Brooklyn Nets jersey history No. 21 - John Smith (1970)
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 22nd of those 52 different numbers is jersey No. 21, which has has had a total of 26 players wear the number in the history of the team.
The first of those players wearing No. 21 played in the (then) New York (now, Brooklyn) Nets era, big man alum John Smith. After ending his college career at University of Southern Colorado, Smith was picked up with the 101st overall selection (there were many more rounds in that era of the draft) of the 1968 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Columbus, Mississippi native would play parts of the first two seasons of his pro career with the defunct Dallas Chapparals. He also played with the (also defunct) Pittsburgh Pipers before he signed with New York for the last 16 games of his ABA career.
During his time suiting up for the Nets, Smith wore only jersey Nos. 10 and 21 and put up 1.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.
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