Their 118–112 loss to the Brooklyn Nets at home was the team’s 27th consecutive defeat, breaking the league record for longest single-season losing streak previously shared by the 2010–11 Cleveland Cavaliers and ’13–14 Philadelphia 76ers. The overall record for longest losing streak is 28 games, held by the Sixers, who lost their final 10 games of the ’14–15 season and then their first 18 of the ’15–16 season. Detroit can tie that record with a loss to the Boston Celtics on the road tomorrow night and break it with a loss to the Toronto Raptors at home on Saturday.

The sad thing about where the Pistons find themselves is that they aren’t even supposed to be tanking. They’ve won 23 games or fewer in each of the past four seasons, which has earned them many high draft picks. Killian Hayes, who they took at No. 7 in the 2020 draft, has been a bust. But Detroit had two players on last season’s All-Rookie Second Team: No. 5 pick Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, who was acquired from the Knicks in the Kemba Walker deal. Ausar Thompson, the No. 5 pick in this year’s draft, has shown promise early in his rookie season, despite the team’s dismal results. He’s averaging 7.6 rebounds per game and is one of only four rookies in the league averaging at least six boards. The other three are all over 7 feet tall. Thompson is 6'7".

The crown jewel of Detroit’s recent draft classes is Cade Cunningham, who was selected with the first pick in the 2021 draft. He had an excellent rookie season but was limited to just 12 games last season by a stress fracture in his leg. Cunningham has picked up where he left off this season, though, and has been trying to will his team to victory almost single-handedly. He had a career-high 43 points in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 18 and had a brilliant game last night against Brooklyn, dropping 41 on 15-of-21 shooting.

Now is when the Pistons should take advantage of their lottery picks. But the collection of young talent hasn’t amounted to much. They’re just as terrible now as they were when they started this rebuild because they haven’t assembled the right supporting cast. Detroit had a promising young player in Saddiq Bey, the 19th pick in 2020, but traded him to the Hawks last season as part of a four-team deal that sent James Wiseman to Detroit. Bey is a contributor in Atlanta, averaging 12.9 points per game, while Wiseman is on the fringes of the Pistons’ rotation. Detroit also traded Jerami Grant to Portland before last season. He’s now the Blazers’ second leading scorer. Ugh.

The Pistons obviously have some serious long-term concerns, but their immediate problems are just as pressing. A historic losing streak is an embarrassment that will hang over the franchise a long time. The longer it stretches, the more humiliating it gets. Last night was the second straight home game in Detroit with loud “sell the team” chants. Those chants will only get louder if they can’t stop the bleeding.

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The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. A slick Eurostep by Russell Westbrook.

4. Zion Williamson’s ballhandling to beat Marcus Smart and throw down a thunderous dunk.

3. Ja Morant’s celebration after finishing an alley oop.

2. Dillon Brooks taunting Tyrese Haliburton.

1. Kansas Jayhawks quarterback Jason Bean’s six touchdown passes in the team’s Guaranteed Rate Bowl win over the UNLV Rebels.

SIQ

Which early baseball star, born on this day in 1887, was known as “the Black Ty Cobb?”

Spottswood Poles
Cannonball Dick Redding
Cyclone Joe Williams
Bingo DeMoss

Friday’s SIQ: Which MLB franchise lost two of its best players because they sent them their contracts for the following season on this day in 1980, two days after the deadline? (Hint: One was a Hall of Fame catcher who grew up near where the team played and hit one of the most memorable home runs in World Series history. The other was a nine-time All-Star outfielder who won the MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season.)

Mets
Red Sox
Cardinals
A’s

Answer: Red Sox. The players were Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn. Both players had signed five-year contracts in 1976 with options for a sixth year, but union leader Marvin Miller challenged the option clause on the grounds that it inhibited the players’ rights to free agency and had it removed from the contract.

It was a situation too complex to explain fully here (Hayden Bird did a good job laying it all out in this 2021 Boston.com article), but the crux of it is that the Red Sox believed they had exclusive rights to negotiate new contracts with both players. Boston general manager and part owner Haywood Sullivan believed he didn’t need to send Lynn and Fisk their new contracts.

“He was advised by the lawyers in the commissioner’s office that he didn’t have to send them out because [the Red Sox] had right of refusal,” Peter Gammons told Boston.com. “And the interpretation of the intention was strongly upheld by the commissioner’s office.”

But that advice proved to be wrong. And curiously, rather than not send the contracts as the commissioner’s office had advised, Sullivan sent them two days after the deadline. Once Miller heard that Fisk’s and Lynn’s contracts hadn’t been tendered by the deadline, he moved to have both players declared free agents.

Before an arbiter could rule on Lynn’s case, Sullivan traded him to the Angels for an underwhelming return. (Lynn had already been on the trading block before the contract fiasco because Sullivan had concerns about being able to pay all the Red Sox players whose contracts were set to expire.) On Feb. 12, 1981, an arbiter declared Fisk a free agent. He subsequently signed with the White Sox and played his final 13 seasons in Chicago. Starting shortstop Rick Burleson, who had the same agent as Fisk and Lynn and signed an identical contract, was traded to the Angels two weeks before the deadline to tender his contract.

When the next season started, Sullivan had no regrets about losing three starters.

“Here’s a list of three players signed for over $13 million,” he told reporters during spring training. “And I’m stupid? Go to hell.”

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