Before there were four Stanley Cups, before Fort Neverlose, before Bossy and Trottier and Nystrom's overtime winner, there was a man named Roy Boe — and Roy Boe was in serious trouble.
Boe was a Yale-educated entrepreneur who had built a successful women's clothing business and parlayed the proceeds into sports ownership. In 1969 he bought the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association, and in 1972 he founded the New York Islanders of the NHL. On paper it was an impressive portfolio: two professional sports franchises in the nation's biggest market. In practice, both teams were bleeding money in ways that would eventually bring the whole enterprise crashing down — and very nearly take the Islanders dynasty with it.
The Doctor Is In
Before the 1973–74 ABA season, Boe pulled off one of the most spectacular acquisitions in basketball history. He obtained Julius Erving — "Dr. J" — from the Virginia Squires. Erving was already the most electrifying player in his sport, a six-foot-six forward who played above the rim in ways nobody had seen before, a legitimate superstar in an era before ESPN could make superstars overnight. Having Dr. J in Long Island was a genuine coup.
It worked, for a while. Erving led the Nets to ABA championships in 1974 and 1976. The basketball team was thriving. The hockey team, meanwhile, was losing games and losing money in roughly equal measure — exactly as Boe and Bill Torrey had planned, accumulating high draft picks that would eventually become Denis Potvin, Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier, and Mike Bossy.
But Boe's financial situation was deteriorating faster than either team could improve. He was already $10 million behind in payments related to the Islanders' startup costs — territorial fees to the NHL and compensation to the rival New York Rangers for operating in their market. Then came the ABA-NBA merger in 1976, and it destroyed him.
The Bill That Broke Everything
When the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976, Boe had to pay a $3.2 million entry fee to join the league. Then the New York Knicks — furious that the Nets would be competing in the same market — demanded an additional $4.8 million indemnification payment. Eight million dollars, all at once, for a man who was already stretched past his limits.
Boe tried to solve the Knicks problem creatively: he offered to trade Julius Erving to New York in exchange for the fee being waived. The Knicks said no. So Boe was left with a $4.8 million bill he couldn't pay and a franchise player who was demanding a renegotiated contract he couldn't afford. In the summer of 1976, Boe sold Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers for $3 million — less than the fee he'd just paid the Knicks.
The basketball world was appalled. Dr. J, sold off to cover debts. The Nets, stripped of their star, would struggle for decades. Meanwhile in Philadelphia, Erving won an NBA championship in 1983 — the same spring the Islanders were winning their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup — and became one of the most beloved figures in the history of American sports.
John Pickett Saves the Franchise
By 1978, Boe was done. He had been a visionary in his way — he believed in Long Island as a sports market, he hired Bill Torrey, he gave Torrey the patience and resources to build through the draft in the team's early years. But the money was gone. He sold his share of the Islanders to John O. Pickett, a limited partner who had been in the ownership group since the beginning.
Pickett was a wealthy Long Island businessman who had grown up a hockey fan and believed deeply in what Torrey and Arbour were building. He was not a flashy owner. He did not seek headlines. What he provided was exactly what the Islanders needed at exactly the right moment: stability, financial backing, and the patience to let Torrey finish the job.
Two years after Pickett took over, Bob Nystrom scored in overtime and the Islanders won their first Stanley Cup. Then three more followed. The dynasty that Boe had unknowingly planted the seeds of — by hiring Torrey, by losing those early games that produced the draft picks — bloomed entirely under Pickett's stewardship.
What Might Have Been
The irony of the whole story is almost too neat to believe. Roy Boe sold Dr. J to cover his debts. Julius Erving went to Philadelphia and won a championship. The Nets lost their star and faded into irrelevance for a generation. And the hockey team Boe founded — the one he had to sell because he couldn't keep the lights on — went on to become one of the greatest dynasties in the history of professional sports.
If Boe had held on. If Pickett had not been willing to buy. If the Islanders had folded or relocated under the financial pressure — none of it happens. No Bossy. No Trottier. No Fort Neverlose. The dynasty that four million Long Island hockey fans carry in their hearts exists, in part, because a man in a terrible financial position made a series of desperate decisions and happened to have the right buyer waiting in the wings.
Roy Boe passed away in June 2009 at the age of 79. He is remembered, mostly, as the man who sold Dr. J. He deserves to be remembered for something else too: as the man who started it all.