December 8, 1980: John Lennon is Killed

Howard Cosell and John Lennon, December 9, 1974.

Six years later, John would be dead.

December 8, 1980: The New England Patriots are playing the Miami Dolphins at the Orange Bowl in Miami, a game being broadcast on ABC Monday Night Football. As John Smith of the Patriots comes onto the field to attempt a last-play game-winning field goal, Howard Cosell gives an announcement about another Englishman named John:

Cosell: But it's suddenly been placed in total perspective for us. I'll finish this. They're in the hurry-up offense.

Frank Gifford: Third down, four. Foreman. (Chuck Foreman is stopped on a run.) It'll be fourth down. (Quarterback Matt) Cavanaugh will let it run down for one final attempt. He'll let the seconds tick off to give Miami no opportunity whatsoever. (Whistle blows.) Timeout is called with three seconds remaining. John Smith is on the line. And I don't care what's on the line, Howard: You have got to say what we know in the booth.

Cosell: Yes, we have to say it. Remember: This is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City -- the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles -- shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash, which, in duty bound, we have to take. Frank?

Gifford: Indeed, it is.

Lennon had been shot at 10:50 PM, Eastern Standard Time. Cosell had read an initial report, before the full facts were known: Five shots had been fired, four of them hit Lennon, and, according to the doctors who tried in vain to save him, any one of the four that hit him, had it been the only one, would have done enough damage to kill him. He was pronounced dead at 11:15. He was 40 years old.

Cosell made the announcement a few minutes later. On December 9, 1974, Monday Night Football had broadcast a game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Redskins won, 23-17. Lennon had attended, and Cosell interviewed him at halftime.

Cosell was already 43 years old when The Beatles first arrived in America, and hardly in their target group, but his journalistic instincts kicked in, and, surprising those of us who knew him only as a blowhard who tried to convince people he knew more about things than he did, he handled it like a complete professional.

Lennon had been living in America for a little over 3 years, and knew who Cosell was, and said of American football, "It makes rock concerts look like tea parties." The interview went very well, and, off-camera, Cosell even introduced Lennon to another attendee, the outgoing Governor of California, Ronald Reagan. (I was sure I had seen video footage of Lennon and Reagan talking and laughing together that night, but I can't find a still photo of it anywhere.)

Now, 6 years earlier, almost to the day, Lennon was dead, and Reagan was the President-elect, having defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter a month earlier. Less than 4 months later, Reagan would be shot as well, but would barely survive.

When Cosell spoke the words, "dead on arrival," the camera caught Smith looking right into it, and nodding, as if he had heard what Cosell had said. Of course, none of the players knew anything about it until the game was over. Smith missed his game-winning field goal. The game went to overtime, and Uwe von Schamann, born in West Berlin, Germany but raised in Fort Worth, Texas, won it for the Dolphins with a field goal, 16-13.

This being a Monday, the Pats-'Phins game was the only NFL game scheduled. This being December, no MLB games were scheduled. Only one game was played in the NBA: The Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Antonio Spurs, 104-99 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

Only one game was played in the NHL: The Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 at the Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

June 25, 1999: San Antonio's 1st Title

June 25, 1999: The San Antonio Spurs win their 1st league championship, after 3 years in the ABA and 23 years in the NBA. They defeat the New York Knicks, 78-77 at Madison Square Garden, to win Game 5 and the NBA Championship.

For the only major sports team in a city now with over 1.14 million people, this is a huge moment. It begins a stretch where, in 16 seasons, coach Gregg Popovich and forward Tim Duncan will lead them into 6 NBA Finals, winning 5 of them, the 1st 2 with center David Robinson.

For the Knicks, it is their 8th trip to the NBA Finals, and it remains their last. They managed to get there despite an injury to their star player, center Patrick Ewing. Forward Larry Johnson put the team on his back, and was 3 wins away from becoming a New York sports legend.

Coach Jeff Van Gundy -- short, bald, scrawny, looking nothing like a basketball player -- had built a team that played scrappy ball. Bill Gallo, sports cartoonist for the New York Daily News, drew him as a boxer, calling him "Rocky Van Gutsy."

But "Coach Pop" had as much guts, more brains, and more talent, and there was little the Knicks could do. In 1997, the Knicks had been bought by Cablevision, and James Dolan has run them ever since. And competitiveness has been a rarity.

Founded in 1967, in the American Basketball Association, as the Dallas Chaparrals, the team moved in 1973, becoming the San Antonio Spurs. They were 1 of the 4 ABA teams invited to join the NBA in 1976. By 1978, they had won a Division title, followed by trips to the Western Conference Finals in 1979, '82 and '83.

