History of the Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets, a professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, was founded in 1967 and initially played in Teaneck, New Jersey, as the New Jersey Americans, later the New Jersey Nets. They are a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as well as an original member of the American Basketball Association (ABA). In 2012 they moved to Brooklyn and were renamed the Brooklyn Nets.
New Orleans Sun Belt Nets
The Nets were founded as WTT's charter franchise for Cincinnati, Ohio in 1973, by Bill DeWitt, Jr. and Brian Heekin. Within weeks of being established, and before the team ever had a name in Cincinnati, DeWitt and Heekin sold it to Cleveland radio executive Joseph Zingale who paid them the same $50,000 as the franchise fee they had paid to WTT. Zingale relocated the team to Cleveland with a plan to have it play its home matches at the Cleveland Public Hall starting with the league's inaugural 1974 season and name it the Cleveland Nets. Before the draft, Zingale spoke to Clark Graebner, a native of Cleveland, about playing for the team as well as to being its coach and general manager. Graebner insisted his wife, Carole, had to be drafted by the team as well. The Nets selected them both as a pair in the fourth round of the draft. No other WTT team objected to the Nets selecting two players with one draft choice. When Clark and Carole Graebner separated, Clark traded Carole to the Pittsburgh Triangles. The couple never divorced, and Carole Graebner died in 2008. Peaches Bartkowicz was a key women's doubles player for the 1974 Nets but quit the team during the season. Through all the drama, the Nets finished with 21 wins and 23 losses, third in the Atlantic Section and snuck into the playoffs.