Former NBA star Max Zaslofsky, head coach,
and the original 1967-68 New Jersey Americans.
October 23, 1967: The franchise known today as the Brooklyn Nets plays its 1st game. As the New Jersey Americans, they host the Pittsburgh Pipers at the Teaneck Armory. The Pipers, led by future Hall-of-Famer Connie Hawkins, win, 110-107, and will go on to win the 1st American Basketball Association title.
It is the 1st game for a major league team (or even one pretending to be major league) in New Jersey since the 1915 Newark Peppers of baseball's Federal League, and the 1st one ever for a team using "New Jersey" as their locality instead of a city name.
Connie Hawkins, banned from the NBA after a gambling scandal despite no one ever proving he did anything illegal, would be the ABA's Most Valuable Player that season, and he showed NBA fans what they were missing, scoring 32 points for the Pipers. Charles Williams added 32. For the Americans, Dan Anderson led all scorers with 41, and former Duke star Art Heyman, also banned by the NBA for ridiculous reasons, scored 25.
The Americans finished the 1967-68 season at 36-42, 5th and last in the ABA's Eastern Division, and missing the Playoffs. They moved to Long Island after just 1 season, becoming the New York Nets; back to New Jersey, to the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, in 1977, becoming the New Jersey Nets; to the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford in 1981; to the Prudential Center in Newark in 2010; and to the Barclays Center in 2012, becoming the Brooklyn Nets.
They won the ABA Championship in 1974 and 1976 -- making them still the most recent pro basketball team in the New York Tri-State Area to win a league title. But the move to the NBA meant paying an expansion fee to the NBA and a territorial indemnification fee to the Knicks. This forced them to sell off their best player, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, and they immediately went from the best of the 6 teams that closed the ABA to the worst of the 22 teams in the NBA.
They won the ABA Championship in 1974 and 1976 -- making them still the most recent pro basketball team in the New York Tri-State Area to win a league title. But the move to the NBA meant paying an expansion fee to the NBA and a territorial indemnification fee to the Knicks. This forced them to sell off their best player, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, and they immediately went from the best of the 6 teams that closed the ABA to the worst of the 22 teams in the NBA.
From their arrival in 1976 until 2001, their 1st 25 NBA seasons, they won exactly 1 Playoff series, against the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984. In 2001, they traded for Jason Kidd, and won the Eastern Conference Title in 2002 and 2003, losing the NBA Finals both times. They won Atlantic Division titles in 2004 and 2006.
But the long process of moving to Brooklyn essentially left them a lame duck, and crowds dried up. As the Brooklyn Nets, they have remained terrible, a joke franchise despite their early-2000s success. Only the colossal ineptitude of Knick management has saved them from the glare of the spotlight.
Built in 1936, the Teaneck Armory still stands, at 1799 Teaneck Road. John F. Kennedy has a campaign rally there on November 6, 1960, 2 days before the Presidential election -- and also had one at the Nets' next arena, the Long Island Arena in Commack, later that day. It was also used as a filming location for the movies Sweet and Lowdown, You've Got Mail, Bogus and Stonewall. It now hosts youth soccer, under the name of the Soccer Coliseum.
But the long process of moving to Brooklyn essentially left them a lame duck, and crowds dried up. As the Brooklyn Nets, they have remained terrible, a joke franchise despite their early-2000s success. Only the colossal ineptitude of Knick management has saved them from the glare of the spotlight.
Built in 1936, the Teaneck Armory still stands, at 1799 Teaneck Road. John F. Kennedy has a campaign rally there on November 6, 1960, 2 days before the Presidential election -- and also had one at the Nets' next arena, the Long Island Arena in Commack, later that day. It was also used as a filming location for the movies Sweet and Lowdown, You've Got Mail, Bogus and Stonewall. It now hosts youth soccer, under the name of the Soccer Coliseum.
Despite winning the 1st ABA title, the Pipers fared even less well. A Minneapolis attorney bought them, and moved them, making them the Minnesota Pipers. They went back to Pittsburgh for 1968-69, but the momentum was lost. They became the Pittsburgh Condors in 1970, and folded in 1972.
From their time as the New York Nets, the team has retired the numbers 23 of John Williamson, the 25 of Bill Melchionni, and the 32 of Julius Erving -- but not, as once widely believed, the 4 of Wendell Ladner.
From their time as the New Jersey Nets, the team has retired the numbers 3 of Dražen Petrović, the 5 of Jason Kidd, the 15 of Vince Carter, and the 52 of Buck Williams. (UPDATE: Through the 2025-26 season, no numbers of the Brooklyn Nets have been retired.)
And Bill Raftery and Mike Fratello have received the Curt Gowdy Media Award, the Basketball Hall of Fame's award for broadcasters.
*
October 23, 1967 was a Monday. The baseball season had ended 11 days earlier, with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. It was football season, but the NFL hadn't yet adopted Monday Night Football. The AFL was playing then, but they didn't play on Monday nights, either.
There were no games played in the NHL or the NBA that night, but there was 1 other played in the ABA: The Dallas Chaparrals beat the Houston Mavericks, 100-83 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston. The Mavericks have no connection to the current Dallas Mavericks, or the Houston Rockets, for that matter: They became the Carolina Cougars in 1969, and the Spirits of St. Louis in 1974, and were not among the ABA teams absorbed into the NBA in 1976. The Chaparrals were, having become the San Antonio Spurs in 1973.
