This Was a Rights Sale, Not a Conventional Player Trade
Buffalo's transaction ledger says the Braves sold the player rights to Bird Averitt to the New Jersey Nets on September 16, 1977. The league transaction log uses the same “sold the player rights” language. New Jersey's ledger records that it acquired Averitt's rights but does not specify the payment amount.
That is enough to establish cash consideration while still preserving uncertainty about the amount. This review therefore keeps the cash asset but labels it as an unspecified rights-sale payment rather than treating the transaction as a normal player-for-player exchange.
Averitt Gave New Jersey 21 Games
Averitt appeared in 21 regular-season games for the Nets in 1977-78. He averaged 19.5 minutes, 8.3 points, 3.2 assists and 1.6 rebounds. Basketball-Reference lists 409 total minutes, 174 points and 68 assists.
Those numbers are modest, but they are more than a purely administrative rights acquisition. New Jersey received actual rotation minutes from the player it purchased.
The Nets Waived Him in December
New Jersey waived Averitt on December 12, 1977. There was no trade return attached to that departure, so the Nets' direct asset cycle ends after those 21 games.
That short tenure keeps the grade restrained. The Nets did not turn the purchased rights into a long-term starter or a later draft asset.
Buffalo Later Re-Signed Averitt, but That Is a Separate Event
The unusual historical wrinkle is that Buffalo signed Averitt as a free agent on January 31, 1978. He then played 34 regular-season games for the Braves, averaging 9.5 points and 3.8 assists.
This review does not credit those 34 games as a direct return from the September sale. Buffalo reacquired him through a later free-agent signing after New Jersey had waived him. The sequence is still worth documenting because it shows that the Braves ultimately regained the player, but the later roster move is not the consideration that New Jersey paid in September.
Buffalo's Cash Return Cannot Be Fully Valued
The Braves definitely received a sale payment, but no amount is identified in the cited Buffalo, New Jersey, league or executive records. There is also no source-backed downstream transaction connecting that payment to a later player or draft asset.
TradeVerdicts therefore records the cash as real but unquantified. That prevents both extremes: Buffalo should not be treated as receiving nothing, and the unknown payment should not be inflated into a major return.
Final Verdict
Nets Edge, C+/C. New Jersey receives a C+ because Averitt produced 21 games and useful reserve scoring before being waived. Buffalo receives a C because it received a confirmed cash payment of unknown amount and later independently re-signed Averitt, though that free-agent return is not part of the original sale. The separation is limited, and confidence is high on the transaction structure but naturally lower on the exact value of Buffalo's cash because the amount is not preserved in the cited record.