By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

No. 100: September 1, 1977 – The Braves trade George Johnson, a first-round draft choice in 1978 (Micheal Ray Richardson) and a first-round draft choice in 1979 (Cliff Robinson) to New Jersey for Tiny Archibald.

The Braves were coming off a dreary 1976-77 season, and the team’s front office thought the roster needed some excitement. Who better to do that than Nate “Tiny” Archibald? He was one of the most dynamic players in basketball, someone who led the league in points and assists in 1973.

Archibald, who had achieved his greatest moments with the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, was a member of the Nets when the Braves made this deal. Buffalo sent a couple of first-round picks, one of which by chance turned into Buffalo native son Cliff Robinson, to the Nets for Tiny.

Alas, fate was not on the side of the Braves that season. Archibald suited up for an exhibition game for the Braves in the Aud … and tore his Achilles tendon that night. He was done for the season, and the team never really recovered. They would be gone to San Diego less than a year later.

(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)

Budd Bailey

Budd Bailey has been involved in almost every aspect of the local sports scene for the last 40 years. He worked for WEBR Radio, the Buffalo Sabres' public relations department and The Buffalo News during that time. In that time he covered virtually every aspect of the area's sports world, from high schools to the Bills and Sabres and everything in between. Along the way, Budd served as a play-by-play announcer for the Bisons, an analyst for the Stallions, and a talk-show host. He won the National Lacrosse League's Tom Borrelli Award as the media personality of the year in 2011, and was a finalist for that same award in 2017. Budd's seventh and eighth books, one on the Transcontinental Railroad and the other about Ichiro Suzuki, are scheduled to be released in the fall.

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