There is, in this year’s playoffs, a team that despite their accomplishments in the regular season are not seen as contenders for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The Oklahoma City Thunder are too young, too young to win it, but it could also be argued that they are too young to know they are too young.
That’s how Neil Best of Newsday recently described another group who made it to the top despite birth certificates and faces unmarked by age and wear and tear, the 1973-74 New York Nets, who 50 years ago Friday won the ABA championship at home led by Julius Erving and a cast of kids.