Disclosure: There aren’t many pictures of Nate “Tiny” Archibald in a New York Nets uniform on the internet. So, you get the above slightly off-kilter picture of the NBA Hall of Famer, whose career is most noted for being played with the Boston Celtics and Kansas City-Omaha Kings where he led the league in scoring (34.0 PPG) and assists (11.4 APG) during the 1972-73 season. What did he do for the New York Nets? Excellent question!
Let’s be honest here, the Nets are not a shining example of an NBA franchise historically. Okay, fine, in other ways as well. But brighter days are surely ahead! The Nets don’t have the legacy the Boston Celtics or Los Angeles Lakers have. Heck, no other NBA franchises really do. The history of the Nets glory days are pretty much limited to a time when Julius ‘Dr. J” Erving donned the ABA version of a Nets uni and the Jason Kidd days that we are all longing for with Deron Williams playing the J-Kidd role (but with the NBA championship title enhancement). In other words, the Nets’ stature of success is small. “Tiny” if you will.
And that’s exactly what Mr. Archibald’s tenure with the Nets was – successful, but for only a short period of time.
Archibald took to the court for the Nets for one season (1976-77) before he moved on to the aforementioned Celtics for what was basically the rest of his career. In any case, during this lone Nets season, Tiny averaged 20.5 PPG on 44.6% shooting from the floor and 78.5 from the charity stripe. He added 7.5 APG, 2.4 RPG and 1.7 SPG. Impressive numbers from the 6’1″ guard, right? Of course, but in typical Nets fashion, he only did his thing for 34 games that season.
All of the above considered, it’s only fitting that I make this particular post short and immediately cut it off here…
