So I'm driving home from the gym listening to the 2 o'clock hour of "Valenti and Foster" when I just started to laugh. Mike and Terry were talking about this seasons Pistons and how fans and Mike feel sympathy for the team considering the 2-8 start and the fact that nobody is coming to the games. And who could blame them? The Pistons are a tough watch these days. Their 8 losses have been by an average of 17 points and there is not one player on this team that has the ability to intrigue fans through all the bad basketball. I know Brandon Knight at age 20 could turn out to be a real good player, and I also like the flashes that Greg Monroe has shown. But overall I think it's safe to say that Piston fans wish the lockout never ended.

But things have been worse!

In the very first sentence that I wrote I mentioned that I started to laugh as Mike and Terry were talking about the Pistons. The reason for the chuckles was because as the show focused on this year's hoops campaign for some reason my mind thought back to al the real bad Detroit teams that I have watched growing up. In the grand scheme of things, this Pistons team doesn't hold a candle to the brutally, awfulness that I have witnessed being a sports fans in this area. The Pistons have a chance to turn things around. They have a chance to be considered bad or not good instead of awful like Detroit teams that came before them.

If you read any of my blogs (so you are the one) you probably notice that I'm a "list" guy. I love to rank everything! So on this day, in honor of the 2-8 brutal Pistons, I thought it would be a good idea to rank, are you ready???

"The Top Three Worst Detroit Teams Of My Lifetime" By the way, college teams count too!

3. Michigan Basketball during the times that Brian Ellerbe or Tommy Amaker were coaching.

For some reason I have stayed a Michigan hoops fans all these years. And believe me, my patience has been tested. After Steve Fisher was fired and the program was forced to endure NCAA sanctions, things could not have been worse in Ann Arbor. From the time Brian Ellerbe was hired in 1997 at Michigan to the time where Tommy Amaker took over and eventually was fired himself, there was no bigger laughing stalk in college hoops than the Maize and Blue. There were no tournament appearances, or for that matter even many Big ten wins either. In the time that Michigan was down, Michigan State and Tom Izzo started to go to Final Fours and even won a National Title in 2000. There was no chance that Michigan could ever dream of beating MSU back then and the dominance continued for well over a decade.

I can't pick one Michigan basketball team in that era that was the worst, because they all were equally as bad. I have spent several years in therapy trying to forget them all with no luck. But I can remember one game that was the more brutal then the rest. The day was March 4th, 2000 and it was senior day in East Lansing. Michigan had nothing to play for as Michigan State was in the midst of winning it all. This would be the last time that Mateen Cleaves would ever play at the Breslin Center. Cleaves made the most of it that day as he and the Spartans won 114-63. Cleaves had 20 assists while Charlie Bell threw in 31. There was only one Wolverine that was able to manage double figures in points, he was Josh Asselin. The rest of that team I would bet Michigan fans don't even remember. Guys like LaVelle Blanchard, Kevin Gaines and Leon Jones. See I told you!

Those were some dark days in being a Michigan basketball fan. Not only were the teams awful but nobody cared either. I would take this year's Pistons team any day over those Wolverine hoops teams.

2. 2008 Winless Detroit Lions

This one is a no brainer! In fact you might think that the 0-16 team should top the list; however I have an especially awful team for that number one honor. Of course just because the Lions are not the worst of all time on my list doesn't mean that they aren't on yours. There were so many bad things about that Rod Maranelli coached team. That squad was actually expected to do something considering the Lions went 7-9 the season before. Yep we were all wrong! From Dan Orlovski running out of the back of his own end zone for a safety to Daunte Culpepper getting a chance late in the year, things were just too hard to watch. I guess some positives did come out of 2008 as Matt Millen was finally fired after week 3 of the season and because the Lions were winless they were able to draft Matt Stafford first overall in the following draft.

But let's not sugar coat it. That team SUCKED!

Here are a couple of fun facts that you should remember about the only winless NFL team EVER.

-The Lions actually went 4-0 in the preseason
-They were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs after week eleven
-Rod Marinelli's Monday press conferences became must listen to radio as he talked about picks and axes and what not
-Who could forget Rob Park asking Maranelli if he wished his daughter married a better defensive coordinator? Maranelli to this day should thank Rob for making everybody forget that the team was 0-15 at that point because they were too busy being outraged by Parker.
-4 QB's took the field that season, Jon Kitna, Dan Orlovski, Drew Stanton and yes even Drew Henson got to play a couple of snaps as well.

Have I made you cry yet? Well it made me cry!

1. The 1996 Tigers

I know what you are thinking. If I was going to talk about the Tigers being the worst team why not make it the '03 version that lost 119 games? Right? And I hear you, but I just can't do it. You see the '03 team was awful but nothing in my mind tops the terrible 96 team. At least in '03 people expected the team to be that bad. In fact it was the last team that had to be that bad before the Tigers went out and signed Ivan Rodriguez in the offseason and then Magglio Ordonez the next off season. Before you knew it, Alan Trammel was fired and Jim Leyland was brought aboard and 2006 happened. 2003 was awful, but it was rock bottom before the good started to happen.

In 1996, it was the start of the bad. The league had strike shortened seasons in '95 and 94' and believe it or not in '93 Detroit actually had a winning record. 1996 was an unknown; the team had a chance to maybe be decent? Buddy Bell was the skipper, Randy Smith was the Gm and the Tigers finished the season 53 and 109. The likes of Felipe Lira, Omar Olivares Greg Gohr and Justin Thompson were the starting pitchers. The best ERA of the four was from Thompson who in 11 games started went 1 and 6 with a 4.58 earned run average. Brad Ausmus was the catcher; Bobby Higginson played left field while Chad Curtis was the gem of that team before being traded away to the Yankees. And who could forget about Andujar Cedeno? Not to sound disrespectful because he is now passed away, but Cedeno could have been the worst short stop I have ever seen. Not even Trammell and Cecil Fielder could help fix that team before they parted ways as well. Tony Clark along with Phil Nevin were the future but they were just as awful as everybody else.

That 1996 team was not only the worst Detroit team that I ever witnessed; they were the worst team period!

I remember going to the games at Tiger Stadium sitting in left field in the upper deck and heckling people. It was really all that there was to do. Sure you could drink your way through the action, but I was a college kid at the time, I didn't have that type of money. You could only stomach watching the actual game for about 3 innings before getting so fed up that you started to yell at players. I wasn't even heckling the opposition, oh NO, I was heckling the Tigers. It is not something I am proud of, but I was a season ticket holder at the time. It was all I had, that and the awesome turkey legs that they sold by the bleachers. Whatever happened to those I wonder?

So what teams did I miss?

As for the Pistons, they have a long way to go before they make this list. At least they got that going for them