“UNLEASH YELLOW” and “NOT VERY FUNNY”
#720/#719
720. NEW JERSEY NETS VS DENVER NUGGETS
ABA FINALS
GAME SIX
MAY 13, 1976
NASSAU COLISEUM
QUALITY OF PLAY—8.67
DRAMA—9.05
STAR POWER—8.02
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—6.40
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.66
LOCAL IMPACT—5.75
TOTAL: 44.55
“UNLEASH YELLOW”
In the spring of 1976 Saturday Night Live was finishing up its instantly-legendary debut season, its cast having transformed seemingly overnight from an unknown troupe of out-of-towners into household names. Come 1:01 AM Sunday morning, Lorne, Chevy, John and the gang often cruised down to the Village for the afterparty, dining at the hottest spot in the City, One Fifth, whose floor was run by future Balthazar and Minetta’s restauranteur Keith McNally.
A bar full of comedians downtown may have been cool, but that May true cool resided out in Nassau County. That was the home of the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association; more specifically, it was the operating theater where the Doctor, Julius Erving, performed. In ’76 Erving had perhaps the finest season of his legendary career, winning the scoring title with 29 points per game, winning his third MVP Award, and perhaps most significantly, winning the first-ever slam dunk contest, held at the ABA All-Star Game in Denver. Erving’s full-court run and soaring dunk from the free throw line would capture the imagination of future generations of hoopers, including Michael Jordan.
The Nets had won the ABA title in 1974, Erving’s first in the Coliseum. In 1975 they were shocked in the first round by the St. Louis Spirits, as we explored just a short time ago. Now in the Bicentennial season, they were strong contenders to undo the previous season’s nightmare defeat and win another championship. The pressure was on, for it sure seemed there would not be another chance—for anyone.
The ABA Finals took place in the shadow of the imminent demise of the league. At halftime of Game Three, new league commissioner Dave DeBusschere, having recently retired from the Knicks, announced the demise of the Virginia Squires, Erving’s former franchise and the fourth team to fold up operations that season. Only six remained, all of whom made the playoffs. The Denver Nuggets won a scintillating seven-game series over Kentucky to advance to the Finals, and they were a helluva team, led by Dan Issel, Bobby Jones and the “Skywalker,” electrifying rookie David Thompson. The Nets likewise needed seven games to get past San Antonio and their superstar scorer, George Gervin. The Doctor had 28-18-8 in the deciding game to offset Gervin’s 31 points.
That set up a collision between the ABA’s two best clubs for the title (Denver had the better regular season record, winning 60 games to New York’s 55). The teams split the first two contests in Denver, with Erving going for 45 and 48 points in the games. The Nets won the next two at home before the Nuggets put off elimination with a win in Game Five in Colorado.
That sent the series back to New York for Game Six, held at the Nassau Coliseum on Thursday night, May 13, 1976. An ecstatic capacity crowd of 15,934 began cheering during the singing of the National Anthem. ABA stars like Erving were seldom seen on television, giving their exploits an underground sheen. But for a lucky few, this game was aired on a nascent cable channel called Home Box Office, for whom sports was an early and important element.
From the start, it was all Denver. They seized the lead in the first quarter and were up 13 at halftime. Thompson was everywhere, out-Doctoring Erving in the air and hitting rafts of jumpers on his way to 42 points for the game. Issel would have 30 points and 20 rebounds, taking advantage of an injury to New York big man Kim Hughes. When Denver took a 22-point lead with five minutes left in the third quarter, it seemed a Game Seven back in the Mile High City was inevitable.
Nets coach Kevin Loughery called timeout. With few options left to him, he called for the defense code-named “Yellow” —a scrambling, full‐court press in which three defenders swarmed the ball while two players stayed back to prevent breakaways. The Nets immediately carved into the lead, and Denver lost its composure. They turned the ball over time and again, as Erving took advantage, with five steals and 31 points overall. Issel and Jones both fouled out, leaving the lane yawning, and the lead kept on shrinking.
“Their press was great,” said Nuggets veteran (and Brooklyn-bred) Roger Brown . “We just lost our poise. The game got very physical and when it gets physical it gets tough for us.”
New York scored the last four points of the third quarter and the first nine of the fourth. “The Nuggets committed an encyclopedia full of dribbling, passing and shooting errors,” according to Paul Montgomery in the Times. The crowd erupted in “prolonged roars” as the Nets came from behind.
The Nets had contributors beyond the Doctor. “Super” John Williamson scored 24 of his 28 points after halftime, and was a key press man, forcing multiple turnovers. Then there was “Jumbo” Jim Eakins, forced into heavy minutes at center by the injury to Hughes. Acquired at midseason, Eakins hadn’t really made much of an impact, but in the latter stages of this game he came alive, with 12 points and 13 rebounds, even though he was “the most awkward-looking player on the floor,” per the Daily News. Certainly he paled next to acrobats like Erving and Thompson, but he made the key play, a tap in of a missed free throw while being fouled. The three-point play tied the score at 104-104.
Williamson put the Nets ahead seconds later, and Denver’s self-destruction was completed when (future Knick) Marvin Webster missed a pair of free throws and committed a goaltending violation. The Nets held on to win 112-106, and take the ABA title in six. “The Coliseum was a bedlam of noise,” wrote Montgomery. “Fans raced down the aisles and scampered on the court, canceling the last futile seconds of play.” In all the Nets outscored Denver 34-14 in the final quarter to pull off one of pro basketball’s most incredible rallies of the time. Sure, these days a team down by 20 is just getting started, but in that era it was an incredible comeback. All thanks to a press called “Yellow” that turned Denver chicken.
