A Financial History of NBA’s Brooklyn Nets

(Bloomberg) -- The Brooklyn Nets set the NBA ablaze on Sunday, agreeing to sign All-Stars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan. It’s a massive move for a team whose 52 years are marked by a revolving door of owners and a nomadic search for fans, all in the shadow of the New York Knicks.

The Nets were founding members of the American Basketball Association in 1967, and had already played in four arenas in New Jersey and New York by the time they joined the NBA in 1976. Led by Julius “Dr. J” Erving, they were the reigning ABA champs.

But after giving up Erving, the team went from first to worst. In their first 25 NBA seasons, the New Jersey Nets won just one postseason series. They had a brief run in the early 2000s, losing in the NBA finals in 2002 and 2003. But they struggled financially, eventually landing new owners and moving to Brooklyn in 2012.

Billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov promised a lot -- a title within five years, max -- but delivered little. In 2017, the franchise hit bottom, with a league-worst 20 wins. The Nets had no stars, and the Boston Celtics owned a chunk of their draft picks through 2019, the result of a trade for aging stars Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and Kevin Garnett that many consider the worst deal in NBA history.

Thus began a three-year overhaul, on the court and in the front office, that looks more impressive by the day. Here’s a more detailed look at the team’s tumultuous history:

• 1967 -- Part of the American Basketball Association, the New Jersey Americans struggled to find an arena and played out of the Teaneck Armory, for one season.
• 1968 -- Owner Arthur Brown moved the team to Long Island, New York, where they played out of the Long Island Arena in Commack. He also renamed the franchise the Nets, giving New York three rhyming teams (Mets, Jets and Nets). Brown sold the franchise to Roy Boe in 1969 for $1.1 million.
• 1969 -- Boe moved the team to the Island Garden in West Hempstead, New York to have more seats for fans. Shortly after, attendance spiked and the team was able to move to the still-larger Nassau Coliseum.
• 1973-1976 -- Dr. J leads the Nets to two ABA titles in three years.
• 1976 -- The NBA and ABA merge, and the Nets are forced to pay $4.8 million to the Knicks for invading their turf. They can’t afford Dr. J anymore, and he goes to the Philadelphia 76ers.
• 1977-1978 -- The Nets move back to New Jersey due to financial struggles, and are immediately embroiled in another turf fight with the Knicks. The case is settled, resulting in the Nets paying $4 million more to the Knicks. Boe sells the team to a group group later known as the “Secaucus Seven.”
• 1998 -- The Secaucus Seven sell the team to Raymond Chambers and Lewis Katz after unsuccessful efforts to improve the team’s dismal financial state and record.
• 2002-2003 -- Under the new owners, the Nets make the NBA Finals in back-to-back years, but lose to the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs.
• 2004 -- After only a few years, the group decides to sell. Bruce Ratner beats out Charles Kushner and Jon Corzine to buy the team for $300 million. Ratner eventually moves the team back to Brooklyn and helps build Barclays Center.
• 2010 -- Ratner sells a majority stake in the Nets and operating rights to Barclays Center to Prokhorov. Five years later, Prokhorov reaches a deal to buy out his minority partners for $1.9 billion.
• 2017 -- Joe Tsai buys 49% of the Nets in a deal that values the franchise at $2.3 billion -- without Barclays Center. He has an option to purchase the rest of the team by 2021.
• 2019 -- The Nets make the playoffs for the first time in three years but lose to the 76ers in the first round. In the postseason free agent grab, they sign Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan for a reported total approaching $350 million.

--With assistance from Eben Novy-Williams.

To contact the reporter on this story: Randall Williams in New York at rwilliams407@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum, Josh Friedman

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