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The Viv Richards leg-side flick By Kamran AbbasiYou dont take Viv Richards down. Ive seen him hit by a bumper and the ball slide off him like a sponge thrown at granite. Ive seen him bowled for a duck and still swagger off the pitch. In the mind of King Viv these are simply moments of odd luck in a bowlers favour, for in his realm, in those royal 22 yards, an opponent is to be cut down with his SS Jumbo.When you are growing up and you see a man like Richards bat, you want to bat like him. When you are older, you realise youll never see a batsman like him again. We know about the swagger. Others swagger too, but its never been so natural or intimidating. We know about the gum-chewing smile, bum jutting towards square leg in a straight-kneed stance, head cocked towards the bowler atop shoulders that seem as broad as the body is tall. We know what follows is beautiful brutality with no empathy for a bowlers impotence.We hear much talk of modern batting, of switch hits and ramp shots. Richards didnt need any of those. Richards style was to see ball, hit ball - anywhere. That isnt to say he couldnt play orthodox. His off-drive was quite upright but imperious; the ball might have been fired from a cannon. His pull was by arrangement with the bowler, who barely finished his action before Richards was swaying to the off side to thump him to the boundary. His on-drive was perfectly balanced, an exquisite blend of power and timing.In defence, hed pat the ball down as if it was the head of a docile kitten, to mock the lollipop deliveries of the worlds most fearsome bowlers. But a Richards defensive stroke was a grand anticlimax, an obscene waste of talent. Here was a man made for destruction.Speed, spin, late movement, early movement, the ball took a hell of a beating. When the mood took him, Richards stepped back a pace or two to free his arms and drive expansively through the off side. Whether it was a four or six was a matter of whimsy. It was unstoppable. It was signature. Indeed, all his moves were. He had so many signatures that youd need an autograph book to capture them.But the one that sticks with me is the way Richards played through leg. Yes, Richards was good off his legs. Fire one at his body and he flicked it away, as any world-class batsman might do, except with more venom. No, it isnt that routine stroke that interests me. Richards did something else, something more breathtaking, something that established his supremacy early in an encounter.Batting at No. 3, he faced the worlds best. Lillee and Thomson. Botham and Willis. Imran, Kapil and Hadlee. They spat venom and smelt blood. The pitches were rough, green or uneven. Richards didnt wear a helmet. They wanted to humble the mighty West Indies. They wanted Richards and his West Indians to grovel. Richards would smile. Hed swagger. Hed chew gum. Hed prod the pitch. Hed pat a few heads of docile kittens.The bowler felt on top, so chest-thumpingly on top that hed deliver a ball of perfect length darting in at off stump. Instead of patting back down the line, instead of stepping back and driving expansively through the off side, which it was too early to do, Richards had a third way. He moved with an effortless grace, as if merely readjusting that straight-kneed stance. His front leg moved forward and across his stumps, more across than forward, covering them, a certain lbw - for any man but King Viv, that is.Next, Richards delivered his stroke, his signature move. Across his straight-kneed front leg, in a feat of immaculate timing and rippling power, hed flick his hands over the ball, a flick that began as a twitch of his mighty shoulder pivots and ended with a snap of wrists, plucking it from its off-stump trajectory and pistoling it into or over the leg-side boundary. The message was delivered. King Viv was seizing control of his kingdom.Forward and across, with power and poise, from straightened knees and mighty shoulders, he felled the worlds best bowlers. They grovelled before him. If anybody else tried it, it looked like a slog, uncouth and uncultured. When Vivian Richards moved forward and across and flicked to leg, it was a shot of brutal beauty, a signature move to signal the demolition.Kamran Abbasi is an editor, writer and broadcaster. @KamranAbbasi****The Dhoni stumping By Sidharth MongaThe word evolution in the context of wicketkeeping frustratingly ends at how Adam Gilchrist turned that player into a batsman first and a gloveman second. Batting has evolved beyond recognition with the advent of the two limited-overs formats and the never-ending improvement in protective equipment and bats. Bowling has evolved with slower balls, reverse swing and the doosra. Wicketkeeping, a job behind the stumps, has only evolved in front of them.MS Dhoni the wicketkeeper is different; yet when you think of a Dhoni signature it is always to do with his batting: the helicopter shot, the quick running, the calculated finish. I have not watched the Dhoni biopic, authorised and promoted by the man himself, and produced by his friend and manager, but none of the promos shows him keeping wicket, and I am willing to wager that the movie does not delve into that aspect. It is a shame because, with due respect to collecting throws in front of the stumps, wearing helmets while standing up to the quicks and the advance in general athleticism, Dhonis stumping technique is the only evolutionary step in the actual art of