‘A slow motion nightmare season’: Mad Dog Carter and the NBA’s worst-ever team

The 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers only won nine of their 82 games. Their best player that season says he wants their record to stay standing

Fifty years ago this month, the Philadelphia 76ers meekly lost by 19 points to the Detroit Pistons before a grand total of 1,937 fans at Pittsburgh Civic Arena to finish the 82-game 1972-73 season with 73 losses, an NBA record for futility that somehow still stands.

The best part of this game was the end," Kevin Loughery, the guard who had replaced Roy Rubin as coach in the middle of the season, told the Philadelphia Daily News that day.