Taub was born on May 29, 1929, in
Paterson, New Jersey, to Morris Taub and Sylvia Sievitz, both Jewish immigrants from Poland. Taub was raised in Paterson and attended
Eastside High School. He later attended
Rutgers University. Taub retired in 1969 at the age of 40 to pursue his philanthropic interests. Over the years, he established scholarships for underprivileged youths, funded a museum of Paterson's history and founded a youth basketball league with former
Major League Baseball player,
Larry Doby, a Paterson native and fellow East Side alumnus.
New Jersey Nets Taub, who had a longstanding interest in sports, partnered with attorney Alan Cohen, to invest in a franchise. In 1970, the pair bid unsuccessfully for the
New York Jets. He and Cohen eventually put together a consortium of nine investors to acquire the Nets, which under their then-owner, Roy Boe, were financially troubled. The team had amassed debts of $19 million and had lost a judgment of $4.2 million to
Cablevision. In 1981, the Nets hired
Larry Brown as coach. Brown led the team to a 91–67 record in two seasons with the Nets. In 1983, after discovering that Brown interviewed at the
University of Kansas without asking for permission, Taub fired Brown at
Newark International Airport with six games left in the season. In 1985, Taub sold his interest in the team, citing frustration with the inability to turn a sports franchise around the way one could a business. He stayed away only six years before repurchasing an interest in the team in 1991. Pitino spurned the team to stay at the
Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball. The Nets ownership sold the team to
Lewis Katz and
Ray Chambers for $150 million. Taub retained a small interest in the team. Taub died October 27, 2017, at the age of 88. ==References==