By Jonathan Ram, Year 13
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a North-American sports league which has been around since 1946 and has gained popularity and traction until today. Throughout the league’s history, there have been 18 different NBA champions (out of 30 teams) and two teams stand alone with the most championships; those being the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics each with 17 championships.
However, there have been plenty of losing teams in NBA history, and there have been some historically bad teams. However, none have been as bad as the current 2023-2024 Detroit Pistons.
Before this season, the worst teams in NBA by win percentage history went as follows: 2011-2012 Charlotte Bobcats (10.6%), 1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers (11%), and the 2015-2016 Philadelphia 76ers (12.2%). However currently one team stands alone in lowest win percentage which is the 2023-2024 Detroit Pistons currently with a 3-36 record and a 7.7% win rate. If the Pistons keep this win rate for the rest of the 82 game NBA season, they will be projected to win just 6 games and 76 losses.
The Pistons are obviously the worst team when compared to NBA standards, but how do they fair up to other sports leagues in North America? When compared with the worst team in the history of the MLB (Major League Baseball), which was the 1890 Cleveland Spiders, who had a win rate of just 13%, the Pistons are almost twice as unlikely to win a game. When compared with the NHL (National Hockey League), the Pistons still have a worse record than the worst Hockey team in history which were the 1975 Washington Capitals, who had just a 13.2% win rate. This is quite a feat in itself because the Washington Capitals were only founded in 1974, and they had a team of semi-pros and college students (true fact, look it up!), and even then they still had a better record than the professional disgrace that is the 2023-2024 Detroit Pistons.
To add insult to injury, between October 30th, 2023 and December 30th, 2023, the Pistons accomplished a feat that no other NBA team has or has ever wanted before. They set the longest losing streak in NBA history with an abysmal 28 losses in a row. Even when they did snap that streak, they only won by 2 points against the Toronto Raptors who are a losing team as is.
But what makes this team so bad? Is it poor management? A lack of star talent? Maybe it’s the fact that the Detroit Pistons are historically bad in the clutch (last few minutes of close games) so they just can’t close games out. Maybe it’s the fan base who are so horrified by their team that they chant “sell the team!” in the middle of games (see image). Or maybe it’s just a combination of all of these factors and more which leads to what I and many others believe to be the worst team in North American professional sports history.
