There’s an old sportswriting axiom that states the best stories reside in the losing locker room.



I’ve never bought that as an absolute, but for this week I am embracing the insufferable, the miserable, the worst of the worst.



When I worked at Sports Illustrated, one of my titles was special projects editor, and part of that charter was to get the staff involved in projects across multiple sports. One of those projects was a series on the 25 Most Hated Teams in Sports History. That ended up spawning additional pieces, including the worst NBA teams our writers had covered during their careers.



Since then, I’ve always wanted to do a similar project, and this week The Athletic will unveil essays from some terrific sports media people (including from some colleagues at The Athletic) on the worst team they’ve covered as a professional.



Below, the list of insufferable teams, the person who...