Code Brown For The Charlotte Bobcats, 15 Straight Losses
By Editorial Staff
Does everyone know what the term “Code Brown” means? Alright, now we’re all on the same page. It’s freak out time. I totally understand the stance “hey, who cares? We’re freakin’ tankin’! No… sleep…. ’til…. lotto!,” said in your best Beastie Boy-voice. Or there’s the depression laden, “Oh, who the hell cares anymore? They don’t, I don’t, forget it.” So many ways to look at it, but I think 15 straight in a season of only 66 games, it’s panic time. Code BROWN, folks! Code Larry Brown, Code Derrick Brown, Code Shannon Brown, Code D.J. Whi….sorry, Code Kwame Brown, you get it. It’s seriously bad up in here. You could even say it stinks.
Losing happens when you have young, unproven talent mixed with old unproven “talent” and no pre-season, sprinkle in some injuries, lots of injuries actually and a pretty tough early schedule. That schedule thing is a little tough to swallow, seeing as how the Bobcats actually have the 15th toughest schedule in the league but much like in their games, when the ‘Cats get on a bit of a roll, things look up but no, the schedule throws someone tough at you. This run however, the last 7 games especially have been losses by an average of 25 or so, so there hasn’t been that ramping up.
I don’t care if you were hoping for the Bobcats to be solidly in position for the most ping pong balls by the All-Star Break, one win out of the last 22 games is impossible to watch. 3-25 is absolutely miserable as a fan. Your Mom asks you “Well, are the Bobcats the worst?” People at work who know you’re a Bobcats say things like “Hey! Saw them talking about your boys there on ESPN….whoooo….they’re pretty bad aren’t they there, Andrew? HA! HA!” ESPN’s ticker, basically the only thing I really pay attention to on that network, now show only the Bobcats’ highest scorer and “14 straight losses” or “15 straight losses” and not the second leading scorer or some interesting stat line. Well, in their defense, I guess a long losing streak is an interesting stat.
Think about the players. Kemba Walker went on a 10 game streak to start the season and another streak of 11 to end his season at UConn last year. He’s not used to losing this much. Bismack Biyombo isn’t used to anything, but losing this much as a rookie, whoo, that’d mess with my head but he seems to be handling it well. Actually, everyone seems to be handling it well…almost….too well? That hasn’t started to bother me yet, because of the injuries really, and because no one is hanging their head too low and no one is joking and having fun, after a loss but, I’d start questioning if it gets worse and the morale gets better.
15 losses in a row is bad, but it’s not the end of the world. Hell, it doesn’t even get you on the wikipedia page for longest losing streaks. Don’t forget, the Cavs had a streak of 26 losses just last season. It didn’t yield them the #1 overall pick. That pick came via the trade with the Clippers for Baron Davis. The Nets had that streak of 19 straight between the end of 2008-2009 and the beginning of 2009-2010.
I’m just so frustrated by the losing, and I expected losses. The initial tease of limited success messed with me, but seriously, I expected 15 wins I think, out of 72 games and so, 13 maybe 12 is reasonable to expect out of 66. Well, we’re 5 games short of halfway and damn it if we’re only 1/4 of the way to what I’m saying I predicted for wins. It sucks.
I don’t know any other way to describe it. Worse still, I can’t put my finger on it. All I know for sure is, like many things in life, winning in the NBA is a moving target. Once you think you have something figured out, something else creeps up or just pops up out of nowhere to further stiffarm the entire franchise away from pulling out a victory. Doug Collins, Michael Jordan’s former coach and a guy who Jordan hired to coach the Wizards when he was there, told the assembled media (Rick Bonnell of the Observer, in our case) that these losses must be killing the “most competitive” guy, ever. I know it’s driving me crazy and I’m not even paying to go see games this year, let alone footing the bill for washing the losing team’s socks and everything else.
A win will come. Some team will come in on an off night, or the Bobcats will slide into their house when a team had some horrible pre-game meal and they’ll catch them off guard. Until then, we all wallow in the misery that comes with such deep and varied levels of futility.
Andrew Barraclough is Senior Editor for RobertoGato.com, a Charlotte Bobcats Blog on the Fansided Network. Follow him on Twitter @therobertogato and Like the site on Facebook.