After a few down years, the arrival of coach Larry Brown in 1988 and Robinson in 1989 made them a Playoff team again. They got back to the Conference Finals in 1995, Popovich's 1st year as general manager. In 1996, after a bad start, he named himself head coach, and the arrival of Duncan the following season made them a title team in just 2 more seasons.

The Spurs would win the title again in 2003, Robinson's last year. Sports Illustrated named Robinson and Duncan their Sportsmen of the Year. The Spurs won again in 2005, 2007 and 2014, losing in the Finals in 2013, as Duncan straddled the NBA's Shaquille O'Neal era and the first half of the LeBron James era, as it was LeBron's Heat that beat the Spurs in the 2013 Finals, before the Spurs turned the tables in 2014.

By 2022, the population of San Antonio was believed to be 1.47 million people, and its metropolitan area 2.6 million. Yet the Spurs remain its only major league team: They lost the WNBA's Silver Stars after the 2017 season; the Missions are in baseball's Class AA Texas League; despite several minor professional football teams, including the Gunslingers of the 1980s USFL and the Brahmas of the current UFL, they've only hosted 3 NFL regular-season games, all as an emergency home for the 2005 New Orleans Saints after Hurricane Katrina; San Antonio F.C. are in the USL Championship, the 2nd tier of American soccer; and they have no pro hockey team at all.

UPDATE: The Spurs do not yet have a team Hall of Fame, but they have retired uniform numbers. From the 1970s: 13, for guard James Silas; and 44, for guard George Gervin. From the 1980s: 00, for guard Johnny Moore.

From their 1999 NBA Championship: 6, for guard Avery Johnson; 21, for forward Tim Duncan; 32, for forward Sean Elliott; 50, for center David Robinson; and a banner with his total coaching wins, 1,390, for head coach Gregg Popovich. From their 2003 Championship: Duncan, Robinson, Popovich; 9, for guard Tony Parker; 12, for forward Bruce Bowen; and 20, for guard Manu Ginóbili.

From their 2005 and 2007 Championships: Duncan, Popovich, Parker, Bowen and Ginóbili. From their 2014 Championships: Duncan, Popovich, Parker and Ginóbili. The Spurs reached the NBA Finals again in 2026, but lost to the Knicks.

Gervin, Robinson and Parker have been inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. When the NBA announced its 50th Anniversary Team in 1996, and its 75th Anniversary Team in 2021, Robinson and Duncan were named to it. So was earlier Spurs star Gervin.

*

June 25, 1999 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-8 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The Yankees scored a tying run in the 8th and the winning run in the 9th, a home run by Shane Spencer, making a winning pitcher of Dan Naulty in relief of Hideki Irabu. Tino Martinez went 4-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Derek Jeter went 1-for-4. So did Cal Ripken.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 10-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Rick Reed was the winning pitcher. John Olerud went 4-for-6 with 2 RBIs. Benny Agbayani went 2-for-3 with a walk. Both hit home runs. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-5 with a walk.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Florida Marlins, 4-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-1 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 11-4 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Brian Moehler pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Sammy Sosa went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 10-7 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 1-0 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. José Jiménez (not the Bill Dana character of the same name) pitched a no-hitter, and still needed Thomas Howell to single Darren Bragg home in the top of the 9th to beat Randy Johnson. Mark McGwire went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies, 10-1 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Tony Gwynn did not play.

* The Anaheim Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-3 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 4-2 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco. Barry Bonds went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners, 11-4 at the Kingdome in Seattle. This was the last series the Mariners played there, before moving into Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park). Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-4. Ken Griffey Jr. did not play.

June 13, 2026: The Knicks Bring New York a Championship

NOTE: Although this entry is from after 2022, I have backdated all entries from after that year to the corresponding date in 2022.

June 13, 2026: The New York Knicks win the Championship of the National Basketball Association.

It had taken 53 years -- 1 year less than the drought of the team with whom they share Madison Square Garden, the New York Rangers from 1940 to 1994.

The Knicks had won the NBA Championship in 1970 and 1973. Then they got old. Then they went through a serious of "false saviors." Remember this Sports Illustrated cover?

Between "The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx"

and bad Knick management,

the answer was always going to be "No."

The false ones included Marvin Webster, Micheal Ray Richardson, Bernard King (who might have been the true one had he not gotten hurt), Patrick Ewing (the most notorious of them all), Mark Jackson, Larry Johnson, Allan Houston, Stephon Marbury, Amar'e Stoudamire, Carmelo Anthony, Jeremy Lin and Kristaps Porziņģis.

