It sounds crazy, but both Freddie Carter and Kevin Loughery are feverishly rooting that the record for futility (9-73) they shared as teammates on the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers will survive the current New Jersey Nets’ attempt to replace them as the worst team in NBA history.
As of Sunday, following a decisive victory over the New York Knicks, it appeared the Nets, who lost their first 17 games, would avoid their date with infamy. The win boosted their sorry record to 7-53. They need only three wins in their remaining 20 games to surpass the 76ers’ long-standing record, and, as the regular season winds down, teams that have clinches playoff spots are more apt to rest regulars when playing New Jersey.
In any case, Carter told us in a recent interview, “Immortality comes in so many different ways. It’s our record, and we earned it one way or another,’ added “Mad Dog,’. who averaged a team-high 20 points to become forever known as the best player on the worst team.
Both Carter and Loughery, popular members of the old Baltimore Bullets in the late 60’s, laughingly noted that they are being re-acquainted with veteran reporters simply for the fact that their 76ers’ record is in jeopardy.
“Why else would you be calling me?’’ said Loughery from his home in Atlanta. “It’s good to be remembered and talk to old friends, for better or worse.’’
The two have a lot more in common than being former teammates in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Both Loughery and Carter moved on to become head coaches and longtime analysts on NBA telecasts. But for the past few months, everyone wants to talk ancient history about the hapless 76ers of 47 years ago
“We were the universal health spa of the league. We got everybody healthy,’’ cracked Carter, a Philadelphia native now living outside of Germantown, Pa.
Loughery vividly remembers a game against the talented Los Angeles Lakers, featuring future Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, on their way to another 60-plus win season.
They were toying with us,’’ said the Brooklyn native and St. John’s star.. “”Late in the game, they were racing down the floor on a 4-on-2 fast break. Freddie and I were the only ones back on defense. We looked at each other and I moaned, “Here they come…again. We had no chance. We just weren’t very good.’’
Loughery suffered a double dose of misery that year with the aptly dubbed “Seventy-Sickers.’ The team began the season by losing its first 15 games under Roy Rubin, who had been highly successful as a college coach in his 11 years at Long Island University. The day Rubin was hired by Philadelphia, Billy Cunningham, the team’s star player, defected to the ABA Carolina Cougars,
Things only got worse. After winning only 4 of 51 games, Rubin admitted “I’m not in the best of mental health,’’ and was replaced by Loughery, who managed to eek out 5 wins in the remaining 31 games.
When we talked last week, Loughery acknowledged he had a difficult time remembering the 19 players who spent time on the 76ers roster that year. “”All I know is that most of them were either too young or too old, like Hal Greer, who, with Cunningham, was part of the glory years in Philaldephia. Now he was 38, just playing out the string’’
The majority of the roster was filled with “Who’s that?’ names like Manny Leaks, Dale Schleuter. Mike Price and John Q. Trapp. “We had some real characters like Trapp, who was from Detroit and always played his best against the Pistons. A lot of guys had their own agenda.’’
The team boasted a few respectable players like Carter, Bill Bridges and Tom Van Arsdale. But Bridges was swapped to the Lakers in November, and Van Arsdale didn’t arrive on the scene until January following his acquisition from Kansas City in exchange for power forward John Block.
When trying to explain how the 76ers had hit rock bottom, most critics point the finger at Jack Ramsay. He left St. Joseph’s College in 1967 to become general manager of the 76ers, who won an NBA championship that year. The following season he became the team’s head coach and led the 76ers to three playoff appearances.
But he would soon decimate the roster with several unfortunate trades, most notably the departures of Chamberlain and forward Chet Walker. Sensing the team’s downfall, Ramsay fled to Buffalo in 1972, leaving Rubin and then Loughery to sort out the mess.
Loughery, who had hoped to extend his playing career, soon enjoyed a stroke of good luck. As a rookie in 1963, he had played with Dave DeBusschere in Detroit. When DeBusschere became general manager of the ABA New York Nets in 1973, he hired Loughery as his head coach.
Coincidentally, that was the year the Nets acquired Julius Erving from the Virginia Squires, and he led them to their first NBA championship. .As Loughery joked, “When I had “Dr. J’ I was a brilliant coach. Without him, I became stupid in a hurry.’’
Loughery’s good fortunes would continue. In 1981, he became head coach of Atlanta and led the Hawks to two straight playoff appearances thanks to the presence of future Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins. Good luck followed him when he was hired by the Chicago Bulls in 1984. In his second season, a rookie named Michael Jordan joined the team and led them to the playoffs. “Great players make for great coaches,’’ said Loughery.
For us, memories are still fresh of the days we watched Loughery and Carter perform for the then Baltimore Bullets. Loughery was the kind of a shooter who made you wince when he unleashed a whirling jump shot, but, more often than not, it would find the middle of the net.
Carter was better known for his defense. He recalled that coach Gene Shue would not allow a practice to end until a player facing a “I-on-I’ situation totally shut down the man with the ball. “One day, I had to defend against Ray (Chink) Scott, who was five inches taller and about 50 pounds heavier than me,’’ he recalled. “I kept him from getting by, until Scott punched me. I punched him back, and Scott said, “He’s a “Mad Dog.’ That’s how I got the nickname.’’
When people ask me about the greatest game I ever witnessed, I say without hesitation, “Bullets beat Knicks in Garden, 93-91, in seventh game of 1971 Eastern Conference finals.’’ Carter, who made what amounted to the winning basket, readily agrees. “”We lost the first two games of that series and came back to win it. But it was particularly satisfying because New York had never lost a seventh game at home.’’
As a collegian, Carter had made history by becoming the first black player at Mt. St. Mary’s. “I wasn’t only the first black athlete, but the first black on campus, period. “(Coach) Jim Phelan tricked me. I didn’t know I’d be making history until I arrived on campus. But it was a great experience, especially when 2,000 people showed up three years ago in Emmitsburg to honor me for integrating the school.’’
But ask Carter for his most memorable moments in basketball, and he will quickly reply, “playing for the 1972-73 Sixers and introducing the “fist bump.’’
“Do you know that a writer for Time magazine wrote a piece shortly after Barack Obama declared victory in his election while following the voting results in St. Paul. When Barack gave Michelle a playful fist bump, the writer credited me with being the inspiration. Obama later said, “It captures what I love about my wife. That for all the hoopla, sometimes we’ll do silly things.’’
Yeah, Loughery and Carter might also sound silly wanting to preserve the 76ers infamous past. But we’re rooting for them. Two good guys with whom we again got to share old times and laughs. “Go Nets!’’
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