TORONTO — Monday was the warmup. Tonight in Toronto is the main event.
The last main event for New Jersey. This will be the final game for the New Jersey Nets, whose first NBA game representing the Garden State came at Detroit (a loss) on Oct. 18, 1977.
Their first game in New Jersey came against New Orleans (a loss), at Rutgers in Piscataway before a throng of 4,960. The coach back then was Kevin Loughery, who guided the team to two ABA titles and its first NBA season (as the New York Nets).
Any recollections of those first New Jersey games, Coach?
“Nah, I don’t remember the games,” Loughery, 72, said with a laugh Wednesday.
“What I do remember is coming over [from the ABA],” he said. “It was really disappointing. We had a really good team and then we lost Doc [Julius Erving to the 76ers]. It really deflated everyone, changed everything.”
So, after four years at Rutgers, 29 years in the Meadowlands and two years in Newark, it ends. The governor has bid them good riddance, the fans have said their in-person good-byes, the past has been celebrated and now comes the final moment for the New Jersey of the Nets, who head to Brooklyn next season. They’ll be the Brooklyn Nets with a new logo, a new arena, new colors (black and white, judging by the website) and hopefully a new roster.
“It’ll be tough,” Loughery said. “New York is a Knicks town. They’re going to have to be very good to capture the Knicks crowd. Right now, they’re not good. Probably they’re going to lose Deron Williams. It will be tough.”
When has it ever been easy for the Nets?
Even their last game as New Jersey will be so-what. They face the equally struggling Raptors. Both teams are 22-43, so 11th place in the East is on the line. And you thought there was nothing to play for in this one.
There were the Finals years with Jason Kidd and Co., the Larry Brown playoff years and the two-season playoff run with Chuck Daly and some other highlight moments. But the Nets’ New Jersey birth began the way it is ending, with a run of futility. The Nets began NBA losing seasons (four in New Jersey) and are taking a run of five straight losing seasons to Brooklyn.
Loughery knows tough.
“It was never going to work in New Jersey,” he said. “Playing in Piscataway wasn’t easy. It was a long drive. You had to stay in a hotel after practice. But anytime you’re in the NBA, it’s not a bad thing. It was just tough because if you’re not a good team, you really don’t have much of a homecourt.”
fred.kerber@nypost.com