Not to mention such distinguished head coaches and/or general managers as Hubie Brown, Rick Pitino, John MacLeod, Pat Riley, Don Nelson, Jeff Van Gundy, Lenny Wilkens, Larry Brown, Isiah Thomas, Mike D'Antoni and Phil Jackson. Run-and-gun, defense-first, style, thuggery. Nothing seemed to work.

In the 1990s, under Riley and Ewing, they kept smacking into the Chicago Bulls, on whom Jackson, a member of those 1970s Knick titlists under Red Holzman, built his coaching reputation. Michael Jordan and company kept stopping them. When it wasn't them, it was Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers. After Riley quit on the Knicks, he moved to the Miami Heat, and they got in the Knicks' way.

The Knicks reached the NBA Finals in 1994, losing to the Houston Rockets; and 1999, losing to the San Antonio Spurs. They got to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1993, losing to the Bulls; and in 2000, losing to the Pacers. They made the Playoffs again in 2001, then missed twice, made it in 2004, then missed 6 straight seasons, then made it 3 straight, but couldn't get far. Then came 7 straight misses; a Playoff berth in 2021, and a miss in 2022.

But under head coach Tom Thibodeau, general manager Gersson Rosas, and team president Leon Rose, things began to turn around. The Knicks had acquired guard Jalen Brunson in 2022, forwards OG Anunoby and Josh Hart in 2023, center Karl-Anthony Towns and guard Mikal Bridges in 2024, and forward Mohamed Diawara in 2025.

They won a Playoff round in 2023, and again in 2024. With LeBron James still with the Los Angeles Lakers, Steph Curry still with the Golden State Warriors, and no dominant team in the Eastern Conference, it looked like there was room for the Knicks to make a statement. In 2025, they beat the defending NBA Champions, the Boston Celtics, and got to the Conference Finals, losing to the Indiana Pacers.

Thibodeau was replaced as head coach, by Mike Brown. They went 53-29 in 2025-26, gaining the 3rd seed in the East. They beat the Atlanta Hawks, 4 games to 2. They swept the Philadelphia 76ers in 4 straight. In the Conference Finals, they needed a big 4th-quarter comeback to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1, but went on to sweep them.

They were in their 1st NBA Finals in 26 years, facing the team that beat them in those 1999 Finals, the San Antonio Spurs, led by 7-foot-4 star Victor Wembanyama. Without a Knick title in 53 years, without a title for any of the "big four" sports teams since the Giants won Super Bowl XLVI 14 years earlier, New York was behind the Knicks like they hadn't been behind a team in a long, long time.

I'd often said that a Knicks title would mean more to New York than a title for any other team. Not just because New York loves its basketball so much, but because the Knicks have a greater share of the local fandom over the Nets than the Yankees over the Mets, the Giants over the Jets, and the Rangers over the Islanders and the Devils.

Games 1 and 2 were at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. The Spurs led Game 1 by 14 points, but the Knicks, having had so many comebacks already, won, 105-95. Brunson scored 30 points, Wembanyama 26. Game 2 should have gone the Spurs' way, but Wembanyama, at 22 already one of the top players in the game, had a crucial turnover, a crucial foul, and a crucial missed shot, all in the last minute of the game, and the Knicks won, 105-104. They had now won 13 straight Playoff games.

Game 3 at The Garden was going to be a massive party. Except Donald Trump, New York's least favorite New Yorker, showed up. And, of course, "Everything Trump touches dies." The Knicks lost, 115-111. Brunson and Wembanyama each scored 32 points.

Some Knick fans got scared: What if Trump really had "killed" the Knicks? But most shrugged it off, following the lead of film director and Knicks superfan Spike Lee: "Knicks in five!" It didn't look like it: The Spurs took a 29-point lead, 81-52. The Knicks wiped it out, the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history. With 5.7 seconds remaining, Anunoby inbounded the ball to Brunson, who attempted a three-point field goal over Wembanyama, but it bounced off the rim. Anunoby ran to the rim from the three-point line, and completed the right-handed tip-in to give the Knicks a one-point lead with 1.2 seconds left. The Spurs couldn't answer in that little time left, and the Knicks had won, 107-106. Brunson scored 36. It was the greatest game in the Knicks' 80-year history.

The Tip-In. Wembanayana can do nothing but watch.

There were 2 days off, while Knick fans waited for the one more win they needed for the title. Game 5 was played back in San Antonio. The Spurs got off to another big lead, 16 points. Yet again, the Knicks decided such a lead was no problem. Brunson ended up scoring 45, and the final score was Knicks 94, Spurs 90.

