Twenty-seven. That’s how many games the Detroit Pistons lost consecutively this current NBA season, setting the most consecutive losses in a single season, almost breaking the previous record for most consecutive losses across two seasons set by the 76ers from the 2014-15 to 2015-16 seasons.
Monty Williams, head coach of the Detroit Pistons, talks about the relief of finally snapping their losing streak to the Toronto Raptors, “It wasn’t relief, it was just like, ‘thank God, finally.’ And guys were screaming. I was almost in tears. And I’m just so happy for our guys, happy for everybody in the locker room.”
This record is one that no team would ever like to receive, but yet it’s been achieved as of recent causing analysts and fans alike to beg the question, are the 2023-24 Detroit Pistons the worst NBA team of all time? Or, if you’re bold enough to even ask, are the ‘23-’24 Pistons the worst professional sports team ever assembled?
If we put these questions into the perspective of american professional sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL), then the answer so far is yes. In an NBA regular season there’s a total of 82 games, identical to the NHL season total of 82 regular season games. This may seem like a lot until you see the MLB’s insane amount of games that nearly double the amount of games involved in the regular season, totaling in at 162 regular season games per team. Inversely, the NFL has recently implemented a 17 game regular season in 2021, with the previous total being 16 games per season. To make the percentages accurate for the worst possible sports team i’ll be combining five seasons of 16 game NFL play (80 total games) to compare the NFL’s biggest losers to the ‘23-’24 Pistons.
With that being said, the worst NFL span of five seasons of play go to 2013-14 – 2017-18 Cleveland Browns. This includes a completely winless season in the 2017-18 season where they went 0-16, being only the second team to do so in NFL history. Their collectively worst five season combined come out to a record of 15 wins and 65 losses, or a 23% win percentage.
This isn’t even close to the next worst american sports team record for their league, with the MLB’s 1899 Cleveland Spiders going an abysmal 20 wins and 134 losses, averaging out to about a 15% win percentage. Along with making history as the worst MLB team of all time, the spiders ended their season with the worst run differential of all time at -724, meaning that throughout the season the Spiders got outscored by a total of 724 runs.
The next worst team for their respective league is the NBA’s 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers who went with less than 10 wins, going a horrendous 9-73, or 12.3% win percentage. The succeedingly worst record for the NBA is the previously mentioned 2015-16 76ers who went a total of 10 wins and 72 losses in the regular season, ending with a 13.8% win percentage.
The final worst american professional sports team’s worst regular season record takes us to the NHL, with the 1974-75 Washington Capitals ending their season with 8 wins, 67 losses, and 5 ties. This brings their win percentage to the worst recorded regular season in american sports history with a total of 11.1% of games won. Along with the worst win percentage, the ‘74-’75 Capitals have the record for the worst goal differential of all time, ending their season with a -265 differential over their 82 game season.
Now that we’ve compared the worst professional american sports teams of all time, the Pistons are currently on pace to break the dreadful record for least wins in a single season (or 82 games total). This would apply for not on the NBA, but all of american professional sports history. They are currently standing with a record of 4 wins and 39 losses, a win percentage of 10.2%, even worse than the previously mentioned ‘74-’75 Washington Capitals of the NHL. At this rate the Pistons will go down as the worst sports team assembled, which is one title the Pistons are fighting hard to never reach.
Detroit’s organization has deservedly received backlash from its fans. After a home defeat to the Utah Jazz during the losing stretch, fans chanted for owner Tom Gores to sell the team. He responded in an interview a few days later by saying the fans’ chants were “ridiculous,” while also making vague promises of change (per Ameer Tyree of CBS Sports).
If things don’t turn around not only will the 23-24 Pistons be known as the worst sports team of all time, but an exchange of ownership may be needed in order to turn things around. I hope the Pistons are able to salvage this season and develop their into contenders, but until the process of progress begins, the horizon is anything bright for Detroit’s basketball team.
