Before the draft, Zingale spoke to Clark Graebner, a native of Cleveland, about playing for the team as well as to being its coach and general manager.

[3][4] Clark Graebner's Northwestern Wildcats college teammate Marty Riessen joined the Nets for the 1975 season as a player and the team's new coach.

[2][4] Despite Riessen's excellent play, the Nets finished with 16 wins and 28 losses, last place in the Eastern Division and missed the playoffs.

[3][4] Prior to the 1976 season, the Nets signed 19-year-old Martina Navratilova to a $150,000 contract and gave her a large diamond pendant in the shape of a "#1.

Despite the presence of Navratilova, the Nets endured another losing season finishing with 20 wins and 24 losses, third place in the Eastern Division and missed the playoffs.

With Pittsburgh and Philadelphia both lacking franchises, the league had considered fielding a team called the Pennsylvania Keystones in 1977, composed of players from the Soviet Union.

"[12] At the time of the signing, Richards was embroiled in litigation with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) which had denied her entry into the United States Open Tennis Championships as a female player, because she refused to take the Barr body test of her chromosomes as required by USTA rules.

[13][14][15] Not wanting to lock horns with the USTA, WTT ruled Richards not eligible to play as a female player until her court case was decided.

[16] The Nets' home match against the San Diego Friars in South Florida on July 17, featuring Borg against Rod Laver in men's singles drew 8,470 fans.

WTT commissioner Butch Buchholz immediately sent the Nets a telegram confirming that Richard was now eligible to play as a female.

Marty Riessen and Turnbull opened the match with a 6–2 set win over Mike Estep and Greer Stevens in mixed doubles.

Richards did not play in the match, and the Nets lost, 21–20, despite Turnbull taking the women's singles set from Navratilova, the player for whom she was traded, 7–6.

Since the Nets had played one of their 1977 home matches at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans and drawn a fairly large crowd, he decided to move the team there and rename it the New Orleans Sun Belt Nets with the plan of playing most of the home matches in the Superdome and a few in other cities in the southern United States.

Starting about a quarter of the way through the season, she and two-sport athlete John Lucas were successful as the Nets' regular mixed-doubles team.

[3][4] Following the 1978 season, between October 27 and November 9, the New York Apples, Boston Lobsters, Los Angeles Strings, San Diego Friars and Indiana Loves all announced that they were folding, cutting the size of WTT from 10 teams to five.

[4] The following table shows regular season records, playoff results and titles won by the New Orleans Sun Belt Nets franchise since its founding in 1974.

The following table shows individual honors bestowed upon players and coaches of the New Orleans Sun Belt Nets franchise.