3. September 2, 1970: Nets acquire Rick Barry for a Draft Pick and Cash
Before the Nets fleeced the Squires (more on that later), they pick-pocketed them four years earlier for Rick Barry. After just two seasons in the NBA with the San Francisco Warriors, Barry left for the Oakland Oaks of the ABA in 1967 because his father in-law (Bruce Hale) had been named their head coach. The move forced Barry to sit out a year, and then forced him to move east when the Oaks became the Washington Caps in 1969, and then the Virginia Squires a year later. Unhappy about the move South, Barry told an SI reporter in 1970 that he didn’t want his son “to come from school saying, Hi y’all, Daad’.”
Rather than face a mob of angry southerners, the Squires traded Barry to the Nets before he ever played a minute in the Commonwealth. In two years in New York, Barry made the ABA All-First Team both times and led the New York Nets to their first ABA Finals, losing to the Indiana Pacers in six games.
Barry would leave for the NBA in 1972 to sign with the Golden State Warriors, the only team a United States District Court injuction allowed him to ink a contract with in the Association.
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