The 10 Worst Franchises In NBA History

There are many, many instances of teams having bad seasons or bad stretches or both. Even the Boston Celtics and L.A. Lakers have rough years. In fact, they’re both going to have one this year. That doesn’t make them bad franchises, even if management has made a few boneheaded moves lately. We’re talking about franchises that, every season, you see perpetual incompetence, mind-numbing stupidity, lackluster play, weak effort, coaching, and personnel decisions. We’re talking about franchises that have a chance to wind up with fewer wins than the New York Football Jets. (Okay, maybe not. No one’s that bad.) Sure some of these franchises have had good players and even a few notable playoff appearances. Yet those were the exceptions that prove the rule.

Onward.

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10. BROOKLYN NETS
Wins: 1,536
Losses: 1,964
All-Time Winning %: 43.9
Playoff Success: two ABA championships, 2002, 2003 NBA Finals
In the ABA, the then NY Nets played on Long Island and were a powerhouse lead by the iconic Julius “The Doctor” Erving. Moving to the NBA was just about the worst thing that could have happened to them. Season after season, they were utterly pathetic and at times striving to avoid, or perhaps achieve, being the worst team to ever take the court. Some of the seasons they’ve put together make it almost impossible to have this list without putting the Nets on it. Upon settling in New Jersey, the team was an utter irrelevance in a media market that had a team right in the middle of Manhattan that was, for years, a contender. You could have made a solid argument towards contraction just by invoking their name.

However, just as the Knicks fortunes turned, the Nets rose. The addition of Jason Kidd provided two NBA Finals appearances, and the franchises managed, with a few bumps along the way, to achieve a respectable mediocrity. Now, taken over by a party loving Russian billionaire, and happily ensconced in Brooklyn, the Nets have made this a season to “WIN NOW” and have gone all in, acquiring aging veterans to complement some young talent.

However, they’re still the Nets. They’ve managed to hire a coach with no coaching experience, Jason Kidd, to run the good ship Brooklyn. There is some precedent to this. Larry Bird came in with no experience to a veteran team and hired smart assistants and let them do their jobs. Can Kidd hire smart assistants and not feel the need to establish himself as “The Man?” Will Garnett and Pierce listen to someone they played against just a few months ago? It’s head-scratching moves like this that put all of these franchises on this list.

9. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Wins: 1,521
Losses: 1,727
All-Time Winning %: 46.8
Playoff Success: 2007 NBA Finals
Cleveland is on here because of course Cleveland is on here. Every single sporting memory that you have of Cleveland in general, and of the Cavs in particular, is of crushing failure and heartbreaking loss. Whether it be “The Shot” on Ehlo, Shawn Kemp eating himself out of the NBA, the Andre Miller for Darius Miles trade, all of that horror lurks in the shadow behind the story of LeBron James: The local boy made good, who helped propel this franchise to national relevance.

Yet here is Cleveland at it’s most tragic. The fairy tale story ended with LeBron’s inability to pull his island of misfit toys to victory in the playoffs and ultimately, the King, born in nearby Akron, getting outta dodge to go win rings in sunny South Beach whilst those suffering through those long, cold winters were left to suffer alone. Other than LeBron, Cleveland has had no defining player. It is the fantasy of some that perhaps LeBron will one day return to close out his career as a Cavalier alongside Kyrie Irving in the hunt for another championship. That would be the most anti-Cleveland event of all time.

8. ATLANTA HAWKS
Wins: 2,376
Losses: 2,454
All-Time Winning %: 49.2
Playoff Success: 1958 NBA championship
It must be depressing to be a franchise with some degree of tradition — hello Spud Webb and Dominique Wilkins — and yet still be overlooked by your home fans even when the team is winning and the product on the court is ascetically pleasing. Yet that is the case for the Atlanta Hawks, who seem to be, during the good times, a 4-6 seed that makes it to the second round and goes away quietly. Every year that the Hawks succeed, even the most passionate of hoopheads will look at their 50-win season and go, “Really? How come I haven’t heard more about that team? Are they trying to keep this success a secret? Is someone on the team in Witness Protection, yet has an unblockable turnaround and just doesn’t care and the league is helping him out?” But with a lackluster fanbase and a consistently mediocre product, this team doesn’t attract pity or outrage or excitement. It just is. It’s the NBA equivalent of having a pet rock. It’s there. It’s going to be there. And you’re occasionally going to look at it and wonder if it moved a little bit. But it didn’t.

7. MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES
Wins: 404
Losses: 794
All-Time Winning %: 33.7
Playoff Success: 2013 Western Conference Finals
Everyone’s current favorite “Little Engine That Could” is on this list for a few reasons. One is this team was originally supposed to be in Vancouver and help unite Canada to NBA fandom. But for most of its life, this team has been utterly repugnant. It certainly looks like it’s on the upswing at the moment, after a few years of solid playoff runs and some clever draft choices. New owner Robert Pera could, very quickly, have this team off of this list entirely. But to not acknowledge the sad and utterly forgettable history of the early days is to overlook too much. Based on its past, it deserves every bit of its ranking. Bryant Reeves over Michael Finley, Theo Ratliff and Damon Stoudamire? Trading away Pau Gasol to the Lakers for peanuts? The sun is shining in Memphis now, but it took a long time to get there.

6. SACRAMENTO KINGS
Wins: 2,300
Losses: 2,593
All-Time Winning %: 47
Playoff Success: 2002 Western Conference Finals
For now, the Kings remain in Sacramento, not that most people would notice that they were there. Aside from the Chris Webber â€“ Vlade Divac â€“ Jason “White Chocolate” Williams/Mike Bibby era, this team has not only been bad, worse, it’s been irrelevant. Only that glorious window of beautiful basketball, played with a combination of pickup hoops during the Williams era and pinpoint precision during the Bibby era, puts them this high up on the list. The rest of the franchise history is a study in wasting the careers of the occasional good players that would cycle through the locker room: Mitch Richmond, LaSalle Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins, etc. I’m not one to cry for Cousins, but he knows that there’s no point to this, which is probably part of the reason why he acts the way he does and is looking for a way out and fast. The biggest tragedy is Mitch Richmond, who never got to experience the Kings brief sip from the keg of glory, as he was the one traded to obtain the services of Chris Webber.

5. MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
Wins: 688
Losses: 1,002
All-Time Winning %: 40.7
Playoff Success: 2004 Western Conference Finals
The most disappointing thing about the Minnesota Timberwolves is that they consistently draft quality players, yet can’t build enough around them in time to convince them to stay when free agency looms. Part of that is Minnesota. The endorsement appeal, not to mention lifestyle differences, between staying in Minneapolis versus Chicago, New York or Los Angles means that the T-Wolves have to acquire someone like Kevin Durant who enjoys his small town and his teammates. That’s a rare jewel to discover. Basketball players like the bright lights and they like to win. If your franchise cannot consistently supply the latter, then players will chase the former.

Stephon Marbury may be crazy, and to leave the team he did was amongst the dumber decisions he’s ever made, right up there with that head tattoo, but in context it’s understandable. He’s a kid from Coney Island. Living in Minnesota is culture shock. Kevin Love is a kid from California. Does anyone seriously think he’s not going to look at his free agent options when the time comes? At that point, he’ll have made his money, which was the purpose of the extension he signed in January 2012, and he’ll be focused on winning and possibly going someplace warm.

Fun fact: The Los Angels Lakers were originally the Minneapolis Lakers. Doesn’t that name make more sense now? They were manned by George Mikan and were a dominant franchise. Then, they picked up and went to Los Angles. Cold-Hearted? As cold as a Minnesota winter. Smart business move? Absolutely. Interestingly enough, Kevin Love is the best big man Minnesota has had since George Mikan. And he too may likely leave Minnesota and move to California. The Lakers would salivate at the notion of landing Kevin Love and may very well be looking at creating cap space to do precisely that. NBA marketing would love it too. Once again, Minnesota would be left in the cold.

4. TORONTO RAPTORS
Wins: 502
Losses: 696
All Time Winning %: 41.9
Playoff Success: 2001 Conference Semifinals
Confession: I first visited Toronto this past April, yes it did snow, and I really liked it. I also liked the other parts of Canada I visited, Ottawa and Montreal, and I have some great friends there. But there is absolutely no reason for this team to exist. At all. They had a chance, with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, to be an absolute powerhouse. But they were not. Why? Because T-Mac wanted his own team and didn’t want to live in Toronto. He now admits it was a bad decision to leave, but he certainly left. His advisers wanted to send him to the Chicago Bulls, a franchise where his endorsement potential would have been much greater than Toronto. He balked, and went to Orlando because he’s a Florida kid who hates the cold.

And that’s the thing about Toronto. Chicago and New York can have nasty winters and players will put up with it because they can pull an extra blanket of $100 bills over them at night from all the products they’re representing. Those that play in Toronto cannot. Steve Nash is a Canadian by birth. He’s played in Dallas, Phoenix and will close out his career with Los Angeles. He’s had enough of the cold. Plus, the golden years of the Raptors weren’t really that golden at all. Sure Vince Carter was outstanding to watch, but the furthest they’ve ever progressed in the playoffs is to the second round, back in 2001. Since? Nada. They have the same problem Minnesota has vis-Ã -vis the weather, plus an issue of the currency difference between Canada and the United States and the tax difference between Canada and the United States. Chris Bosh took less money up front to go to Miami, but since Florida has no state income tax, he’s going to keep a lot more of it for himself and then can get some more endorsement deals and photobomb people on Ocean Drive. How can Toronto compete with that? The answer is that they cannot. I root for you, good Canadian people, and I feel your pain.