Mike Breen, the longtime Knicks announcer who was calling play-by-play for ABC, noted that the date, 6/13, matched the 613 wins as Knick coach for Holzman. Commissioner Adam Silver gave the Larry O'Brien Trophy to the team. It had been so long since the Knicks had won that it had been a different trophy for the 1st 2 titles. Previously, it was the Walter A. Brown Trophy.

The ticker-tape parade up Lower Broadway didn't have as many attendees as the 1996 Yankees' parade, but it had more than those for the 1969 and 1986 Mets, the 2008 and 2012 Giants, and the 1994 Rangers. It was the first feel-good sports story for New York since 2008, when the Giants ended the New England Patriots' undefeated season..

This was the 1st time that a New York professional basketball team won its league championship in the same year that Arsenal F.C. won its league -- unless you want to go all the way back to the Brooklyn Visitations, Champions of the American Basketball League in 1931 and 1935.

No player named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players was on the roster of the 2026 Knicks. It's unlikely they'll do an 80 Greatest for the 80th Anniversary in 2026. But if they do a 100 Greatest in 2046, chances are, Brunson will be on it.

*

June 13, 2026 was a Saturday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-1 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Cam Schlittler and Kevin Gausman put on a fine pitcher's duel. A Paul Goldschmidt home run in the top of the 9th inning made a winning pitcher out of reliever Fernando Cruz.

* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 3-1 at Citi Field. Martín Pérez outpitched Sean Manaea. Eli White and Michael Harris II hit home runs. Juan Soto and Bo Bichette each went 2-for-4, but the rest of the Mets only had 2 hits combined.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 6-3 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-3 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-3 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Miami Marlins, 3-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-1 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Cleveland Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-1 at Rate Field in Chicago.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-8 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Minnesota Twins, 9-6 at Target Field in Minneapolis.

* The Houston Astros beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-7 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 8-0 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. José Soriano pitched 5 innings, allowing 3 hits, and 3 relievers completed the 5-hit shutout.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-1 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

* And the Sacramento Athletics beat the Colorado Rockies, 7-5 at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California.

Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup was won the next night, by the Carolina Hurricanes, beating the Vegas Golden Knights, in Game 6 of the Finals.

But neither the NBA nor the Stanley Cup Finals were the biggest event going on in North America at the time. The World Cup was underway, and these games were played on that day:

* Just outside New York City, at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, New Jersey, Brazil and Morocco played to a 1-1 tie.

* Scotland beat Haiti, 1-0 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts. It was Scotland's 1st game in World Cup play in 28 years, and its 1st win in World Cup play in 36 years. The Scottish fans, "The Tartan Army," became the darlings of the tournament, going to baseball games at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, and famously doing what even the Boston Irish had never been known to do: Drink a Boston bar dry.

* Switzerland and Qatar played to a tie, 1-1 at Levi's Stadium outside San Francisco in Santa Clara, California.

* And Australia beat Turkey, 2-0 at BC Place in Vancouver.

May 13, 1976: The Last ABA Game

David Thompson (left) and Julius Erving

May 13, 1976: The New York Nets beat the Denver Nuggets, 121-106 at the Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Hempstead, New York, and win the American Basketball Association Championship in 6 games.

(The Nassau Coliseum is in the Town of Hempstead, in Nassau County, on Long Island, but its mailing address is Uniondale, NY.)

For the Nets, coached by Kevin Loughery; Julius Erving, known as Dr. J, scored 31 points, John Williamson 28, Brian Taylor 24, Jim Eakins 15, Bill Melchionni and Tim Bassett each scored 4, Al Skinner 3, Rich Jones 2, and Ted McClain 1.

For the Nuggets, coached by Larry Brown (with some irony, a Nassau County native): David Thompson, known as "Skywalker" before there was a Star Wars, led all scorers with 42 points, Dan Issel 30, Chuck Williams 14, Monte Towe 6, Ralph Simpson and Bobby Jones 4 each; and Byron Beck, Marvin Webster and Gus Gerard 2 each.

This turns out to be the last game in ABA history. It is also the last game that Erving plays for the Nets.

Before the 1975-76 season began, the Memphis Sounds, who had been the Memphis Tams (1972-74), the Memphis Pros (1970-72), and the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967-70), moved again, becoming the Baltimore Claws, but only played 3 exhibition games before being folded by the league for nonpayment of fees. The San Diego Conquistadors became the San Diego Sails, but folded 11 games into the season; the Utah Stars, only 2 seasons removed from a Finals berth and the 1971 ABA Champions, folded 16 games in.

So only 7 teams completed the season: The Nets, the Nuggets, the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers, the Kentucky Colonels, the Spirits of St. Louis and the Virginia Squires. The ABA required the remaining teams to each put up $75,000 before merger talks with the NBA, and the Squires didn't, folding, and ending what remains Virginia's last sports team with major league pretensions. (The Washington Commanders have their offices and training camp in Virginia, but, as of the 2022 season, their stadium is in Maryland.)

