1990–91 New Jersey Nets season

The 1990–91 New Jersey Nets season was the Nets' 24th season in the National Basketball Association, and 15th season in East Rutherford, New Jersey. After finishing with the worst record last season, the Nets won the NBA draft lottery, and selected power forward Derrick Coleman out of Syracuse University with the first overall pick in the 1990 NBA draft. During the off-season, the team acquired Reggie Theus from the Orlando Magic.

With the addition of Coleman and Theus, the Nets continued to struggle losing nine of their first eleven games of the regular season, but managed to win six of their next eight games. However, the team posted an 11-game losing streak between December and January, posted a seven-game losing streak between January and February, and held a 14–34 record at the All-Star break. At mid-season, the team acquired second-year Croatian guard Dražen Petrović from the Portland Trail Blazers, and traded Lester Conner to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Greg Anderson. However, after only just one game with the Nets, Anderson was soon traded to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for rookie power forward Terry Mills. The Nets lost 12 of their final 16 games of the season, and finished in fifth place in the Atlantic Division with a 26–56 record, missing the NBA playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.

Theus averaged 18.6 points and 4.7 assists per game, while Coleman averaged 18.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game, and was named the NBA Rookie of the Year, and was also named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. In addition, second-year guard Mookie Blaylock provided the team with 14.1 points, 6.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game, while Chris Morris contributed 13.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game, and Sam Bowie provided with 12.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. Meanwhile, Petrović averaged 12.6 points per game in 43 games after the trade, second-year forward Derrick Gervin contributed 7.6 points per game, Chris Dudley provided with 7.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, and Jack Haley averaged 5.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.

The Nets finished 24th in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 480,786 at the Brendan Byrne Arena during the regular season, which was the fourth-lowest in the league. Following the season, Theus retired after only one season with the Nets, and Gervin and Haley were both released to free agency.

For the season, the Nets changed their primary logo, which showed the team's name "Nets" above a basketball in red, white and blue colors; the team also added new uniforms, replacing dark blue with a lighter blue color to their color scheme of red and white, plus adding light blue road jerseys. The team's new primary logo, and new home uniforms would both remain in use until 1997, while the road jerseys only lasted for just one season, where they would change them to a darker blue color next season.