While in my last post, I wrote about the historically good start that the Golden State Warriors had gotten off to opening the NBA season, tonight we could possibly see another record broken, except this one is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The Warriors have already broken the record for the most consecutive wins to start an NBA season, and they now sit at 19-0. However, on the other side of the country, the Philadelphia 76ers sit at 0-18, and with a loss tonight, they would break the record for the worst start to a season in the history of the NBA. In 2009, the New Jersey Nets opened the season 0-18, before finally notching their first win in the 19th game of the season. With what is happening in Philadelphia right now, I would not be surprised one bit if that record fell a few hours from now.
In every major sport, teams go through re-building phases. Dynasties never last forever. Whether it be front office changes, bad drafting, or player movement, every team in every sport is destined to face some tough times. Let's just take a look at this from the perspective of the teams who currently could be categorized as "dynasties" in sports today, and for the sake of this conversation, let's begin in the NBA. I think that over the past decade, the closest we have seen to a dynasty in the NBA is the San Antonio Spurs. Thanks to Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich (among many others), the Spurs have exemplified success. However, it was not always that way. Duncan's rookie year was 1997. The year before Duncan was drafted, the Spurs finished with a record of 20-62. Duncan was added to team with David Robinson and the two would form one of the best 1-2 punches in the history of the league. However, in the four years before Robinson was drafted, the Spurs had a combined record of 115-213.
In the NFL, let's look at the New England Patriots. Prior to the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady regime, the Patriots were actually a very good team. They made a Super Bowl appearance, ultimately losing to Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers, but from 1996-2000, their win total declined each year. Before Bill Parcells, Drew Bledsoe and Curtis Martin, things were even worse. From 1987 until 1993, the Patriots never had a winning record, and that stretch included one 1-15 season, as well as one 2-14 season.
In baseball, obviously, when we talk about dynasties, it is impossible to have a conversation without mentioning the New York Yankees. My generation of fans has a hard time remembering the Yankees ever being an afterthought, but it did actually happen many years ago. Derek Jeter won the Rookie of the Year award in 1996. In the 14 years prior to that, the Yankees made the playoffs only once (that does include the 1994 season that ended with a players strike, and the Yankees were clearly one of the best teams in baseball that year, but there were no playoffs, so the history books will never see it as a postseason berth). The Yankees did actually have a shortstop before Derek Jeter, even if it might be hard to believe for some. Jeter's career wiped away memories of Pat Kelly and Luis Sojo and Randy Velarde, but those guys did play, and from the mid 1980's until the mid 1990's, the Yankees were simply not a good team.
So, what I am trying to illustrate here is that there will never be a sports franchise that is good forever. Players and coaches retire, teams make bad draft picks, and sometimes guys just do not meet expectations. The difference between good franchises and bad franchises though, is how they can bounce back after such lean years, and what is happening within the Philadelphia 76ers organization right now is very tough to watch. It isn't like this is a franchise devoid of any type of history either, which makes it even tougher to stomach the abomination that is the 2015 Philadelphia 76ers.
The Sixers won a title in 1967 and had Wilt Chamberlain, who is probably the most dominant player in the history of the league. While they definitely did not reach the level of Bill Russell's Boston Celtics teams of that era, the 76ers were still a very good team for a span of multiple years during the 1960's. When Chamberlain was gone, there were certainly tough times (including a dreadful 1973 season that saw the team go 9-73), but with the arrival of Julius Erving, the Sixers once again returned to prominence, winning another title in 1983. Then Allen Iverson arrived, and while he never led the team to a title, they did reach the Finals once, and experienced a lot of success while he was their star player. So is this just a lull in between title contenders, or is this something different? If you look at the results of the past few years and the makeup of the current roster, I have to say that this seems like much worse than just a temporary lull. What the 76ers have done over the past two years, and what they continue to do into this season is historically bad, and I'm not sure that it will get better anytime soon.
In 2013, the Sixers finished 19-63. In 2014, they finished 18-64. In 2015, they are already 0-18. I have heard of organizations trying to "tank" a season in order to get a shot at an incoming rookie superstar, but this isn't just one season. The 76ers have been mailing it in for multiple seasons now. Philadelphia took Jahlil Okafor, a college superstar with their first pick in the past draft, and he has the potential to become a very good NBA player, but the organization is doing a terrible job of surrounding him with a network of support that can allow him to grow and flourish. Instead of a knowledgeable head coach or a roster of experienced veterans willing to mentor younger players, the Sixers have surrounded him with nothing but inexperience and mediocrity (at best). Brett Brown is an undeveloped and unproven head coach. The roster is made up of only one player born before the year 1990. There are a few top draft picks, and absolutely nothing else right now on the floor for the 76ers. The fact that the "veteran presence" of the team is Carl Landry is laughable. I mean no disrespect to Carl Landry, but he is not the type of established veteran player that can lead a group of young players to the promised land.
