Okay, so the other day I was just thinking, you know, watching some games, and some teams just look bad. Like, really struggling. And it got me wondering, who was the absolute worst? Like, statistically, the biggest losers in a single NBA season?
My Little Investigation
I figured this wasn’t something you could just guess. Lots of teams have had terrible runs. I remember those early Process Sixers teams, tanking hard. Or maybe some expansion teams back in the day? My gut feeling wasn’t really specific.
So, I decided to do a bit of digging. Didn’t need anything fancy, just needed the raw numbers. I popped open my computer and started searching around. My first searches were pretty basic, stuff like:
- worst nba season ever
- lowest win percentage nba history
- nba team fewest wins season
Got a bunch of articles and lists, naturally. Some sports sites, fan forums, the usual stuff. Had to sift through a bit because some lists focused on total losses, but that’s not quite right, especially with seasons having different numbers of games (like lockout years).
Finding the Rock Bottom
I needed the worst winning percentage. That’s the real measure of failure for a season, right? After clicking a few links and comparing notes, one team kept popping up again and again for the absolute lowest percentage.
Turns out, it was the 2011-2012 Charlotte Bobcats. Man, I kinda remember that team. Not fondly, obviously.
Their record was brutal: 7 wins and 59 losses.
Now, the key thing here is that 2011-2012 was a lockout-shortened season. They only played 66 games, not the usual 82. So, to get the percentage, I had to do the math:
7 wins / 66 total games = roughly 0.106
So, they won just 10.6% of their games that season. Yikes. That’s… impressively bad. Winning only about one out of every ten games you play all season long.
It wasn’t the team with the fewest wins ever (the ’72-’73 Sixers won 9 but played 82 games), but that percentage for the Bobcats is the lowest the league has ever seen. Pretty wild to think about. Anyway, that was my little trip down misery lane, finding the statistical bottom of the NBA barrel.
