This column appears in the Monday March 22, 2010 edition of the Business Mirror. A Year in Hades
by rick olivares
One more murder. By the numbers, it was far grislier than anything done by Tony Soprano. It was a home mangling by Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors. Bosh, an All-Star and Olympian with the American Redeem Team, played his 500th game for the Canadian club, scored 36 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. The 100-90 win leveled his team’s standing to 34-34 as held fast to eighth place in the National Basketball Association’s Eastern Conference Playoff picture.
Their victim, the New Jersey Nets, shot 40% from the field (33-83) but tried to keep the game close until midway through the 3rd Quarter when the visiting team established control over the match.
The Nets now stand at 7-62 with 13 games to play. Thirteen -- is that number ominous -- to be able to match or surpass the dubious 9-73 record of the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers. Incidentally, the number “9” is supposed to be a lucky number and yet it is now their goal as they are 48 games behind the league-leading Cleveland Cavaliers who tote a 55-15 record and 27 behind Toronto that is still in danger of getting piped by Chicago for the last bus to the NBA’s second season. In their final 13 games, New Jersey will play three teams with sub-.500 records – Washington, Detroit, and Indiana. Unfortunately, everyone has a better record than the Nets.
However as dire as it may look, the Nets might want to look at the latter day 9-73 Sixers that share some similarities and contrasts to the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets despite the generational gap.
The 1972-73 76ers finished at 9-73 (.110). Their opponents scored 116.2 points per game while the Sixers put up 104.1. They were coached by Roy Rubin (4-47) before he was axed in favor of Kevin Loughery who as player-coach finished 5-26. The team still had Hal Greer who was on the downside of his career and benched by Rubin for unknown reasons, Fred Carter, Tom Van Arsdale, and Loughery but that was it. Bill Bridges and Leroy Ellis played center for Philadelphia. Bridges and Ellis who? Exactomundo. That’s what New York’s Willis Reed, Boston’s John Havlicek, Baltimore’s Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes, and Milwaukee’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar thought.
In the previous year, the Sixers lost coach Jack Ramsey, guard Archie Clark and forward Billy Cunningham who both scored over 20 points per game as well as Luke Jackson. That team went 30-52.
The 2008-09 Nets finished with a 34-48 record good for third in the Atlantic Division. They had two 20-point scorers in Devin Harris and Vince Carter yet they scored 98.1 ppg while surrendering 100.5 ppg. Guess the danger signs were already there.
In the Sixers’ ill-fated season, the team’s leading scorer was local boy Fred Carter who later coached the team before becoming a successful ESPN analyst.
The Nets before the start of the 2009-10 season had a high-scoring guard named Vince Carter.
Six seasons before the 9-win year, Philadelphia posted the most number of victories by an NBA team at that point with 68. That team, led by Wilt Chamberlain, won the NBA title.
Six years ago for the Nets, they had their string of consecutive NBA Finals appearances snapped by eventual champion Detroit in the second round. That was their last with the core of Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Richard Jefferson, and Kerry Kittles. In 2001-02, the Nets set their franchise record for most wins with 52 victories and a Finals appearance where they lost to the LA Lakers.
In ’72-’73, the Sixers had two head coaches – Roy Rubin and Kevin Loughery.
In ’09-’10, the Nets have had two head coaches – Lawrence Frank and Kiki Vandeweghe. Tom Barisse was an interim coach for two games between the two.
In 1972, Rubin came from Long Island University where he had 11 successful seasons as head coach but no professional basketball experience. He was fired 51 matches into the campaign.
Frank’s coaching resume began as an assistant coach in the University of Tennessee under Kevin O’Neill before he moved over as a staff assistant in Marquette. In the NBA, he served as an assistant coach to Brian Hill in the Vancouver Grizzlies before he joined Byron Scott in the sidelines in New Jersey. At the start of Frank’s head coaching tenure with the Nets, he set the record for the most consecutive wins by a rookie coach with 13. But in a cruel twist of fate, Frank ended his career in the Garden State with 17-straight loses.
In the 58th game of their season, Philly held a 95-87 lead against Boston entering the fourth quarter, but the Celtics behind Dave Cowens and John Havlicek came back to win 123-115. Recalled Rubin of his time in Philly, “No one wanted to lose against us. The opposition probably played harder against us than against better teams."
In New Jersey, they own cross-rivals New York and even picked up a road win against the Boston Celtics.
The Sixers drew a dreadful 4,461 fans to the Spectrum in ’72-’73. In this season of futility, the Nets still draw 13,000 fans who are flagellating themselves in the quiet-as-a-tomb Izod Center with Holy Week less than two weeks away.
Whether or not the Nets stave off the dubious record of the most number of losses by an NBA team, they should also take heart at the fate of those ’72-’73 Sixers.
For the 1973-74 season, they had the Number One over-all pick in Illinois State’s Doug Collins. They also selected Virginia Polytechnic’s Allen Bristow and picked up bruising forward-center Steve Mix. Collins would later coach the Chicago and Detroit while Bristow would be the first-ever coach of the expansion Charlotte Hornets. The Sixers won 25 games that campaign and would go on to add pieces to their championship puzzle over the next couple of seasons particularly the high-flying Julius Erving who led the (New York) Nets to two ABA titles in the league’s final three years. And four years after that all-time low of ’72-‘73, Philadelphia was playing in the NBA Finals.
“We were all sent to Hades that year,” said Fred Carter as he reminisced about ’72-’73 on ESPN.
Yes, but for others like the promising former Dallas Maverick Devin Harris, former Orlando Magic guard Courtney Lee, and the Chinese enigma and top pick of the Milwaukee Bucks Yi Jianlian, they got sent to New Jersey.
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Read this interesting piece from the New York Times that semi-inspired writing this column.
You ask, "Why write about the Nets?" I like the Nets too! Ouch! Yep, I'm flagellating myself too. I lived in New Jersey as well and though I later moved to New York, I rooted for the Nets not the Knicks (but I remain a staunch fan of the Chicago Bulls). When I did go to watch their home games at the Meadowlands, I wore a J-Kidd jersey. Not every team that I root for is popular like the Yankees. I love the NY Islanders and enjoyed the pride and solitude in wearing their team apparel in a sea of Rangers fans. I root for not so popular tennis players like James Blake and previous to him, Todd Martin. Although I am a fan of Liverpool, I also enjoy watching teams like Hull City and West Ham.
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