Carter, of worst team in NBA history, wants to keep place in record books

It seems so improbable to some of the 76ers who lived through the 9-73 season of 1972-73. The NBA has expanded from what was then a 17-team league to 30. The talent pool has been spread out and diluted.

Fred Carter, the Sixers' leading scorer in their historic season, prefers that the recognition for being the worst team in history remains intact. Two reasons: He wants to be remembered, even if it's for that, and he doesn't want to see another team suffer that level of agony.

The 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks and the '97-98 Denver Nuggets barely escaped the ignominy, each finishing 11-71.

But this season's New Jersey Nets, 7-56 after last night's loss at Memphis, could win fewer than nine. The Nets started their season 0-18; the '72-73 Sixers started 0-15.

"I would tell the Nets, 'Stick together, hang in. Don't point fingers,' " Carter said. " 'Don't give up games. Play hard, so people on the better teams see that. You're auditioning for all the other teams in the league. Good teams can tend to ignore players on bad teams.' "

Dave Wohl, traded by the Sixers to Portland just before the start of '72-73, said, "I really can't imagine what [the Nets] are going through.

"The losing weighs on guys. You can't go home, you can't watch TV, you can't read the paper without hearing about it. They're not trying to lose; they just don't know how to win. And teams don't want to lose to them."

Wohl was employed by the Sixers, the Trail Blazers and the Buffalo Braves in '72-73. Those teams finished a combined 51-195.

"When you lose [continually], players tend to pull away, wrap themselves in their own little cocoon," Wohl said. "They want to escape. Guys can begin to distance themselves. The coach walks in every day, trying to find something [positive] to say, but the season can beat you down. The players are not sure they believe they can win."

Freddie Boyd, the Sixers' first-round draft choice in '72, said, "Sometimes it seemed impossible that we would lose, and then we would. You'd hear over your shoulder [from teammates], 'I wonder how we're going to lose this one.' I didn't think in those terms, but we didn't know how to do it."

John Block, the Sixers' All-Star that miserable season, said, "I feel empathy. Sympathy is never an issue. They're getting paid to do what they do. They're doing it as well as they can. That's what we did. We gave an effort."

Kevin Loughery found a new career coaching the final 31 games of that season while remaining on the active roster.

"The Nets have a guy who was an All-Star last year [Devin Harris] and a center [Brook Lopez] who has a chance to be big-time," Loughery said. "I think they'll win enough to [avoid] our record."

Dale Schlueter, the center who arrived in the trade for Wohl, said, "I didn't think [breaking the record] would ever happen. The talent pool is so thinned out. I didn't think [anyone] could even think about breaking the record. If [the Nets] do, more power to them. I can get off that list." *