With the Golden State Warriors officially becoming first team in NBA history to start a season 16-0 after their 111-77 blowout win over the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers are on the verge of history as well.
Unfortunately, it’s a record they are desperately trying to avoid.
Should the 76ers come up short at the Boston Garden Wednesday night against the 7-7 Celtics, they will tie an embarrassing record (along with the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers) and become the third team in NBA history to lose 26 consecutive games, a skid that began on March 27 against the Los Angeles Clippers.
A once proud franchise with household names such as Malone, Erving, Dawkins, Barkley and Iverson that brought three championships (1955, 1967, 1983) and nine conference titles to the City of Brotherly Love, the 76ers have taken a nose dive the last few years and are consistently in basement of the league hoping their team logo is the last ping pong ball remaining in June’s draft lottery selection.
With a potential history-tying night on the cusp, here’s a look at few other teams in recent memory that had record-setting milestones they’d like to forget:
2003-04 Pittsburgh Penguins (23-47-8-4)
The Pittsburgh Penguins finished their 2003-04 campaign with only 23 wins, and in addition, their season also included an 18-game losing streak. They finished last in the Eastern Conference with 58 total points on the year and surrendered 303 goals against, while only scoring 190.
The Penguins also set the NHL record for most consecutive home losses with 14.
Mario Lemieux dealt with numerous injuries and only played in 10 games that season, finishing with one goal and eight assists.
But after the Washington Capitals beat out the Penguins for the Alexander Ovechkin sweepstakes in the 2004 draft, the Penguins selected Evgeni Malkin with the second overall pick. Of course, the franchise would completely turn around one year later, as the Penguins won the 2005 draft lottery and selected Sidney Crosby with the top pick.
2008-09 Detroit Lions (0-16)
The 2008-09 Detroit Lions set an NFL-worst mark of 0-16, becoming the first team since the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers to end an NFL season without a win or a tie, and were the first team to finish a season winless since the NFL schedule expanded to 16 games.
One of the most notable moments of that dreadful season was during the Lions’ 12-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 12. Quarterback Dan Orlovsky was making his first-career NFL start and early in the first quarter after taking a shotgun snap deep in his endzone, Orlovsky scrambled around to find an open receiver, but was doing so out of bounds, awarding the Vikings a safety and the eventual margin of victory.
2009-10 New Jersey Nets (12-70)
The Nets set the NBA record for losses to begin a regular season, going 0-18, with their first win coming on the first week of December, a 97-91 win over the Charlotte Bobcats.
And the records didn’t stop there.
They also had the worst 30-game start in NBA history, going 2-28 in those games, and from there also set the worst 50-game start to a season as well, going a woeful 4-46 during that stretch.
2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers (19-63)
The Cavs’ 2010-11 campaign was really doomed from the start, as July 8, 2010 marked one of the most significant days in free-agent history for any sport when LeBron James announced “The Decision” to take his talents to the Miami Heat, essentially leaving the Cavs with a starting five to begin the season of Baron Davis, Anthony Parker, Alonzo Gee, Antawn Jamison and Anderson Varejão.
Cleveland lost an NBA-record 26 games in a row, eventually snapping the streak on Feb. 11, 2011 with a 126-119 overtime win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
It wasn’t all bad for Cleveland fans though, as the Dallas Mavericks defeated LeBron and the Miami Heat in his first attempt at a championship with his new team.
LeBron would go on to win back-to-back titles in the following 2012 and 2013 seasons.
2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats (7-59)
In a shortened 66-game season due to the lockout, the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats set the NBA record for the worst winning percentage (.106) by any team in the league’s history.
Michael Jordan and the rest of the front office team selected Bismack Biyombo from the Democratic Republic of Congo with the seventh overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, and two picks later selected Kemba Walker from the 2011 NCAA champion University of Connecticut Huskies.
Not long after being swept in the first round by the Miami Heat in the 2014 NBA playoffs, the Bobcats officially became the Charlotte Hornets, resurrecting the franchise that had held a spot among the NBA’s family from 1988-2002.
2011-12 Indianapolis Colts (2-14)
The 2011-12 NFL season began with news that then-Colts quarterback Peyton Manning would miss the entire season due to neck surgery, so the Colts turned to veteran quarterback Kerry Collins and 2009 sixth-round draft pick Curtis Painter.
The Colts became the first team since the 2008-09 Detroit Lions to drop their first 13 games and had the worst record of any AFC team since the Kansas City Chiefs set a 2-14 mark back in 2008.
But this season could perhaps be seen as a blessing in disguise, as the Colts selected franchise quarterback Andrew Luck out of Stanford University with the first overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft and also brought in Chuck Pagano as the new head coach. The Colts went on to lose in the AFC Wild Card game the following season against the eventual Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens after posting an 11-5 record.
2014-15 Philadelphia 76ers (18-64)
It wasn’t too long ago that this Philadelphia consecutive-losses streak was the topic of conversation.
The 76ers of a year ago began their off-season drafting Joel Embiid, a prized big-man from Kansas and said to be one of the top players in the 2014 NBA Draft. Six days prior to Philadelphia selecting the seven-footer, he underwent surgery to repair a broken bone in his right foot. Embiid was ruled out of the 2014-15 season.
The 76ers went on to win just 18 games that year, and started off 0-17, but avoided tying an NBA-record 18th straight loss to begin a season after they finally beat the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 3, 2014.
Embiid has yet to play a regulation minute for the 76ers since he was drafted.