Kahn Air
Let’s pretend for a moment that Brett Favre is serious about his latest “retirement,” his third in as many years. If the world’s biggest prima donna has truly hung up his cleats and the Vikings will rely on Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels at quarterback, Minnesota will be hard-pressed to match last season’s 12 wins. After all, T-Jack lost his starting job two games into the 2008 season to journeyman and all-around genius Gus Frerotte, and Rosenfels’ greatest NFL accomplishment is single-handedly blowing a 10-point lead in four minutes against the Indianapolis Colts.
What does any of this have to to with the NBA? Yesterday, I asked if the Timberwolves, who in case you’ve missed it, have been decimated by an avocado GM David Kahn, or the Vikings had a better chance of winning eight games next season. I then decided to take it a step further and find out if an NFL team had ever won more games than their same-city NBA counterpart in the same season.
It turns out that it’s happened twice since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978. The 1992 Dallas Cowboys (13-3) and the 1997 Denver Broncos (12-4), both of whom won Super Bowls, ended up with more victories than the Mavericks and Nuggets, respectively, who of course played 82 contests. In case you’re curious, the 1972 Eagles went 2-11-1 in the same season that the 76ers set the NBA record for fewest wins in one year (nine). Santa Claus probably decided to skip over Philadelphia that year for his own safety.
The 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks won 11 games, the second lowest total in league history, which isn’t all that surprising when you consider that team was led by the likes of Sean Rooks, Terry Davis, and Tim Legler. A few terrible drafts — Randy White over Shawn Kemp, Tim Hardaway, and Mookie Blaylock in 1989 and Doug Smith over Terrell Brandon and Dale Davis in 1991 — didn’t help matters either. While the Cowboys won 25 of 32 regular season games from 1993 to 1994 and another Super Bowl, the Mavs won a total of 24 games and lost 140 over the same time-span.
It’s conceivable that Kahn is actually following the blueprint of the 11-win 1997-98 Denver Nuggets, who featured the likes of Johnny Newman, Dean Garrett, Priest Lauderdale and fifth overall pick Tony Battie. After letting perennial All-Star Dikembe Mutumbo leave as a free agent with zero compensation in 1996, the Nuggets pulled off one of the more underrated worst trades in NBA history, sending the 10th pick in that year’s Draft, Jalen Rose, and Reggie Williams to Indiana Pacers for Mark Jackson, Ricky Pierce and the 23rd pick. Then-GM Bernie Bickerstaff traded down because he didn’t think there was anyone “worth drafting” at number 10 — only a few guys named Kobe Bryant (13), Steve Nash (14), Jermaine O’Neal (17), and Peja Stojakovic (15) – and instead used the 23rd pick on Efthimios Rentzias, who never even suited up for the team. Jalen Rose went on to win the Most Improved Player Award in 2000 while leading a Finals-bound Pacers team in scoring, and the Nuggets traded Mark Jackson back to the Pacers after 52 games in a deal that netted Vincent Askew, Eddie Johnson, and second rounders in 1997 (Jason Lawson) and 1998 (Tremaine Fowlkes). Add that all up, and it’s a miracle the Nuggets won as many games as they did. (more…)
