Head coach Bill Hanzlik Record 11–71 (.134) | Arena McNichols Sports Arena Playoff finish DNQ | |
Place Division: 7th (Midwest)
Conference: 14th (Western) Television Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, KWGN | ||
The 1997–98 NBA season was the Nuggets’ 22nd season in the National Basketball Association, and 31st season as a franchise. During the offseason, the Nuggets acquired Eric Williams from the Boston Celtics, and Johnny Newman from the Milwaukee Bucks while signing free agent Dean Garrett. However, injures would limit Williams to just four games. At midseason, the team signed free agent point guard Cory Alexander.
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The Nuggets set numerous unwanted records during this season. They won only eleven games, the equal third-fewest in an 82-game NBA season with the 1992–93 Dallas Mavericks, and just like the Mavericks were for a long time viewed as likely to beat the 1972–73 76ers record of winning only nine games in a full season, and the 2015–16 76ers, who only won just ten games. After forty games the Nuggets had a 2–38 record (winning percentage .050), a mark equalled only by the 1993–94 Mavericks and they later lost sixteen consecutive games before finally avoiding a possibility of the worst-ever NBA record against the Golden State Warriors on 27 March.
The unfortunate season meant head coach Bill Hanzlik was fired after a single season in charge of the team. Following the season, LaPhonso Ellis signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Hawks, Newman re-signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Garrett was traded along with Bobby Jackson back to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Tony Battie was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers, who then traded him to the Boston Celtics several months later.
In his 2007 study The NBA from Top to Bottom, basketball enthusiast Kyle Wright argued that in fact the 1997–98 Nuggets were a worse team than the 1972–73 76ers, saying that they played a worse schedule in the Midwest Division than the 1972–73 76ers did in their Atlantic Division where a dominant Boston Celtics team was played seven times by the 76ers. In contrast, Wright says, "the Nuggets got to play the 62–20 Utah Jazz only four times".