Nets on Cards

I recently received a package from madding at Cards on Cards, who sent along a whole bunch of Nets, some Elton Brands and some off my wantlist. I'm posting the non-Nets on my main blog but here is the majority of the Nets I needed from the package- there are a few more that need to be scanned as a unit with similar style cards and they aren't here, but I will try to get them into a future post.

 My first Nets card of Moore

 My first base card of 2008-09 Skybox

 My first Nets card of Nachbar

 My first (two!) individual stickers from 2014-15 Panini

As you can see, most of them came from the time period of 2006-12 when I was not collecting the NBA, doing NASCAR only, but there are some before then and some after as well, including as new as 2016-17, the McCullough blue parallel above.

They are all great, and I am thrilled to add all of them to my collection!

New Nets from COMC Black Friday Sale

I've been working slowly on getting my new COMC Black Friday cards posted to my main blog, and now I'll take a look at some of the Nets picked up. Some of them I came across just randomly, while others I set out to find.

This large patch is probably the most visually impressive, with parts of two letters, although I have not been able to figure out if they come from "Brooklyn" or "McCullough". It is my second patch of him. This one comes from 2015-16 Absolute Basketball.

 I realized I didn't have any of the Nets cards from 1972-73 Topps, the rarest 70s set in my experience. They got 8 cards in the set and I picked up four of them. I still have to chase Billy Paultz, Bill Melchionni (who got two cards- regular and All-Star) and Rick Barry. While they also are included in the playoffs subset, that is a card for a specific game or series, and counted as such in my collection.  John Baum is a one hit wonder- it's the only card he ever got- and Tom Washington is new to my collection, although he did get three cards.

1991-92 Skybox Mini. This is a complete Nets Set, as they only got one card in the 50 card set. These are tiny; exactly 1/4th the size of a standard card. They were an exclusive in Canada and I only found out they existed a year or two ago. It's also the only one I have in my collection. It wouldn't be too hard to work on this set, there are only fifty of them and they aren't that expensive. However, actually finding the remaining 49 cards may prove challenging.

 While Harris is not my favorite Net, this picture is just incredible. And it's a Refractor, which is my all-time favorite parallel concept. I did a search for Nets Refractors and this one just jumped off the page and into my order. It's from 2008-09 Topps Chrome.

Bob Elliott is a One Hit Wonder. It's surprising how many people have only one card and it's an autograph. This one comes from 2011-12 Past & Present. The Elusive Ink insert is the main autograph insert and they included several people who have very few autographs, and Elliott is the only person who appears only in that insert on cardboard. I actually purchased this card back in September or October but didn't have it shipped until the Black Friday sale when I bought  ton of other cards (68, to me that's a lot!)

That's all of the Nets that came in this order.

Nets Uniform History

I originally posted this on my main blog, Cardboard History, as the first post in a series covering every NBA team. Each post takes on average 7 hours to create, so I have only done four of them so far. I have updated it for this post on Nothing But Nets. You can see the original post by clicking HERE.
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I have chosen the Nets, my favorite team and the one I am the most knowledgeable about to kick off this look at all the different jerseys worn by the teams- or at least those that appear on trading cards in my collection.

Current Logo: (All team logos shown in this series have been cropped off of the backs of 2015-16 Complete base cards)

History: Founded in 1967 as the New Jersey Americans, the team now known as the Nets was one of the charter ABA franchises, and the only one to directly challenge an NBA team for city supremacy, a rivalry that is still ongoing all these years later. The team played one year as the Americans, and there are, to my knowledge, no cards whatsoever that show any Americans players.

For the 1968-69 season, the team was rebranded as the New York Nets, after a move to Long Island, and would remain the New York Nets for the remainder of the ABA's history.

The first Nets cards would appear in the 1971-72 Topps set, but the jerseys are poorly shown at best. These jerseys worn in this set would not appear again. In fact, I have no clue what the road uniform looks like beyond what appears on the card shown.

1971-72 Topps #199

Home white

1971-72 Topps #182

Road Red

I suspect they may have looked like the second New Jersey era road jersey, only red instead of blue. I looked on YouTube but was not able to find any footage of any Nets games before 1974.

With the 1972-73 season, the Nets debuted the jerseys they would wear for the longest time in franchise history- with only minor changes these would be the primary Nets uniform up to and including 1989-90! In fact, the Home Whites did not change at all. They were worn in the ABA as the New York Nets, in the NBA as the New York Nets, and in the NBA as the New Jersey Nets!

