The Detroit Pistons will be knocking on the door of historic incompetence on Tuesday night. The Pistons, who have lost 26 straight games, are one loss away from etching their name in the record books as the sole owners of the longest single-season losing streak in NBA history.
Detroit will take one last shot at avoiding infamy by hosting the Brooklyn Nets at Little Caesars Arena, just a few miles from where the Nets hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy for 30 consecutive years. Become. While these die-hard teams have earned the right to circle opponents’ calendars, the Pistons’ calendar for the 2023-24 season looks much different, with the team not winning a game since Oct. 28.
But Detroit wasn’t an incredibly incompetent innovator. With tonight’s loss, they will join the pantheon of legendary losers around the world. This is the longest losing streak in sports history. Solace yourself, Pistons faithful, bigger losers have been here before.
NFL: Chicago Cardinals, 29 games
If you think 27 basketball games on an 82-game schedule is bad, how about 29 football games on a 10-game schedule? The Chicago Cardinals in the 1942 season, before the AFL-NFL merger. started 3-2, losing to the Cleveland Rams in Week 6.
Chicago didn’t win until Week 4 of the 1945 season. The Cardinals (later known as the St. Louis Cardinals, later the Phoenix Cardinals, and later the Arizona Cardinals) ended 1945 with seven straight losses, falling to 1-9 and failing to advance to the playoffs for the 20th time. Straight season.
In recent history, the Jacksonville Jaguars lost 20 straight games from 2020 to 2021. A 15-game losing streak to end the 2020 season put the Jaguars in position to draft franchise QB Trevor Lawrence, a direct result of the corrupt Urban Meyer era. .
Sure, the Pistons would take on most of the infamy of losing streaks if they lost tonight and set a single-season record, but if they want to match the 76ers’ all-time record, they need to lose again to the Boston Celtics on Thursday. be. Philadelphia’s struggles spanned two seasons, with the Sixers ending the 2014-15 season with a 10-game losing streak and opening the following season with an 0-18 record before picking up their first win in December.
The 2015-16 Sixers won just 10 games during an 82-game season, second-fewest of all teams. The record for fewest wins was set by the 76ers, who went 9-73 in the 1972-73 season, setting an NBA record at the time with 20 consecutive losses.
The Pistons’ current single-season record of 26 losses is tied with the 2013-14 76ers and 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers.
WNBA: Tulsa Shock and Indiana Fever, 20 games
The Indiana Fever finished 2022 with an 18-game losing streak during a 5-31 season, but won the WNBA lottery and lost South Carolina legend Aliyah Boston, who just finished with the best record in NCAA women’s basketball history. My choice gave me a chance to reset. .
But even in Boston, where he was named an All-Star and won Rookie of the Year, the Fever’s losing streak continued, with the first two games of 2023 tying the Tulsa Shock’s losing streak from 2011. Although the wins improved, the Fever failed to make the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season.
Back in 2011, the Shock finished with a .088 winning percentage, the lowest in WNBA history, with a 3-31 record. Tulsa’s losing streak lasted from June 21 to August 25 due to a mismatched roster featuring 40-year-old legend Sheryl Swoopes returning from retirement and 19-year-old rookie Liz Cambage, a future All-Star. .
NHL: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Buffalo Sabers, 18 games
The coronavirus-shortened 2021 NHL season wasn’t short enough to prevent the Sabers from matching the 2003-2004 Penguins. The Pens were 0-17-1, while Buffalo was 0-15-3, suffering their 18th loss in particularly painful fashion.
The Sabers held a 3-0 lead entering the third period, but Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov extended their lead with a goal 42 seconds into overtime, but they allowed three goals in the final frame. I forgave him.
“It’s embarrassing,” Sabers defenseman Brandon Montour said after the loss. “This whole development is embarrassing. For any team in the NHL, that’s a win.”
MLB: Louisville Colonels, 26 games
During the administration of President Benjamin Harrison, the 1889 Louisville Colonels finished with an astonishing record of 27 wins and 111 losses, and at one point suffered a 26-game losing streak.
The season began with team owner Mordecai Davidson replacing him with Dude Esterbrook, but Esterbrook was fired after just 10 games. Outfielder Jimmy “Chicken” Wolfe assumed the role of player-manager, but Davidson later became concerned about player behavior and hired local bouncer Buck McKinney to manage the team during a losing streak.
