Fansided

Every NBA team’s worst iteration ever

By Rich Kraetsch

BOSTON - NOVEMBER 20: Guard Chris Herren and coach Rick Pitino's expressions on the bench reflected their loss against the 76ers. (Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
BOSTON - NOVEMBER 20: Guard Chris Herren and coach Rick Pitino's expressions on the bench reflected their loss against the 76ers. (Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) /
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(Original Caption) Philadelphia 76ers’ basketball coach Roy Rubin huddles with three of his players at team’s pre-season training camp at University of Scranton’s John Long Center here, 9/12. From left to right are Rubin, 6-10 John Block of Maryland; 6-2 Hal Greer of Marshall and 6-7 Gary Gregor of South Carolina. 76ers open season September 21 against Baltimore Bullets in NBA exhibition.
(Original Caption) Philadelphia 76ers’ basketball coach Roy Rubin huddles with three of his players at team’s pre-season training camp at University of Scranton’s John Long Center here, 9/12. From left to right are Rubin, 6-10 John Block of Maryland; 6-2 Hal Greer of Marshall and 6-7 Gary Gregor of South Carolina. 76ers open season September 21 against Baltimore Bullets in NBA exhibition. /

Philadelphia 76ers (1972-73, 9-73, -11.50 SRS)

Six years after winning an NBA Championship with Wilt Chamberlain, Chet Walker, Hal Greer and Billy Cunningham, Philadelphia became the worst team not only in 1972-73 but one of the worst teams in major American professional sports history.

The season got off to a tumultuous start when Cunningham bolted for the American Basketball Association—ironically it was the threat of Chamberlain bolting for the ABA years prior that led to Philadelphia trading their star big man.

Either way, this left the 76ers with a depleted roster. Greer was 36 and no longer much of a factor on the team. Fred Carter—acquired the prior year—was thrust into the unfamiliar role as team leader.

Philly lost the first 15 games of the season and followed that up months later with a record 20-game losing streak. At the conclusion of the 20-game skid, the 76ers had lost 34 of 35 games and saw their season record sit at an unbelievable 4-58.

Head coach Roy Rubin lasted only half the season—his first and last season at the helm of an NBA team (could you blame him?). Rubin initially got the job because, well, nobody else wanted it. The Sixers reached out to both Al McGuire and legendary college coach Adolph Rupp who both turned them down. Desperate for someone to take the role, the 76ers put an ad in a local paper looking for a head coach. One of Rubin’s friends saw it and informed the then-Long Island University head coach.

Player-coach Kevin Loughery took over for Rubin and improved the team…kind of. They still went went 5-26 under Loughery but were not the destitute, aimless team they had been prior.

Still, the season was a lost cause and the team had to do everything to avoid being one of the worst ever. At the 1973 All-Star Game Loughery was asked what it would take for his team to make the playoffs. His response: “three airplane crashes.”

The season was filled with record-breaking futility for Philadelphia: they finished 59 games behind the Boston Celtics in the Atlantic Division and their 0.110 winning percentage was a record worst at the time (currently the second lowest in NBA history).

Philly’s nine wins is the fourth fewest in NBA history trailing only the Providence Steamrollers in a 48-game 1947-48 season (6 wins), Charlotte Bobcats in the lockout-shortened 66-game season in 2011-12 (7) and the Vancouver Grizzlies in the lockout-shortened 50-game 1998-99 season (8). The Sixers couldn’t use lockouts or a prehistoric NBA as an excuse, they were a special breed of awful. Their -11.50 SRS still stands as the fifth-lowest in NBA history. Just six seasons earlier, Philadelphia had set an NBA record for most wins in a season and highest winning percentage.

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