The Brooklyn Nets have been around 51 seasons as a franchise, but just the last six as the “Brooklyn Nets.” The first nine seasons were spent in the old American Basketball Association prior to the merger of the ABA and NBA in 1976.
When the Nets came into the NBA, optimism was sky high. And why wouldn’t it have been? The New York Nets had just won the last ABA title, had won two of the last three ABA championships in all and were led by Julius Erving, who won or shared the last three ABA MVP awards.