It's on ESPN right now. The 82-83 team barely came in at #25 on the worst teams ever. They said we also tanked the season in order to get Ralph Sampson at #1. Then tanked again on purpose the next year to get Akeem, thus giving just cause for the NBA lottery. I'm guessing the Detroit Tigers will be the #1 worst team ever.
I used to goto games back then. Two things I remebers as signs of a tiny crowd. Being able to hear the squeak of the players sneakers all the way up to the concession stands. The other was, I forgot who, but at a tense time out, the opposing coach yelling the play to his players, then suddenly realizing the entire stadium could her him. It really was funny.
If I remember things correctly, there was one game late in the season where the Rockets made a late charge and tied the game to send it into OT. Needless to say, they were outscored 17-0 in OT.
Depends how you define "tanked". After we lost Malone, we were a truley bad team. We didn't have to try to lose, we just had very little talent. If I remember correctly, an aging Elvin Hayes and Joe Bryant (Kobe's Dad) were two of our best players. The following season we drafted Sampson, McCray and Jim Peterson and traded for Lewis Lloyd. Late in the season, Fitch played some questionable lineups and Sampson, McCray and Lloyd sat at some odd times. To me that was much more of a tank job than the pervious year when we just didn't have the talent to win.
Allen Leavell was our leading scorer that year. Enough said. My Dad used to take me to those games. The Summit was half empty. You could hear the sneakers squeaking from the upper deck. Wasn't that Calvin's last year as well?
Ahh, the Summit... Squeaky shoes Short shorts Afros Armpit hair empty seats chants of "Big E" Calvin runnin' lay-ups Allen Leavell bringin' up the ball And tankin' Yee haw. I remember we could afford 10th row seats back then....lol.