Despite being 1 of only 2 teams, the Pacers being the other, to play every ABA season under the same name and in the same metro area, and being only 1 season removed from an ABA Championship, the Colonels folded. Team owner John Y. Brown Jr., who bought Kentucky Fried Chicken from "Colonel" Harland Sanders and made it a nationwide brand, took a $3.3 million payoff from the NBA.

Brown took the money he received for the Colonels and used part of it to purchase the NBA's Buffalo Braves, which he later parlayed into ownership of the Boston Celtics. In 1979, he was elected Governor of Kentucky. To this day, no major league team in any sport has called Kentucky home, unless you count Racing Louisville FC of the National Women's Soccer League.

The Spirits' demise was a bit more interesting. The team known from 1967 to 1969 as the Houston Mavericks, and from then until 1974 as the Carolina Cougars, were owned by brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silva, textile magnates, who had previously tried to buy the NBA's Detroit Pistons. They had planned to move the Spirits to Salt Lake City if the NBA would accept them. It didn't, thinking both St. Louis and Salt Lake City too small as markets. However, in 1979, the NBA did not stop the New Orleans Jazz from moving to Salt Lake City.

In June 1976, the ABA owners agreed, in return for the Spirits of St. Louis ceasing operations, to pay the Silnas $2.2 million in cash up front, in addition to a 1/7th share of the 4 remaining teams' television revenues in perpetuity. As the NBA's popularity exploded in 1980s and 1990s, the league's television rights were sold to CBS, and then NBC, and additional deals were struck with the cable networks TBS and TNT, league television revenue soared into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

From 1976 to 2012, the Silnas collected approximately $255 million from the NBA, despite the fact that the Spirits never played an NBA game. (Nor has the NBA placed a new team in St. Louis since the Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968.) In 2014, the Silnas reached agreement with the NBA to greatly reduce the perpetual payments, and take a lump sum of $500 million. Ozzie died in 2016, at the age of 83. As of May 13, 2022, Dan is still alive, 77 years old, and still receiving money from the NBA, even though he hasn't owned a pro basketball team in 46 years.

When the 1976-77 season begins, the Nets, the Nuggets, the Pacers and the Spurs were in the NBA. But, as a result of having to pay an entry fee and a territorial indemnification fee to the Knicks, the Nets sold Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Nets went from the best team in their old league to the worst in their new one, while Dr. J helped the Sixers reach 4 NBA Finals, including in that 1st season, winning the title in 1983.

The Nets changed their name to the New Jersey Nets in 1977, moved to the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, then to the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford in 1981, then to the Prudential Center in Newark in 2010, and finally to the Barclays Center in 2012, becoming the Brooklyn Nets. They reached the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, but, for the most part, due to poor drafts, poor trades, and internal dissension that occasionally breaks them up, they have been an NBA failure.

However, it should also be noted that the 1976 ABA title is the last league championship won by a basketball team in the New York Tri-State Area. The Knicks won the NBA in 1970 and 1973, the Nets won the ABA in 1974 and 1976. Since then, between them, they are 0-4 in NBA Finals, winning just 6 Finals games in 40 years. The Nuggets haven't even reached the NBA Finals.

The NBA never adopted the ABA's red-white-and-blue ball, keeping their traditional orange. But in 1979, they adopted the 3-point field goal, which the ABA had, as had the American Basketball League of 1961-62.

UPDATE: The Nuggets finally reached the NBA Finals in 2023, and won. The New York Liberty won the WNBA Championship in 2024, finally succeeding the '76 Nets.

*

May 13, 1976 was a Thursday. The NBA Playoffs were in progress, but no games were played on this date.

The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, and won Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. They completed the sweep 3 days later. The World Hockey Association Playoffs were in the Semifinals, and the Houston Aeros beat the New England Whalers, 4-2 at The Summit in Houston. (Televangelist Joel Osteen later turned the arena into the Central Campus of his Lakewood Church.)

Football was out of season. And these 6 Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Vern Ruhle outpitched Rudy May. Rusty Staub hit a home run for the Tigers, and Chris Chambliss hit one for the Yankees.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-5 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Luis Tiant outpitched Jim Kern. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Indians player-manager Frank Robinson did not put himself into the game.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Jim Palmer outpitched Bill Travers. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Reggie Jackson, in his only season with the Orioles, went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Robin Yount went 1-for-4.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 13-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 3-for-4 with a solo home run.

* And the California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 7-5 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).