(USA TODAY Sports)

Michael Carter-Williams penned an essay on what it’s like to be part of the Philadelphia 76ers. A team that is currently 0-8, and fresh off a 123-70 pummeling at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks.

Carter-Williams wrote over 1,000 words on the emotions of going through such a dreadful year for The Players’ Tribune, which includes the nugget that he watches The Ellen DeGeneres Show to cope (though, don’t we all?).  The essay can be summed up neatly with the start of Carter-Williams’ second paragraph.

“Losing sucks.”

Yes, yes it does.

(AP)

Unfortunately for Carter-Williams, there are few NBA teams in history who lose quite like the Sixers have over the years. No other team in the NBA has ever lost more than three games by more than 50 points. Philadelphia has done it five times.

The Sixers have been outscored by 143 points through eight games. Only the 1997-98 Warriors (-148) and the 1988-89 Heat (-147) have conceded more. Those two teams finished 19-63 and 15-67 respectively.

Philadelphia is last in points per game and and third-to-last in points allowed. They are, unequivocally a bad team. In his story, Carter-Williams insists the players aren’t tanking. There’s no reason not to believe him. He and his teammates are playing for their livelihood and ostensibly a way out of their current situation.

(USA TODAY Sports)

Professional athletes want to win. The problem with the Sixers team, which Carter-Williams fails to realize is that Philadelphia can’t win. It has nothing to do with media portrayal or a lack of context or facts.

This is a team who has gone 4-40 since January 31 of this year.

Carter-Williams writes:

“You can question my shooting. You can question my ceiling. Just don’t question if I’m giving my all every single night. Don’t talk to me about tanking.”

That’s fair. We can’t question his intentions without knowing them. All anyone can do as an outside observe is observe. We are observing a terrible basketball team whose star claims to be giving it his all every single night (though Carter-Williams’ has only played one game to date).

So the Sixers are giving it their all, and they are still getting punched in the mouth by every team in the NBA. That kind of makes the whole thing even worse.

Philadelphia is an unintentionally, historically terrible team. Wouldn’t it be better if they were just tanking?