Which retired Hall of Fame point guard was hired as Nets head coach in 2020 with no coaching experience?

Steve Nash, twice the NBA's MVP as a player, won only one playoff series in two seasons with Durant and Irving and was gone seven games into his third.

James Harden did what in his January 2021 Nets debut, a franchise first?

Recorded a triple-double: 32 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists, two days after his trade demand took him from Houston to join Durant and Irving.

Which team beat the Nets' Big Three in Game 7 of a 2021 semi-final, after Durant's toe touched the three-point line?

The Milwaukee Bucks won in overtime: Durant's shot with a second left would have taken the series as a three, but his foot was on the line and it only tied the game.

Which three-time All-Star did the Nets get from Philadelphia in the February 2022 trade for James Harden?

Ben Simmons had sat out the whole season in a standoff with the 76ers, and a back injury meant he never played for the Nets that season either.

Which team traded Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson and four first-round picks for Kevin Durant in February 2023?

The Phoenix Suns also gave up a pick swap, yet won only one playoff series with Durant before trading him on to Houston in July 2025.

Which Nets guard scored 40 or more points in three straight games in February 2023?

Cam Thomas, a 21-year-old reserve, scored 44, 47 and 43 in the space of four days, the same week the Nets traded away Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.

Which co-founder of Alibaba became the Nets' owner in September 2019?

Joe Tsai bought in two steps, taking 49% of the Nets first and the rest in 2019, the year he also bought the WNBA's New York Liberty and began moving them to Brooklyn.

Which head coach was hired in April 2024 to steer the Nets' rebuild?

Jordi Fernández, a Spaniard, had just coached Canada to its first World Cup medal, beating the United States for bronze in 2023.

The Nets' 2018–19 City Edition uniform, trimmed in 'Brooklyn camo', paid tribute to which rapper from the borough?

The Notorious B.I.G. was honoured again a year later, when the jersey swapped the team name for 'BED-STUY', the neighbourhood tied to his name.

Roy Boe, the Nets' 1970s owner, also founded which NHL team?

The New York Islanders won four straight Stanley Cups from 1980, but Boe saw none of it as owner: short of money, he had sold both teams in 1978.

The Nets' rivalry with the Knicks has been dubbed what by some media outlets?

Clash of the Boroughs had a noisy prelude: in 2010, two years before the move to Brooklyn, the Nets' owners hung a giant billboard of themselves near the Knicks' arena in Manhattan.

In the 2014 first round the Nets beat Toronto in seven games on a game-winning block by whom?

Paul Pierce blocked Kyle Lowry's last-second shot to seal a 104-103 win, ending a series that Toronto's general manager had opened by cursing Brooklyn at a fan rally.

What did the Nets wear on the road for one season after their 1990 rebrand?

A white-and-light-blue tie-dye gradient replaced the stars-and-stripes look the Nets had worn for most of two decades, then was itself dropped for solid blue.

Which star led the New York Nets to the 1972 ABA Finals before a court ruling returned him to the NBA's Warriors?

Rick Barry averaged over 30 points a game in two Nets seasons, but a judge held him to a contract he had signed with Golden State, where he won the 1975 title.

From which team did the Nets sign Kyrie Irving in 2019, prompting duelling 'Kyrie sucks' and 'Kyrie's better' chants?

The Boston Celtics' crowd jeered him even on a night he was injured and absent, and in the 2021 playoffs a fan there was arrested for throwing a water bottle that just missed him.

What was the name of the New Jersey Nets' silver fox mascot introduced in 1997?

Sly, whose official biography gave his birthplace as the New Jersey Pine Barrens, followed an earlier mascot named Duncan and lost the job when the team left for Brooklyn.

Which comics publisher co-created the Nets' short-lived Brooklyn superhero mascot, the BrooklyKnight?

Marvel printed a 32-page BrooklyKnight comic for every fan at his 2012 debut, but the hero was retired after only two seasons.

The Nets' 2020–21 City Edition uniform and court paid tribute to which Brooklyn-born painter?

Jean-Michel Basquiat started out spraying graffiti under the tag SAMO; four decades on, lettering in his scrawled style spelled BKLYN NETS across an NBA jersey.

Which Brooklyn-born Hall of Famer began his NBA career with the Nets in 1977, averaging 24 points a game as a rookie?

Bernard King set a Nets scoring record as a rookie, yet the team traded him after two seasons and he won his NBA scoring title elsewhere in 1985.

What does the superfan 'Mr. Whammy' do at Nets home games?

Tries to distract opposing free-throw shooters, and keeps score: he gives himself a point for every miss. Broadcaster Ian Eagle gave him the name; before that he was known as 'Red Shirt'.

In which Brooklyn complex is the Nets' practice facility, opened in 2016 on a warehouse roof?

Industry City finished the move to Brooklyn: until the rooftop gym opened three miles from the arena, the Nets were still commuting to practise in New Jersey.

Which Hall of Fame coach gave the Nets their first winning NBA season in 1981–82, then left for a college job?

Larry Brown had the Nets at 47-29 in his second season when he accepted the Kansas job; the team suspended him and went into the playoffs without him.

Which arena became home to the Long Island Nets, the Nets' G League affiliate, in the 2017–18 season?

Nassau Coliseum had been the parent club's home when it won its two ABA titles, so the affiliate's arrival brought Nets basketball back there after four decades.

Which member of the 1992 Dream Team's coaching staff spent the next two seasons as head coach of the Nets?

Chuck Daly, the Dream Team's head coach, took the Nets to the playoffs in both his seasons and then resigned; his Olympic assistant P. J. Carlesimo coached them two decades later.