1984-85 Star #93

The Road Blues, however, are a different story. Originally, in the ABA and the Nets' only NBA season as the New York Nets, they looked like this:

1977-78 Topps #127

(not visible: there was a white stripe with blue stars to the left of the red stripe. You can just barely see some of the white stripe on his leg. The jersey was essentially a reverse of the home uniform)

But in 1977 the Nets moved back to New Jersey, which meant the uniform had to be changed. The New York wording was replaced with "Nets" and New Jersey was added vertically in the red stripe. The Nets would wear these uniforms from 1977-78 through 1989-90. The white Home jersey has also been worn several times as a Throwback.

1989-90 Fleer #95

In 1982-83 and 1983-84 the Nets also wore what I believe may be the first alternate jerseys in NBA history. I may not be correct as both seasons were before I was born, and the photographic evidence on cards is slim- and also appears from seasons where the normal jerseys also appear. These uniforms are significantly rare to see on cards- I am aware of only one card for home and two for road jerseys. To my knowledge, there were no cards produced when these were current to show the road blue.

1984-85 Star #93

2003-04 Finite #114

For 1990-91, the Nets rebranded with a new logo and new uniforms. The team colors remained red, white and blue, and once again, the home uniform stayed the same while the road blue changed after only one year.

1996-97 Skybox Star Ruby #171

The road blues started out not as a solid blue, but with white "fading" starting at the bottom and getting progressively lighter as it goes up. Like most of the complex jersey designs in NBA history it did not last long, in fact it was used during 1990-91 only.

1991 Starting Lineup

Beginning in 1991-92, and lasting until 1996-97, the road jerseys were solid blue. The blue was also slightly, but noticeably, darker.

1995-96 Topps Gallery #106

In 1997-98 the Nets rebranded again, and would find their greatest NBA success wearing these uniforms, going all the way to the NBA finals in both 2001-02 and 2002-03. The team was then broken up and never again achieved such success.

1999-00 Impact #40

2003-04 SP Authentic #53

 Although it does not generally show on card images, the lettering on the road blue and the borders of the letters and numbers on the home jersey is not actually white- it's metallic silver. I was quite surprised to learn this when I pulled my first Nets patch card. It doesn't show as metallic on TV either, but I soon learned that multiple teams were using metallics in their jerseys.

2001-02 Fleer Platinum Name Plates

The Nets also had two versions of an alternate gray uniform, which was pretty much the same as the blue road uniform, only gray. The gray version (either) is my favorite Nets uniform.
The first version, with blue numbers, was used in 1998-99 and 1999-00.

1999-00 Ultra #9

The second version, with white lettering, was used in 2000-01 through mid 2004-05, when production issues led to the jerseys not fitting properly and choking the players.

2003-04 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection #65

Beginning in 2006-07, the Nets introduced a red alternate. This would remain the alternate through 2008-09, and then, for the Nets' final two years in New Jersey, would be the main road jersey, replacing the blue.

2011-12 Hoops #147

In 2012-13, under new ownership, the Nets moved back to New York, and rebranded themselves the Brooklyn Nets. For the first time in team history, Red, White & Blue were not the team colors, replaced by rather bland black and white.

2014-15 Hoops #63

2013-14 Panini Prizm Greem Prizm #139

The Nets have also added several alternates to the lineup- all of which are sleeved.

Beginning in 2013-14 and still in use, the main alternate is gray with blue lettering.

2015-16 Gold Standard #59

The second alternate, which debuted in 2014-15 and is also still in use, is somewhat modeled on the design worn from 1972-89. Barely visible in this photo is the black stripe that runs down under the left sleeve with three large white stars on it. This jersey is starting to appear on more cards than in my original post, but none that clearly show the stars down the side. You can see portions  of them on this card, though. (This set did not yet exist when I made the original post!)

2015-16 Black Gold Uncommon #16

In addition to the standard alternates, the Nets also played on Christmas 2013, where every team wore special uniforms. These jerseys were sleeved and did not feature a number on the front- highly unusual. The basketball design behind the B was actually a metallic silver.

2013-14 Select #121

The Nets also played on Christmas 2012, the first season that all teams playing wore special jerseys. That first season did not have sleeves, and every team playing that day wore jerseys where all writing on the jersey was the same color as the jersey itself. (a concept I hated, personally). To my knowledge there are no cards that show that Nets uniform, but there is a video on YouTube that has game highlights.