MEMORIES OF DOUG McINTYRE: "I loved the ABA! I saw my first game on January 9th, 1970 at the Island Garden in Hempstead, Long Island... Nets/Pacers... I was hooked. Still am. For me, pro basketball ended after the merger. I probably saw 150 games before the league folded, including some doozies. I remember a 1972 playoff game against the Virginia Squires, which was a classic. It was the Eastern Division Finals. Erving was with the Squires as a rookie. The Squires had the home court. They hosted (and won) the first two games of the series. For Games 3 and 4 in New York, the Nets asked the league for a ten day delay, so they could play at the brand new Nassau Coliseum.... The building was booked during those ten days (also, it was not yet wholly finished, and there were huge sections which still didn't have seats...not that that was a problem for the ABA in those days). When they finally played Game 3, Barry hit three 3-pointers in the first ninety seconds of the game. Then he stole an inbounds pass for a layup. Al Bianchi called time out and the score was Rick Barry 11, Virginia Squires 0. But, in the third quarter, Julius went crazy. He scored twenty five points in that quarter, and the game was neck and neck to the finish. With fifteen seconds on the clock, the Nets had the ball and the score was tied (or the Nets were down by one, I can't remember which....). Barry took the ball upcourt and everyone else cleared off to the far side of the court. He dribbled at the top of the three point arch -- waiting for the clock to tick down. Erving was covering him-- it was one-on-one for the game. The crowd was on its feet, and I clearly remember Barry looking up at the clock until there was only six seconds or so left. Then he backed in towards the basket. He faked right, but went left with a little soft hook shot which banked in off the glass as the buzzer sounded. The Nets won by a point (or two). What a game, I remember it like it was yesterday...

I will also say this: I love Julius, and he was astonishing to watch in his ABA days. But the best player I ever saw was Barry. At the top of his game he was unstoppable, and a very good defender when he needed to be."

MEMORIES OF DAVID RUBIN: "I was a huge fan of the ABA, and a Nets fan in particular. In fact, I still cringe at the name "Roy Boe." I have a lot of ABA memories, but perhaps the best one is my earliest one. My dad was an original season ticket holder to the New York Islanders hockey team, and I enjoyed going to the first Islanders games with him in 1971. But I really wanted to see those guys bouncing that wild red, white and blue basketball. My father always talked about Rick Barry, the underhand foul shooter, and how Barry would bring respect to this new league...so we HAD to go see him play. About a week before the Nets were to play the Kentucky Colonels, my dad came home from work and asked me to guess what he had behind his back. I couldn't wait, so I pried his hands open and found two tickets to my very first basketball game! The excitement built up for me, as for two nights before the "big" game, I couldn't sleep! Finally, it was the day of the game, and dad and I set out for our trip (all of 30 minutes by car, but that was a long time to an eight-year old). I was so excited about the game that I made my father go over the roster with me over and over, as I couldn't believe that someone was actually named "Bill Melchionni." We were silent when the sports reports came on the car radio, and it was then that I first learned of disappointment in the sports world -- Rick Barry would not be playing that evening, due to the flu. The star player that I had been hearing about for months was not going to be at the game -- and we were already moments away from the Nassau Coliseum. Dad asked if I wanted to exchange our tickets for another night, but I told him that if Rick Barry wasn't going to play tonight, what guarantee did I have that he would show up at the next game we would go to? (Man- what instincts for an 8-yr old- huh?) We sat down to watch the game, after purchasing hot dogs, pop corn, sodas, candy, and a program (all of which cost less than a program alone costs today!). Once I saw the arena lights go down and the players introduced -- Rick Barry or no Rick Barry -- I was HOOKED! And Barry's absence was barely noticed that evening, as the unheralded JOHN ROCHE played perhaps his best game as a pro. Roche led the hometown Nets to a victory- the first, but FAR from the last that I would see at the Coliseum. If Barry's name was uttered all the way to the game, it was Roche's that was shouted all the way home (not to mention Mr. Melchionni's as well!)...and an ABA fan was born! It was an incredible feeling, knowing that those of us at the game had seen what seemed to be a star in the making. It was also an incredible feeling when I first saw Julius Erving play AGAINST the Nets as a Virginia Squire -- and then FOR the Nets when they won the ABA championship. And then Roy Boe (oh- I cringe again) changed my life as a sports fan forever...but that's a story for another day."