“My guys showed tonight that they're not only great players but good people.” said Loughery, the victorious coach. “We put it all together when we had to, and that's what it's all about.”
AFTERMATH:
The incredible comeback proved to be a fitting final game, as Game Six was the last one ever played in the loopy, beloved league. About a month later, on June 17, 1976, the ABA merged four teams into the NBA, including the Nets (along with the Nuggets, Pacers and Spurs). The Kentucky Colonels, St. Louis Spirits, and Virginia Squires were left behind for money reasons (as in, they didn’t have any). Loughery told the Times in 2021 that Erving’s performance in the Nuggets series was the finest he had ever seen, from any player, ever. Things for Loughery—and this countdown—might have been different if the Doctor had stayed with the Nets, but those pesky financial considerations led him to be sold to Philadelphia, where he won a title with the Sixers.
Erving wanted to play for his hometown Knicks, but somehow, they let themselves be outbid for his services. Now that might have really changed history (and this list).
WHAT THEY SAID:
“I love everyone. This is a sweet championship, as sweet as the champagne I'm drinking.”
—Julius Erving
FURTHER READING:
Loose Balls by Terry Pluto
VIDEO:
719. BELMONT STAKES
JUNE 7, 2003
BELMONT PARK
QUALITY OF PLAY—7.35
DRAMA—7.55
STAR POWER—5.67
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—9.03
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—7.50
LOCAL IMPACT—7.46
TOTAL: 44.56
“NOT VERY FUNNY”
They called themselves “Sackatoga Stables,” a group of ten mostly blue collar friends who hailed from Sacketts Harbor or Saratoga Springs in upstate New York. Unlike traditional racehorse owners, these were no blue bloods or newly rich types. The most notable of them was an optometrist. But in 2003 they had a tremendous horse, a gelding called Funny Cide, who raced out of Belmont Park and stormed to victory at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, putting him and Sackatoga just one win away from the Triple Crown. And that race, of course, would be at home in New York, at the Belmont Stakes. The symmetry seemed perfect. 2003 was also the 25th anniversary of the last Triple winner, Affirmed in 1978. It seemed fated to at last happen.
But another three-year old that year had New York ties. Empire Maker was trained by the highly-respected Robert “Bobby” Frankel, a Brooklyn boy who would become a Racing Hall of Famer but had never won a Triple Crown race before. And Empire Maker was no slouch. He bested Funny Cide at the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct Raceway in Queens early in the season, then placed right behind Funny Cide in the Derby.
Frankel decided to have Maker skip the Preakness to train specifically for the mile and a half marathon at the Belmont, while preserving energy that Funny had to use to win in Baltimore. “The longer between races, the better it is for me,” Frankel said. So it was no surprise that while the Triple Crown contender went off as the even money favorite, Maker’s odds were short as well, just 2-1.
“If everyone hates me after the Belmont, I will have done my job,” cracked Frankel.
101,562 crammed into Belmont Park in order to at last witness history on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon, June 7, 2003. Many were hopefuls like Mark Kiely from the Bronx, who bought a $2 win ticket on Funny Cide just for the memento. “This is bigger than money,” he said. “This is New York history.” Just the year before, an enormous throng had come to Long Island to see a potential Triple Crown go up in smoke, when 70-1 shot Sarava shocked War Emblem, preventing history from taking place. Few anticipated the muddy track would give Cide any issues.
Jockey Jose Santos took the chestnut horse right out to the lead as the crowd thundered its approval. He appeared in good shape when the half was run in 48.70, and six furlongs were timed in 1:13.51. But there was a problem with Funny Cide—he was “rank,” a racing term for a horse that won’t settle and runs hard, ignoring his jockey’s pacing. The horse had expended too much energy for the long race, and began to give ground to Empire Maker, who came up hard on the outside to take the lead with Jerry Bailey aboard.
“I rode him like he was the best horse,” Bailey said. “You can't believe the roar from this crowd when we turned for home.”
Frankel was watching from the bowels of the Park, in the racing secretary’s office. He could tell that Funny Cide had gone out too hard, probably in order to offset the sloppy muck, and that his horse, Empire Maker, was going to run him down. Maker had to fend off a challenge to the wire, but from a horse called Ten Most Wanted, not Funny Cide. Maker won by four lengths. Funny Cide came in third.
It was the ninth time since Affirmed’s Triple that a horse had won the first two legs but came up short at the Belmont. The agony for racing fans intent on the feat happening would continue, but everyone in the racing world was happy for Frankel, who at last took home a trophy from one of the Big Three.
“This is my biggest thrill in racing,” Frankel said.
AFTERMATH:
Funny Cide was named 2003 Horse of the Year despite the defeat on Long Island, and raced continuously until retiring in 2007. He died in 2023, and his ashes are buried in Saratoga. Empire Maker raced just once more, placing at the Jim Dandy Stakes in—ironically enough—Saratoga before retiring to stud. He is the grandsire of American Pharaoh, who at last ended the Triple Crown drought in 2015.
WHAT THEY SAID:
“Most broken-hearted of all were Funny Cide's legions of fans who had come to see a blue-collar horse, trained by an everyday trainer and owned by a group of regular guys, perhaps grab greatness. In fact, when Empire Maker trotted into the winner's circle, a smattering of boos could be heard.”
—Joe Drape, The New York Times
FURTHER READING:
The Triple Crown—A Comprehensive History by Richard Sowers
VIDEO: