Today in Sports History: October 20th

When the NBA absorbed four ABA teams in 1976, they did not do it for free. A $3.2 million entrance fee was required for the Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, and New York Nets, and all four met the requirement. But it was a no-win situation for Nets owner Roy Boe, who was already strapped for cash. Nets guard Julius Erving, the best player in the ABA, was asking for an increased salary, while the New York Knicks were imposing a hefty $4.8 million territorial fee. Boe, who also owned the New York Islanders, informed Erving that he wouldn’t be able to give him a pay raise. When Erving responded by vowing to sit out the season, Boe did what he thought was necessary: he sold Julius Erving.

The Nets traded “Doctor J” to the Philadelphia 76ers for $3 million, a move that was despised among New York sports fans. Erving played 11 years with the Sixers and helped them win a championship in 1983. The Nets went a league-worst 22-60 in 1977 before Boe moved the team to New Jersey. A year later, he sold the team.

“Irwin Wiener [Erving’s agent] was going around telling people that all we had was a handshake agreement with Erving and so we needed to renegotiate his deal, which was not true,” Boe later said. “I had a 90-page agreement that Erving had signed, and now Wiener was going to the press basically saying that I was a liar. Well, we had a real falling out.

“I took Julius out to lunch, just the two of us, to try and maybe smooth things over. Julius was wonderful with me, very polite, as always, but in the end, he left me in Wiener’s hands, and that was just a disaster, because Wiener talked him into sitting out all of training camp.”

The deal stayed with Boe for the rest of his life. When he passed away in 2009, the headline of his New York Times obituary read: “Roy Boe, 79, Owned 2 Teams but Sold Dr. J.”