Classic Rant #175 (January 19, 2010): Not Hitting the Nets

This is a story that sports fans around the country are not really aware of right now, but history could be in the making come April.

The New Jersey Nets, the wandering team that is slated to play in a new Brooklyn arena in about two years, are on the brink of setting a record for the worst single-season record ever for an NBA team, and one of the worst single-season records for an American professional sports team.

I say that because I know what the NBA record is, and I know what the baseball record is, and I know what the football record is. I am not sure of hockey.

After another loss yesterday on Martin Luther King Day, the Nets' record stands at three wins, 37 losses. At that rate, all you have to do is do the math. With their NBA season one game from the halfway point, double their record and you will get six wins, 74 losses. Give them a win and another loss, and they will end up seven wins, 75 losses.

If that happens, they will eclipse the record set by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, who were 9-73.

This is a story that the sports media is pretty much ignoring for some unknown reason. Maybe it has to do with the Nets being, well, the Nets. Wherever they have played--be it Long Island or New Jersey--the Nets have always been a poor second cousin to the New York Knicks. Even in the Knicks' down years, like right now, they garner much more coverage than their New Jersey cousins, and even when the Nets were a good team in the NBA, the Knicks received most of the coverage.

And when the Nets were really good, when they played on Long Island, they were in the ABA, so the majority of pro basketball fans didn't care about them, even if they had Julius Erving.

Now, they have Brook Lopez, a couple of journeymen castoffs, and little else. They are a lame duck team, expecting to move to Brooklyn in a few years, and their pursuit of this record is going somewhat unnoticed.

No, it's not as bad as the Detroit Lions' 0-16 record a few seasons ago, and it is better than the 1962 Mets' 40-120 record, but it is bad enough.

Let's see how far this team can go into the dumpster. They are there already there, but they are digging deeper on a weekly basis.