The Brooklyn Nets have 52 jersey numbers worn by over 600 different players over the course of their history since the franchise was founded in 1967 as a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), when the team was known as the “New Jersey Americans”.
Since then, that league has been absorbed by the NBA with the team that would later become the New York Nets and New Jersey Nets before settling on the name by which they are known today, bringing their rich player and jersey history with them to the league of today.
To commemorate the players who played for the Nets over the decades wearing those 52 different jersey numbers, Nets Wire is covering the entire history of the franchise’s jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. The 21st of those 52 different numbers is jersey No. 20, which has has had a total of 28 players wear the number in the history of the team.
The second of those players wearing No. 20 played in the (then) New Jersey Americans (now, Brooklyn Nets) era, guard alum Barry Leibowitz. After ending his college career at LIU, Leibowitz was picked up with the 48th overall selection of the 1967 NBA draft by the New York Knicks.
The New Yorker instead signed with the ABA’s (defunct) Pittsburgh Pipers, and was dealt to the Americans in 1967. His stay with the team would span just 24 games of the same season, coming to an end when he was traded again, this time to the (also defunct) Oakland Oaks.
During his time suiting up for the Americans, Leibowitz wore only jersey No. 20 and put up 11.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game.
All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.