The Sixers finally came all the way back in 1976–77, in large part due to a byproduct of the ABA–NBA merger. The ABA's last champions, the New York Nets, were facing having to pay almost $5 million to the Knicks for "invading" the New York area on top of the $3.2 million expansion fee for joining the NBA. When the Sixers offered to buy the contract of the Nets' franchise player, Julius Erving, for $3 million—roughly the cost of NBA membership—the Nets had little choice but to accept. A few months before that trade, Kosloff had sold the Sixers to Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr. on May 28, 1976.