Owner(s) Irv Kosloff Record 9–73 (.110) | Arena The Spectrum Playoff finish DNQ | |
Head coach Roy Rubin, Kevin Loughery Place Division: 4th (Atlantic)
Conference: 8th (Eastern) | ||
The 1972–73 Philadelphia 76ers season was their 24th season in the NBA and tenth in Philadelphia. Coming off a 30–52 record in the previous season, the 76ers lost their first 15 games of the season and a few months later set a then-record 20 game losing streak in a single season.
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Their record following the 20 game losing streak was 4–58, and the team at that point had just lost 34 of 35 games. The 76ers finished the season with a 9–73 record, earning the nickname from the skeptical Philadelphia media of the "Nine and 73-ers." The 76ers finished an NBA-record 59 games behind the Atlantic Division champion Boston Celtics. The nine wins by the 1972–73 squad is the fourth fewest in NBA history—to the six games won by the Providence Steamrollers in the 48-game 1947–48 season, the seven games won by the Charlotte Bobcats in the lockout-shortened 66-game 2011–12 season, and the eight games won by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the lockout-shortened 50-game 1998–99 season.
The 73 losses, although threatened many times (including by the 2015–16 Sixers, who themselves lost 72 that season), remains the all-time low-water mark for any NBA franchise. The 76ers .110 winning percentage was the all-time worst mark in the NBA until the 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats finished with a .106 winning percentage, whilst their −12.1 points per game point differential has been underdone only by the 2011–12 Bobcats (−13.9 points per game) and the 1992–93 Dallas Mavericks (−15.2 points per game). Only six seasons earlier, the 76ers had set the NBA record for most wins in a season and the highest winning percentage.
Offseason
The Sixers ownership offered the head coaching job to Marquette University head coach Al McGuire, and former University of Kentucky head coach Adolph Rupp, who was seventy years old at the time. Both refused the job. Only Hal Greer remained on the roster from the 1966–1967 NBA Championship Team. The 1972–73 season would be his last in the NBA.
Season
By 1972–73, Jack Ramsay left the Sixers and was coaching the Buffalo Braves and Roy Rubin was given the head coaching job in Philadelphia. Hired by G.M. Don DeJardin, Rubin had coached at Long Island University the 11 previous seasons. Part of the team's problem was attributed to the loss of Billy Cunningham and his 23.3 scoring average to the ABA, and the loss of Archie Clark a year earlier in a trade with the Bullets.
The Sixers, whose roster included the likes of Manny Leaks, Jeff Halliburton, Mike Price, John Q. Trapp and Dave Sorenson, started the season 0–15 and later lost 20 consecutive games. With the club record at 4–47, Rubin was replaced by Sixers player Kevin Loughery. The new coach inspired the troops to a 5–26 record and a .161 winning percentage, compared with Rubin's .078 mark. The most productive player for the club was guard Fred Carter, who averaged 20 points for a Sixers team that used 19 players by season's end.
In their first win of the season (a 114–112 victory over Houston), coach Rubin actually injured himself by pulling a leg muscle. After a 4–47 start, Rubin was released from his job. Attendance was averaging 6,000 fans a game. The top statistical leaders were Fred Carter (led the team with 20 points per game), Tom Van Arsdale (17.7 points per game), and Leroy Ellis (13.7 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game).
As bad as their season was, it would have been far worse if not for a 5–2 run the team put together in the last two weeks of February 1973. By Valentine's Day 1973 the 76ers' record stood at 4–58 or a .065 winning percentage which actually put on a pace to finish with an unimaginable 5–77 record. However, the team surprisingly won five of their next seven games against some of the best competition in the league. Three of those 5 wins came against teams that would eventually win fifty or more games that year – Baltimore, the 60-win Milwaukee Bucks and the 57–25 eventual NBA Champion New York Knicks. They improved to 9–60 and actually doubled their winning percentage (up from .065 to .130 during that run.) However, the 76ers lost their remaining 13 games to finish 9–73. Before the 1972–73 season the previous mark for fewest wins in an 82-game schedule was 15, and no subsequent NBA team won fewer than 22 until the 1979–80 Detroit Pistons who finished 16–66.
Anatomy of a demise
Two and a half months after Philadelphia's collapse against the Boston Celtics in the 1968 NBA Playoffs, Wilt Chamberlain was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. In return, the Sixers received Darrall Imhoff, Archie Clark and Jerry Chambers.
The background of the deal can be traced back to Sixers owners Ike Richman and Irv Kosloff. Chamberlain indicated that Richman promised him part ownership of the club, but Richman died before the deal was completed. When Kosloff became sole owner, he refused to honor the agreement Chamberlain had reached with Richman. This infuriated Chamberlain, and he contemplated retirement or bolting to the ABA. Chamberlain then expressed a desire to play in Los Angeles and suggested a trade. On paper, the deal made some sense from the Sixers' perspective, since general manager Jack Ramsay was not willing to risk letting Chamberlain get away for nothing. In the long run, however, the Sixers didn't get nearly enough in return.
After the 1967–68 season, head coach Alex Hannum bolted to the ABA, and Ramsay named himself head coach. He decided that Clark, Imhoff and Chambers would be part of a smaller, quicker, fast-breaking team. This plan had never truly materialized. Imhoff spent only two seasons with the 76ers, Clark spent three seasons and Chambers never played for Philadelphia after spending two years in the military before being traded. Luke Jackson suffered a major injury in 1969 and was never the same player after that. Chet Walker was dealt to the Chicago Bulls for Jim Washington, a role player.
Another contributing factor to the poor season was Philadelphia's first-round draft choices from 1967 through 1972. Selections such as Craig Raymond, Shaler Halimon, Bud Ogden, Harris Ahmad, Al Henry, Dana Lewis and Fred Boyd made no impact with the club.
Ramsay did coax 55 victories out of the first 76ers team he coached in 1968–69. That number dipped into the 40s for the next two seasons and sunk even further to 30 in 1971–72—the first time they had missed the playoffs in franchise history (dating back to their tenure as the Syracuse Nationals).