Jonathan Peterlin, filling in for Ken Carman and Anthony Lima on Wednesday morning’s program on 92.3 The Fan, has witnessed historic losing streaks before. The Cleveland Cavaliers lost 26 consecutive games during the 2010-11 campaign, the first year without superstar forward LeBron James after he decided to sign with the Miami Heat. Moreover, the Cleveland Browns compiled a winless season in 2017, marking the first time in the history of the NFL such a result had been attained in a 16-game regular season schedule. In fact, there was an 0-16 parade held in the city of Cleveland acknowledging the team’s difficulties.
On Tuesday night, Little Caesars Arena was filled to capacity as fans watched the hometown Detroit Pistons lose to the Brooklyn Nets by a final score of 118-112. After beginning the season with a 2-1 record, the team has now dropped 27 straight games, marking the most consecutive losses in NBA regular season history. The Pistons have not qualified for the NBA Playoffs over the last five seasons, and the organization is approaching two decades without its last NBA Championship, heightening concerns for a team that has had several high-end draft picks and young talent in recent years.
“I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m going to talk about it the next day,’” Jonathan Peterlin recollected in thinking about his preparation for the show. “It’s not one of those things where I thought, ‘Let me tune in to see the Detroit Pistons game and see how that goes.’”
When the Pistons broke the record on Tuesday night, there seemed to be considerable interest in the event. Various mobile applications sent notifications to users informing them as to what had just taken place, and there were many recaps and stories authored thereafter. The Pistons take on the Boston Celtics Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. EST/4:30 p.m. PST, the team with the best record in the Association thus far, in a game that experts predict will extend this losing skid to 28 straight games. The team did have a five-point lead during the fourth quarter on Tuesday, but the effort to seal the win turned out to be fruitless thanks to a subsequent 13-0 run by the Brooklyn Nets.
“They have fans in attendance with bags over their head, which is always a very comical sight,” Peterlin said. “You have the whole entire crowd chanting [for the owner] to sell the [team], but the part that got me a little agitated was that it felt like people were there not necessarily to support the Pistons. They were there to see history, and it all felt very odd to me.”
The game was televised locally on Bally Sports Detroit and YES Network, along with radio broadcasts on 97.1 The Ticket and WFAN. Part of the alluring factor of this game ostensibly came from a combination of schadenfreude, disbelief and a desire to witness the unfolding of a historic event. Jonathan Peterlin reminisced on how upon being assigned to cover the 0-16 Browns parade, his boss informed him that it would be a moment he would never forget. Incredulous at the time, he came to realize that the assortment was true, with callers throughout the year seeming to want to continue losing games. After some time, these calls began to give off a sentiment of “fun-bad;” that is, trying to find revelry and amusement in the futility.
“How long can they go where they don’t win games? How long?,” Jonathan Peterlin said of the Pistons. “If this streak goes to 40, will you start tuning in to Detroit Pistons basketball games just to see how long an NBA team can go winless?”
