In honor of the Detroit Lions' 0-16 season, let's take a look back at one of the worst teams in Pistons history.
AUBURN HILLS -- Greg Kelser was an All-American in the classroom as well as on the basketball court. He teamed up with Magic Johnson to lead Michigan State to the school's first national title in 1979.
With a resume like that, the last thing Kelser would have expected as an NBA rookie with the Detroit Pistons was to be part of a team that finished with a franchise-worst 16-66 record."I had never experienced anything like it," said Kelser, taken with the No. 4 overall pick by Detroit in the 1979 NBA draft. "For me, it was especially difficult to handle."
Record: 16-66
Coach: Dick Vitale (4-8); Richie Adubato (12-58)
Front office: Bill Davidson, owner; Jack McCloskey, general manager*
Home venue: Pontiac Silverdome
Key players: Bob Lanier, Bob McAdoo, John Long, Greg Kelser
Defining moment(s): Hall of Fame center Bob Lanier is traded to Milwaukee; Head coach Dick Vitale resigns after 4-8 start, replaced by Richie Adubato for the remainder of the season; Davidson hires Jack McCloskey.
In the news: Hewlett-Packard announces the release of its first personal computer (Jan., 1980); President Jimmy Carter authorizes $1.5 billion in loans to bail out Chrysler Corporation (Jan. 1980); United States hockey team upsets Soviet Union (Feb., 1980) at Winter Games in what becomes dubbed as the "Miracle on Ice."
* = Hired in December of 1979
Several in-season moves transformed the Pistons from a team looking to rebuild with a mix of aging veterans and promising young players into one that was clearly starting over. Kelser recalls at one point that season, Detroit's roster consisting of five rookies and two second-year players.
"We were really no better than an expansion team," said Kelser, a television analyst for Fox Sports Detroit. "And you're talking about playing in an NBA when it was at its strongest, the late 70s and early 80s. It was very difficult knowing that your best effort on most nights wasn't good enough."
That was among the reasons why Hall of Fame big man Bob Lanier, hobbled by injuries in Detroit that season, asked to be traded. Detroit eventually dealt him to Milwaukee. Jim McElroy, a 6-foot-3 guard who starred at Central Michigan, was traded to Atlanta just two months after Detroit acquired him from Utah. John Shumate, a starter in eight of the nine games he suited up for Detroit that season, was cut.
With all the changes and the losses mounting, head coach Dick Vitale resigned just 12 games into the season. His replacement, Richie Adubato, didn't fare any better as Detroit closed out the worst season in franchise history by losing 29 of its last 31 games.
One of the positives Kelser took from the struggles he endured that year, was it created a much greater appreciation for winning.
In 1981, the Pistons traded Kelser to Seattle (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) for Vinnie Johnson. During his first season with the Sonics, Seattle advanced to the playoffs where they were eliminated in the second round.
"I probably appreciated the wins more than anybody on that team," Kelser said. "A lot of them had not gone through what I had to endure, when you're talking about a 16-66 season."
Kelser added, "losing takes its toll on you mentally, in every way you can imagine. You know that's not what got you there. I didn't get to the NBA by being a loser."