3. NEW ORLEANS PELICANS
Wins: 867
Losses: 905
All-Time Winning %: 48.9
Playoff Success: 2008 Western Conference Semifinals
The New Orleans Pelicans are a perfect example of how the NBA has over-expanded and the danger of having owners who use these teams as toys with no sense of loyalty to the communities in which they reside. The New Orleans Pelicans used to be the Charlotte Hornets and they used to have arguably the best homecourt advantage in the NBA. North Carolina people are basketball people. They saw every game like a UNC or N.C. State or Wake Forest or Duke game. Which meant that they were an intensely loyal fanbase that gladly cheered on Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson against the Wizards on a February evening.

Then, fans started to wake up to the fact that owner George Shinn wasn’t interesting in winning, but with making a profit. Shinn was also accused of rape and was cranky that the stadium didn’t have enough luxury boxes filled with rugs made from the hair of polar bear nostrils (I’m exaggerating here, but you get my point) and so he did what a lot of mega rich jerks do: he behaved petulantly. Thus we have the New Orleans Hornets, then after Katrina the Oklahoma City Hornets, then the league took over the franchise and we now have the New Orleans Pelicans.

This franchise is the NBA equivalent of Britney Spears. It started out with promise, had a few good years, went absolutely insane and shaved its head and attacked a minivan and dated Kevin Federline and now it looks like it’s settled down again and might eventually be something other than a total dumpster fire. But frankly it could go either way. Being owned by Tom Benson, who also owns the New Orleans Saints, is a huge plus. Benson has the clout to force the state of Louisiana to shell out $50 million to improve the stadium and to give this franchise a steady home till 2024.

2. CHARLOTTE BOBCATS
Wins: 188
Losses: 304
All-Time Winning %: 38.2
Playoff Success: None. Ok, fine, they made the playoffs in 2010. They were swept.
So what we know is this: Charlotte is a great basketball city, North Carolina is a great basketball state and this team is awful at damn near everything. Apparently, the only thing that Michael Jordan was good at, in relation to basketball, was playing it. When it comes to selecting talent or assembling a competent management team, holy cow has this been an absolute disaster. The only other great player who has had more of a public post-playing career disaster, aside from those convicted of crimes, is Isiah Thomas. Isiah Thomas is the opposite of King Midas. Everything he touches turns into cow dung. But the same can be said of Michael Jordan. It’s gently wrapped and well meaning, and you have to pretend it’s something it’s not. Fans of this team deserve one free adult beverage per quarter for every home game they attend. Maybe things will get better when they become the Hornets again.

1. L.A. CLIPPERS
Wins: 1,175
Losses: 2,073
All-Time Winning %: 36.2
Playoff Success: Conference Semifinals 2012, 2006, 1976
Let’s be honest, we all knew how this was going to end. This column was like a Sly Stallone movie. He’s gonna shoot everyone and he’s gonna walk away with the pretty girl. You knew that when you signed up to see Expendables 2. The only way this column could end was to point out, for the 2,303,810,283,719,183,918,293rd time, how awful the Clippers franchise happens to be.

The Clippers have been around since 1970. They, as a franchise, in Buffalo, San Diego and Los Angeles have managed to tally nine playoff appearances. You could actively try to be that bad and you wouldn’t succeed. You could build your roster by throwing darts at a list of draft picks and the law of averages says you’d get better talent than this team has had. Not only have they been bad, but they’ve never been necessary.

Yes, yes, we all love Lob City and isn’t it great that they’re good now? Actually, no it’s not. Because their owner, Donald Sterling, is the literal Yin to Jerry Buss, who is the Yang. Every single thing that Jerry Buss got right while owning the Lakers, Donald Sterling did the opposite and almost self-consciously so.

Oh and also, the reason that they’re good now? Because David Stern refused to allow the Lakers to acquire Chris Paul when they’d actually completed a trade to do just that. He robbed one of the “Rolex Franchises” of the NBA and a fanbase that rabidly wants to win and is as devoted to a team as NBA fans can be, in order to reward a franchise that has been the pinnacle of bad behavior, profiteering and that does not even need to exist. You don’t need two NBA teams in L.A., particularly when the second one is almost always a laughingstock, anymore than you need a pet Guinea Pig when you already have a Golden Retriever. You already have an awesome thing, you don’t need to add a useless one.

If you are a fan of this team, enjoy the next few years. They’ll eventually probably go back to being the Clippers. Lists like these are the only things the Clippers ever seem to win.