Yesterday, the New Jersey Nets beat the San Antonio Spurs for their 10th win of the season, finally distancing themselves from the record of the worst team in NBA history, the 72-73 Philadelphia 76ers.
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New Jersey Nets logo at center court
So the question is, did players on this team lose any future revenue from being able to call themselves the biggest (or at least tied with) losers in league history?
As you might know, the greatest winners in league history are often rewarded in future money-making deals. This most notably includes members of the Dolphins, the only perfect NFL team, who ironically accomplished their feat during the same period the Sixers were losing 38 years ago, who cash in to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars each year from a healthy demand for their autograph.
Well, Brook Lopez can rest easy, at least according to one memorabilia insider.
"There is not a large collecting base for loveable losers," said Simeon Lipman, pop culture specialist at Freeman's, an auction and appraisal company located in Philadelphia. "However, there are certainly people who collect that material, more of a supplement to their collections rather than a base for it.
Lipman said there's not a premium to the collectibles of really bad teams, with the exception of a few "lousy cult teams," including the 1962 New York Mets and the 1969 Seattle Pilots.
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