Brooklyn Nets

The franchise was born in 1967 as the New Jersey Americans, one of the original teams in the upstart American Basketball Association. After moving to Long Island and rebranding as the New York Nets, the team found its identity when it acquired Julius "Dr. J" Erving in 1973. Erving was the most electrifying player in basketball - a high-flying forward whose acrobatic dunks and artistic game transcended the sport and made the ABA must-watch entertainment.

With Dr. J leading the way, the Nets won ABA championships in 1974 and 1976. Erving's performances in those playoff runs - including his legendary baseline reverse layup against the San Antonio Spurs - cemented his status as the most exciting player of his generation. The Nets were the class of the ABA in its final years.

However, when the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976, the Nets were forced to pay the New York Knicks $4.8 million as a territorial fee for operating in the New York market. Unable to afford both the fee and Erving's contract, owner Roy Boe sold Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers, gutting the franchise at the very moment it needed its star most.

Stripped of their superstar and saddled with financial problems, the Nets' early NBA years were dismal. The team bounced between venues in New Jersey, struggling to establish a stable identity or competitive roster. There were occasional bright spots - Buck Williams's toughness in the early 1980s, a surprising playoff run in 1984, and Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson providing excitement in the early 1990s - but sustained success proved elusive.

The franchise cycled through owners, arenas, and identities without finding a permanent home or a winning formula. Playing in the Brendan Byrne Arena (later Continental Airlines Arena) in the Meadowlands, the Nets existed in the shadow of the Knicks, perpetually seen as the lesser New York-area franchise. Attendance was often poor, and the team frequently found itself in the lottery.

The suffering would eventually yield one of the greatest point guards in NBA history and a brief, glorious run at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Everything changed when the Nets acquired Jason Kidd from the Phoenix Suns in a 2001 trade. Kidd, one of the greatest playmakers in basketball history, transformed the Nets overnight. In his first season in New Jersey, the team went from 26 wins to 52 and reached the NBA Finals, where they fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in four games. The following year, they returned to the Finals, losing to the San Antonio Spurs in six games.

Kidd's court vision, defensive intensity, and leadership - combined with the scoring of Kenyon Martin, Richard Jefferson, and Kerry Kittles - made the Nets the team of the Eastern Conference in the early 2000s. The back-to-back Finals runs put the franchise on the national stage and proved that, with the right player, the Nets could compete at the highest level.

The window closed as the supporting cast was dismantled and Kidd was eventually traded to Dallas in 2008. But the Kidd era established a standard of excellence that the franchise would spend the next decade trying to recapture.