Brooklyn Nets

 

The Brooklyn Nets are a professional basketball team headquartered in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. The Nets are a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team's home games are held at Barclays Center. They are one of two NBA teams based in New York City, with the New York Knicks being the other. The team was founded in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, the NBA's rival league (ABA). During their debut season, they were known as the New Jersey Americans before migrating to Long Island, New York, in 1968 and changed their name to the New York Nets. The Nets won two ABA championships during this time (in 1974 and 1976). The ABA and the NBA combined in 1976, and the Nets joined the NBA along with three other ABA clubs (the San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, and Denver Nuggets), all of whom are still in the league today.

The franchise relocated to New Jersey in 1977 and was known as the New Jersey Nets from 1977 until 2012. The Nets, headed by ace point guard Jason Kidd, reached the NBA finals in each of the previous two seasons (2001–02 and 2002–03), but failed to win either. The team relocated to Barclays Center in Brooklyn in the summer of 2012, becoming the borough's first major sports franchise since the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team left in 1957. The Nets have qualified for the playoffs six times since moving to Brooklyn, including trips to the Conference Semifinals in 2014 and 2021.