Let's look at some of the other top picks in this past NBA Draft. There were two players drafted ahead of Okafor, and they were D'Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns was drafted by a bad Minnesota Timberwolves team, but he has future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett as a mentor, as well as experienced veterans like Andre Miller and Tayshaun Prince. D'Angelo Russell went second overall, and he has an experienced head coach in Byron Scott as well as one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Kobe Bryant, to teach him how to become a better player and more importantly, teach him how to become a professional athlete.
I understand that surefire Hall of Famers like Garnett and Bryant don't grow on trees, and Towns and Russell are lucky to have mentors like that, but the Sixers have zero veteran leadership at all. Nothing. Coming into the draft I heard no questions at all about the character of Jahlil Okafor. He had all the talent in the world, he was coming off a national championship, and he had been coached by arguably the greatest coach in the history of college basketball, Mike Krzyzewski. They don't recruit guys at Duke who are problems off the court. They recruit not only great players, but great people as well, so no one had any inclination to question Okafor's character as he left school, and they had no reason to question it.
Yet, since Okafor has arrived in Philadelphia, he has had multiple off-court incidents that have raised my eyebrows. He was cited for speeding while driving as well as being caught using a fake ID to try to get into a bar. These are surely not serious problems, and I am willing to overlook them as immature mistakes, but they are not the only ones. Okafor also supposedly had a gun pointed at his head during a late night dispute, and now video has surfaced of him fighting outside a nightclub. Things like this are serious. I don't understand why the national media glosses over the fact that Okafor had a gun pointed at his head by someone else. Is that a problem? Yes, it definitely is. Now we see him fighting outside a club, and it is no longer a problem that we can just chalk up to immaturity. It is a problem that the organization has to address, and they did so by assigning a security guard to accompany him during any and all public appearances from now until further notice.
Jahlil Okafor is a very talented and very young basketball player. He is entering the NBA and not even close to fully matured as a man. What happens during the second decade of any man's life is crucial to his growth, and I just worry that Okafor is off to a bad start. I don't know for sure, but I am willing to bet that Okafor has already lost more games this season than he did during his entire high school and college career. I don't know what losing so many games can do psychologically to a young player, but I do know that this is uncharted territory for Okafor, and this is almost uncharted territory for any team in the history of the NBA.
76ers fans may look at Okafor and Nerlens Noel and potentially four first round picks in the upcoming draft as a reason for optimism, but I would caution them to temper those expectations. The 76ers organization has dug itself into an extremely deep hole over the past few years, and it seems like it could be a long time until they reach ground level again. The Lakers come to town tonight, and at 2-14, they are surely not in good shape either, but when you are 0-18, you are really never in good shape. Even with a win tonight and a home run of a first round selection in the upcoming draft, the 76ers still have a long way to go in terms of even becoming a mediocre NBA team, and I can't imagine being a fan of the team and wanting to spend my own money to go see them, because they are beyond putrid, and with a loss tonight, their level of putridity will reach historic proportions.
Daily Rangers Update: After three straight losses, the Rangers got back into the win column last night with a victory over a struggling Carolina Hurricanes team. The Rangers will meet the Islanders tomorrow night for the first time this season, and obviously, bragging rights are always on the line when the Rangers and Islanders meet. Both teams have started the season well, so tomorrow night should be fun.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: David Price signed with the Red Sox and it was announced that Johnny Cueto turned down a big offer from the Diamondbacks in recent days. Between that, Zack Greinke and Jordan Zimmermann already being gone, and the team having to give up a first round pick in order to sign one of the next tier of free agent starting pitchers, I think the time to improve the rotation via free agency may have already passed. I won't rule anything out, because spring training is still months away, but we need to focus on guys like Braden Shipley, Aaron Blair, Archie Bradley, and Patrick Corbin in the rotation right now. I like the offense, but the pitching is going to be unproven.
Daily Giants Update: Everyone was on the Giants last week. Newspapers, television, radio...everyone was saying that the Giants had the division in their grasp. And you know what happens when everyone thinks that? The Giants lose. And that is exactly what happened last Sunday. At 5-6, the Giants are tied with the Redskins atop the NFC East, although the Redskins hold the tiebreaker. The Jets are next up this Sunday, and even though we only play the Jets once every four years, this is obviously a huge game not only in terms of bragging rights, but in terms of playoff position as well, as both teams are fighting for their playoff lives heading into December. As usual with the Giants, I have no clue what to expect, but hopefully it works out better than last Sunday.
Daily NBA Update: As I already highlighted, the 76ers will try to avoid history tonight, and this actually may be their best chance to do so, as they play a Lakers team that has at least won two games, but is surely not good at all. Aside from that, the Warriors are still unbeaten, and Stephen Curry could somehow be in line to not only win the MVP, but also win the Most Improved player award this year. That is how good he has been, and that is how dominant the defending champions look.
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