The Worst Team in NBA History: A Look Back at the 2011-2012 Charlotte Bobcats Season

Is it the worst team in NBA history? It’s hard to know. With these distinctions that mix eras and cross data, it is already known, nothing is completely objective. But if it isn’t, it looks very similar. If it wasn’t, it must have been by very little. From what we remember: the way of playing, the way of losing, even the logo and the uniforms, never vindicated even by the most snooty nostalgia (which is very popular now). And for the essential data, the worst winning percentage in the history of the League: 10.6%.

The team is Charlotte Bobcats, the 2011-12 season. It was a lockout year, a shortened season after 161 days of lockout that froze the market and all roster management, and put the start of the season on Christmas Day. Nor should all that have helped the Bobcats who won their first game (1-0!) against the Milwaukee Bucks (96-95). And then they went down the worst of drains, until the final 7-59 (seasons of 66 games per franchise) and that 10.6% win rate, which is the worst figure ever.

They did not win more than three games in any month (3-14 in March). Their average result was a defeat by almost 14 points, an outrage in this type of statistic. They went, for example, without winning from January 14 (3-10) to February 17 (3-26). Sixteen losses in a row. Then, it got worse, because it was possible: on March 28 they were already eliminated from the playoffs, eleven days after their last victory (107-103, against the Raptors). From there, 23 consecutive defeats to finish the course (from 7-36 to 7-59). The fifth worst streak of consecutive losing games the NBA has ever seen. April, his last month, ended with 0-16.

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STREET LEAKS

The Bobcats were last in points per game (87) and offensive rating (95.2). They were last in defensive rating (110.4) and fourth worst in points received (100.9). Almost half a million people passed through a pavilion that emptied until it had the fifth worst average audience of the season. Things were so bad that the closing (84-104 against the Knicks) left the owner booing for the ages when he appeared on the video scoreboard. Normal, with nuance: that owner was Michael Jordan and that pavilion, the Spectrum (Time Warner Cable Arena) is in Charlotte, North Carolina, the state where he grew up and played his college years on the legendary ’23. The land in which College basketball is more than a sport: North Carolina, Duke, North Carolina State, Wake Forest… the battles of Tobacco Road.

So not even Michael Jordan was spared the ridicule. The Bobcats were 11% worse than the 1972-73 Sixers (9-73). Years later, Bleacher Report pitted those two teams against each other in more than 1,000 simulations. Who was really the worst? The result showed a 54.3% victory for the Sixers compared to 45.7 for the Bobcats. The average score was 101-99.4.

Hornets, Bobcats… and again Hornets

Those Bobcats had emerged in 2004, after two years of professional void in North Carolina. The long-awaited Hornets, a sensation after their creation in 1989, had left for New Orleans in 2002. The Bobcats were a franchise that cost much more to love: a decade with that name (2004-14) and only two seasons with over 50% wins, the only two with a ticket for the playoffs. Both ended, however, with a sweep (4-0) in the first round. Then things got better. In 2006, Michael Jordan invested, who in 2010 already fully controlled the franchise. In 2014, a key moment, the Hornets returned. In New Orleans they were renamed the Pelicans and, after the agreement between both franchises, those from Carolina recovered their old name, their history and their book of records and records. Since then, more social acceptance, a little more noise… but only one other trip to the playoffs, in 2016, which ended with another elimination on the first try (4-3, this time). Total, in Charlotte they have not won a single eliminatory series since the first round of 2002.

Those Bobcats had Rich Cho as general manager, Rod Higgins as president and Paul Silas as coach. The second was a former player who formed in the Bulls with Michael Jordan, of whom he was a trusted man. Good friends, that summer they signed Rod’s son and Jordan’s godson for their Bocats: Cory Higgins, the current Barcelona player. At 22 years old, he played less than 12 minutes on average and, after one more season in Carolina, with even less space, he began the tour around the world that ended up making him one of the best forwards in the Euroleague.

The Bobcats had lost, compared to previous years, important pieces such as Gerald Wallace and Tyson Chandler. They expected to be bad, but not that bad. In a reconstruction that did not put a single scaffolding during that disastrous course, they had two top 10 draft picks, invested in Bismack Biyombo (number 7, via transfer to the Kings) and Kemba Walker (9), later a franchise player and all star. They weren’t bad options, a priori, although Klay Thompson (11) and Kawhi Leonard (15) were still within reach. The following draft was a gigantic disaster, the final nail in the coffin of a season that did not even leave a first-class harvest. With a 25% chance, as the worst team, of taking number 1, the Bobcats hoped to hunt down that highly anticipated Anthony Davis who was marveling at Kentucky. But that 1 ended up being, of all the teams, precisely for the Hornets, the team that had the name that had been and would be from Charlotte again.

13.7% of winnings in the lottery were enough for those from Louisiana to win the jackpot. For the Bobcats it was a No. 2 investment in another Kentucky player, forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, whose career was a huge disappointment. Then Bradley Beal (number 3), Damian Lillard (6), Andre Drummond (9) were chosen… Very little seen. And very bad.

The top scorer on that team was Gerald Henderson: 15.1 points on average. The top assistant is DJ Augustin (6.4) who had a long NBA career but was injured that season, like veteran Corey Maggette. Boris Diaw was cut, absolutely disinterested during the 37 games he played, and ended up at the Spurs, where he was transcendental, recovered by Gregg Popovich, in the brilliant 2014 champion block. Other important players were Byron Mullens, Derrick Brown, Reggie Williams… .the members of a Bobcats that were basically incapable of winning and that have been left as the worst team in the history of the NBA… or something very, very, very similar.

2023-11-28 14:00:30
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