The Nets acquired Rick Barry from Virginia for a 1971 first-round ABA draft choice and reported cash of roughly $200,000 to $250,000. Barry immediately became an elite scorer, averaging 29.4 and 31.5 points across his two New York seasons, making the ABA All-Star team both years and helping the Nets reach the 1972 ABA Finals. The pick was later routed to Denver and is recorded as the No. 5 selection tied to Cliff Meely. New York wins the value comparison, though Virginia received meaningful cash and premium draft capital.
New York acquired Rick Barry from the Virginia Squires on September 2, 1970 for a 1971 first-round ABA draft choice and cash. Basketball-Reference's Nets, Squires and league transaction logs agree on the date and basic structure. Pro Sports Transactions identifies the pick as the No. 5 selection and reports the cash at roughly $200,000 to $250,000. Its draft-trade ledger links that selection to Cliff Meely. The cash figure is therefore treated as reported rather than exact.
Barry delivered star production immediately. He averaged 29.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 59 regular-season games in 1970-71, made the ABA All-Star team and finished fifth in MVP voting. In 1971-72 he played 80 games and averaged 31.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists while making another All-Star team. Brooklyn's own historical coverage still lists 31.5 points per game as the highest single-season scoring average in franchise history. The Nets reached their first ABA Finals in 1972, with Barry as their primary scorer.
Virginia's return was not empty. The Squires received a premium 1971 first-round pick plus a large cash payment for the era. The pick did not simply disappear from the asset chain: transaction ledgers show Virginia later sent a 1971 first-round choice to Denver in the January 22, 1971 Ken Durrett deal, while the draft-trade ledger traces the Nets-originated No. 5 selection to Cliff Meely. That routing means the original pick had real transaction utility even though Meely did not play for Virginia. The Squires also went 55-29 in 1970-71 after moving Barry, so the franchise remained competitive in the short term.
The decisive advantage is the level of production New York actually received. Barry supplied two elite scoring seasons, two All-Star selections and a trip to the ABA Finals. The acquisition lasted only two seasons before his contractual situation returned him to Golden State, which keeps this from being an automatic top-tier grade. Virginia, meanwhile, converted a player who did not want to remain with the relocated franchise into premium draft capital and substantial cash. The Squires deserve more credit than a simple star-for-pick summary suggests, but the identifiable on-court return still falls short of Barry's New York impact.
Nets Win, B+/C. New York earns a B+ because Barry delivered exactly the type of elite production a team hopes to buy with a first-round pick and cash, culminating in the franchise's first ABA Finals appearance. Virginia receives a C because the Squires obtained a valuable first-round asset and meaningful cash, then remained a 55-win team, but the surviving asset chain does not show a direct return comparable to Barry's two seasons in New York. Confidence is high on the transaction structure, Barry's performance and the pick identity; the only material uncertainty is whether the reported cash was $200,000 or $250,000.