October 20, 1976: The Sale of Doctor J

October 20, 1976: The Long Island-based New York Nets are in trouble. They had won the last Championship of the American Basketball Association, and 2 of the last 3. Along with the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, and the San Antonio Spurs, they were invited to join the NBA for the 1976-77 season.

But, having to pay the NBA $3 million as an entry fee, and having to pay the New York Knicks a $4.8 million "territorial indemnification fee," the Nets owed $7.8 million -- about $40.1 million in today's money.

The Nets offered their biggest star, Julius Erving, whose "operation" on the basketball court earned him the nickname "Doctor J," to the Knicks in exchange for their waiving the territorial indemnification fee. This would have dropped the Nets' fees to $3 million.

The Knicks refused: They wanted the money more than the superstar. This was a tremendous mistake, as they had already fallen far from their 1970 and 1973 NBA Championships with the retirements of Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere and Jerry Lucas, while Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley were clearly in decline, although Earl Monroe was still good. The Knicks went on to crash and burn.

But so did the Nets: On this day, with the regular season starting the next day, they sold Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers for $3 million, leaving them with only the territorial indemnification fee of $4.8 million. Despite having picked up future Hall-of-Famer Nate "Tiny" Archibald in the trade, the Nets instantly went from the ABA Championship to the worst record in the NBA. It would take until 1981-82 to recover, by which point the Knicks had also begun to do so.

The Sixers reached the NBA Finals in 1977, 1980 and 1982, and finally won the Championship in 1983. Then, they got old, and began a decline that has never truly been reversed. They've made the NBA Finals only once since, in 2001.

For the 1977-78 season, the Nets left Long Island, became the New Jersey Nets, and played at the brand-new Rutgers Athletic Center, on Rutgers University's Livingston Campus in Piscataway. (The 9,000-seat chunk of concrete is now named the Jersey Mike's Arena.)

In 1981, they moved to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, just 7 miles from Midtown Manhattan, when the building alternately known as the Meadowlands Arena, the Brendan Byrne Arena, the Continental Airlines Arena and the Izod Center opened. They played at the Prudential Center in Newark for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, and then moved back to New York, to the Barclays Center, becoming the Brooklyn Nets.

The Nets didn't win an NBA Playoff series until 1984 -- beating the 76ers, then the defending NBA Champions. They didn't win another until acquiring Jason Kidd in 2001, reaching the next 2 NBA Finals and winning 4 Division titles.

Their move to Brooklyn was ambitious, and they've made several acquisitions designed to win a title and take the New York market away from the Knicks. But they never have. They are a joke franchise, and, with the exception of the Kidd years, 2001 to 2008, they have been ever since they came into the NBA.

Is there a curse on the Nets? Doctor J, who became a studio analyst for NBA broadcasts, seems like too nice of a guy to have done that, especially since the trade was good for his career. Maybe the fault lies the owners. The Curse of Roy Boe? The Curse of the Secaucus Seven?

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October 20, 1976 was a Wednesday. Game 4 of the World Series was supposed to be played at Yankee Stadium, but it was postponed by rain. Not that it did the New York Yankees much good, as the Cincinnati Reds completed the sweep on the 21st, anyway.

Football was in midweek. As I said, the NBA's 1976-77 regular season started the next day. There were no games played in the World Hockey Association, but there were 5 in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres played to a tie, 4-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-0 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Atlanta Flames, 4-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Colorado Rockies, 2-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.