MEMORIES OF WALTER CHERNIAK: "In the early 1970s, while living in Connecticut, I used to listen to Al Albert broadcast New York Nets games on WHN-AM. I remember getting very caught up in the Nets' 1972 playoff run. That year, the Nets upset Kentucky, which had Issel, Dampier and Gilmore. They also defeated Virginia, which had Julius Erving. For part of the series with Kentucky, Barry was hurt. During most of the playoffs, the Nets were also missing star point guard Bill Melchionni. The playoff star for the Nets -- by far -- was guard John Roche, who had been a so-so player during the year, but scored 20 to 30 points per game in the playoffs. Injuries had left the Nets so thin that Ollie Taylor -- who was only 6-2 but a great leaper -- played forward. Billy Paultz was the center, and Tom Washington was the power forward, doing a tremendous defensive job on Issel and Erving. (He couldn't handle McGinnis, though). Melchionni and Roche were the guards, while Taylor and Sonny Dove (of St. John's fame) were key subs. The Nets team that came later, with Erving, Kenon, John Williamson, Brian Taylor, et al, had a lot more talent, but that '72 team was something special.

Growing up in Connecticut, I'm actually a lifelong Celtics fan, but like so many basketball fans in the early 1970's, I found the NBA game boring. The ABA was more wide-open, and there was something about the three-pointer and watching that red, white and blue ball spin on Rick Barry's underhanded free throws. What made it easy to follow the Nets was that I could get all their games on the radio from New York. Our rooftop TV antenna could also bring us games on Channel 11, which carried the Nets on Saturday nights. That was where I first saw Julius Erving, Roger Brown, and Charlie Scott. Those were the days!"

At the end of the 1971-72 season, Nets coach Lou Carnesecca (above left) finally had some fun. Behind the ever-consistent Rick Barry (above right) and rookie miracle-worker John Roche (right), the Nets steamrolled through the ABA Playoffs and gave the Pacers all they could handle in the Finals. (ABA publicity photos courtesy of Jon Singer)

MEMORIES OF PHIL LYNCH: "The Nets' Tom Washington was one of the most underrated players in the league. He was a terrific defensive player, a strong rebounder and a team leader. He gave the Nets the balance necessary to become a winning team. And he did it all without a lot of hype from the press."

MEMORIES OF AL SCHOCH: "I grew up in the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania in the early 1970's, and our cable television system (one of the first ever) carried several New York stations. So we saw the Knicks in their glory days (we all knew the starters by memory). One year I purchased a pre-season pro basketball magazine and it included the ABA teams. We had actually seen the Indiana Pacers host a playoff game (on CBS?) the previous spring. We were already intrigued by the three-point shot. Plus, at that time, the Fairgrounds Coliseum floor was painted blue inside the three-point area, with the lane left unpainted. We thought that was cool as all get out. The new magazine articles further heightened our interest.

Then, WPIX Channel 11 (which carried the Yankees) announced a special Saturday night package of New York Nets games. That season the Nets roster included Rick Barry and Bill Melchionni, plus the "Whopper" Billy Paultz. Legendary announcer Marty Glickman did the play-by-play. Once he waved to the cameras from his position at the scorer's table, to show us his perspective of the game. The WPIX Nets opening montage had still headshots of the players shown to the tune of "Ball of Confusion." I remember seeing the visiting arenas with a lot of empty seats. The scoreboard horns across the league all sounded the same, sort of a high-pitched whine combined with a buzzer. One night, the Virginia Squires had three guys in Norfolk playing trombone in the stands. It wasn't clear if they were hired by the Squires, or just showed up and started playing (I distinctly remember the trio belting out "If I Had a Hammer"). The most anticipated WPIX game that season was the only home telecast from Island Gardens. In that game, I recall that the area behind the team benches was just a wall covered with a blue curtain plus the Nets logo.

A year or so later brought Doctor J. After that, the broadcasts really became something, because the games were exciting. I remember a game against the Carolina Cougars where the rest of the Nets got out of the way to allow the Doctor to go one-on-one with a defender in the closing seconds. He was the greatest. In one road game, he dunked several times and, in the closing minutes, was booed by the crowd on a breakaway layup. Steve Albert later announced the games when the Nets moved to WOR Channel 9. The opening of those broadcasts showed the moon rising and dissolving into the Nets logo, with a voice over saying "And now, the A-B-A Champions of the World..." All of this was to the tune of Odyssey Rock (the disco version of the theme from 2001: A Space Oddessy)."