In later years, the Colonels featured eventual Hall of Famers such as Rube Waddell and Honus Wagner, but the team disbanded in 1899. In modern history, this record has been attempted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1961, who lost 23 games in a row, and Baltimore in 1988. The Orioles have lost 21 straight games.
Norwich’s yo-yo between the Premier League and second division EFL spanned five seasons from 2018 to 2022, with them winning the EFL twice and finishing bottom of the table resulting in them being relegated to the Premier League twice.
In the Premier League, Norwich ended the 2019-20 season in the basement with 10 consecutive defeats. After being promoted to the EFL and promoted to the top flight for the 2021-22 season, Norwich set an abysmal record of losing six consecutive league games since the start of that season. The winning streak finally came to an end with a 0-0 draw in the team’s seventh game, but Norwich’s first win did not come until the 11th game of the season, as they continued to finish last in the season.
NCAA football: Northwestern, 34 games
A winless soccer season is cruel. But what about three times in four years? The 1970s and 1980s were not good for Northwestern football, with four winless seasons from 1976 to 1989 and three one-win seasons in between. From Game 3 of 1979 to Game 4 of the 1982 season, the Wildcats never recorded a win in 34 games.
When the Wildcats lost 29 straight games to break their losing streak, Northwestern fans sarcastically stormed onto the field and shouted, “We suck!” When the losing streak ended in 1982, fans again stormed the field, ripped off the team’s goal posts and threw them into Lake Michigan.
The losing streak cost manager Rick Venturi his job and he ended his tenure with a 1-31-1 record in three seasons. Venturi’s successor, Dennis Green, had a winless season in his first year before rebuilding the Wildcats in 1982. Green’s work in ripping Northwestern to three wins was so impressive that he was named Big Ten Coach of the Year, even though the team won eight championships. loss.
Below the FBS level, FCS Prairie View A&M holds an even more depressing record, having lost an astonishing 80 straight games dating back to 1989. The 1998 Panthers ended that losing streak with just 15 scholarship players.
NCAA Basketball: Chicago State Lady Cougars, 59 games
Chicago State women’s basketball experienced a steeper decline in the 2010s than any program could have imagined. After three winning seasons in four years, culminating with a program-best 24-win season in 2010-11, the Lady Cougars won just 25 games the rest of the decade. The lowest point came in 2018, when the winless Cougars lost 59 straight games.
The losing streak began and ended the 2015-16 season with a seven-game losing streak, but it widened during the winless 2016-17 season and ended in Game 25 of the 2017-18 season against the Lady Cougars. The only victory of the season.
Among men’s teams, Towson holds the longest losing streak in Division I with 41 games from 2011-12 to 2012-13. But since ending that streak, the team has had eight winning seasons over the past decade and was crowned CAA co-champion in 2021-22.
Exhibition basketball: Washington Generals, 2,495 games
The Washington Generals exist to lose. They play punching bags and straight men in the Harlem Globetrotters’ high-flying basketball comedy. The Generals have featured competitive basketball players throughout their history and various monikers, but nearly all of their 200-plus games a year end in losses.
It lasted until January 5, 1971. The Generals and Globetrotters, who were playing wearing the name and jerseys of the New Jersey Reds, played an unusual game that night, with Harlem featuring fewer stunts and fewer comedic gags. Although Globetrotters captain and team legend Carly Neal did not attend the exhibition, it was a more classic basketball game than most Globetrotter events.
Washington took the lead, which was not unusual. What was unusual was that the Globetrotters lost track of the score and were unable to pull off their usual dramatic comeback. Generals owner and founder Red Klotz regained momentum in the game in the final seconds and scored the go-ahead goal to put Washington back up 100-99.
The Globetrotters were unable to continue their winning streak and the crowd sat there stunned, even after the timekeeper inexplicably stopped the clock to give Harlem the final blow. It is said that some children cried in the audience seats.
“They look at us like we killed Santa Claus,” Klotz later said.
The 1971 win may have been one of several for the Generals, but the exhibitionists weren’t known for their record-keeping skills. Some claim they won as many as six games, but the 1971 winning streak is the most famous. It is estimated that the generals suffered more than 19,000 other losses.
even deeper
In their heyday, the Harlem Globetrotters were also made for television.
(Top photo: Mitchell Lev/Getty Images)