1974–75 New York Nets season

The 1974–75 New York Nets season was the eighth season of the franchise in the American Basketball Association, which saw them first begin play as the New Jersey Americans before they moved to New York as the Nets for the rest of their ABA tenure. Entering this season, the Nets started out as the defending champions of the ABA for the first time in franchise history. One of the most notable games they played this season was against the San Diego Conquistadors in a quadruple-overtime game on February 14, losing what would become the highest-scoring game in ABA history with a 176–166 final score (the 166 points the Nets scored is still the highest overall points scored in franchise history either in the ABA or NBA to date (their highest-scoring NBA game as of 2025 would also come in a loss on December 7, 2006 in a 161–157 double-overtime loss to the Phoenix Suns when they became the New Jersey Nets at the time), which also led to their game against the Conquistadors being the highest-scoring professional basketball game overall (either in the ABA or NBA) until the Detroit Pistons (who previously won the lowest-scoring NBA game back when they were the Fort Wayne Pistons) beat the Denver Nuggets in a 186–184 triple-overtime game as a part of the NBA on December 13, 1983). Despite the Nets leading the Eastern Division with a five-game lead with close to two weeks remaining in the regular season, they would end up having a tied record to the Kentucky Colonels there due to Kentucky winning 22 out of their last 25 games of their season, including the final 10 games of their regular season (which also involved the final regular season game the Nets played). The Nets would play the Colonels in a one-game playoff match to determine the official Eastern Division winner, but Artis Gilmore's rebounding presence (with Gilmore having more rebounds than the entire Nets team that game) proved to be too much for the Nets during that match. Going from bad to worse, the Nets would lose their first round series match-up to the Spirits of St. Louis, a team they had beaten in the regular season eleven different times beforehand and also had a losing record to qualify for the playoffs, 4-1, thus failing at a chance for a rematch against the Colonels in the 1975 ABA Playoffs properly. This season also tragically proved to be their last season with beloved small forward Wendell Ladner playing for them, as after this season ended, he would tragically lose his life as one of the 113 fatalities (out of 124 total people) found in the Eastern Air Lines Flight 66, with him being identified by his championship ring with the Nets from the previous season as well as being the only ABA player to die during their career while in the league.^[1][2][3]