wicketkeeping.Wicketkeepers tend to follow the laws of physics when they collect hard cricket balls. Which is, take the hands back to absorb the blow and make sure the ball doesnt fall out. When it comes to stumpings, especially when the ball is turning and bouncing, keepers go back with the ball a little to collect it cleanly before moving towards the stumps. There is a precious half-second lost there. Dhoni doesnt go back. His gloves are always moving towards the stumps. It is as if along the way he just picks up a stationary object and whips the bails off with it.It is an act whose finality is beyond doubt. You miss the ball with Dhoni behind the stumps and you know you have no time to get back. Usually on pitches with turn and bounce, you can always hope to return to the crease because the more the action on the ball the more a wicketkeeper has to go back with his gloves. This doesnt apply to Dhoni. The impact is most visible when batsmen are stumped playing the forward defensive. The ball dips a little and drags the back foot over, but it has to turn past the bat to beat it, which means a regular wicketkeeper takes that much time to allow batsmen to get back into the crease. With Dhoni you are stumped by the time alarm bells ring in your mind.This is no party trick, and he has many - for instance, sticking his right leg out perpendicularly to stop a late cut, even as the hands follow the ball should it miss the bat. Dhoni almost never misses a stumping or a catch even though his hands are never going back to soften the blow. It is the reliability that makes it a signature move.By all accounts, and by all I have seen in the India nets over the years, Dhoni hardly practises keeping. He rarely talks about it. His fielding coaches have little idea how he does it. Behind the scenes, though, he works hard and has done. He spends a lot of time on his wicketkeeping in his houses in Delhi and Ranchi. A current wicketkeeper on the circuit has had conversations with Dhoni about his technique and he says Dhoni can manage it because he has done it since he was a boy. Others dont even try.At a young age, as with many things he did in his own way because of a mind that questioned norms, Dhoni knew he wanted to save time. I am not sure if he ever watched or spoke to the only man I have seen pull off such stumpings in international cricket, Sadanand Viswanath. Like Viswanath, Dhoni trained himself to not let his elbows go behind his body when collecting the ball standing up to the stumps. He never shied from wearing a helmet to protect himself; being effective was better than looking flash. Then hours went into perfecting the move. His strength, especially in the wrists, compensates for the control he loses by not giving himself time.The result is an act of beauty that hasnt been given its due. Indian broadcasters nowadays seem to have a Kohli cam that captures everything Virat Kohli does on the field: running in with the ball, reacting to the delivery, to the shot, appealing, celebrating, despairing, cheering, fighting, scratching his beard. The Dhoni stumpings are already caught on tape from multiple angles, and before he goes for good, I hope some producer decides to play them out for the world on loop. That would be a trip.Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo****The KP surge By Rob SmythIll never forget Super Saturday of the London Olympics: Kevin Pietersen was batting. Pietersens awesome 149 against South Africa at Headingley left a far greater imprint on my memory than the orgy of patriotism that accompanied arguably Britains most celebrated day of sport. He didnt win a Test, never mind a gold medal, but the ethereal majesty with which he took apart the best pace attack in the world prompted a tremulous gratitude I shall always remember. The visceral thrill was such that it was impossible to sit still - and not just while the innings was going on. When I went home that night I tried to watch a film, couldnt concentrate and put the highlights of the cricket on, twice.Pietersen was associated with many shots - the switch hit, the slog sweep, the flamingo - but his greatest skill was what we might call the KP surge: when he would decide, as if on a whim, to take a bowler or an attack apart; when his mere presence at the crease was a newsflash. It might only last half an hour or an hour. That was enough: the resounding impact of the Pietersen surge meant it was invariably match-winning. When he made a double-century against India at Lords in 2011, his half-centuries came from 134 balls, 82, 85 - and finally 25 as he ran riot. He did not so much trouble the scorers as terrorise them. He did it against all opponents and in all contexts; he could kick an opponent when they were up or down. He did it in all formats too, but the elevated significance of his Test-match surges made them the most exhilarating thing I have seen in cricket.The best things about watching sport are genius, unpredictability and partisanship. As an England fan, the Pietersen surge involved all three. It was an almost psychedelic experience. Those innings were a cure for shyness; they made you want to tell someone, anyone, that Pietersen was on one. In sport its extremely rare for the reality to exceed the fantasy; with Pietersen that happened on multiple occasions. He didnt deal in the impossible; he dealt in the unimaginable, remixing existing shots and inventing new ones. Its no surprise that the majority of his most famous shots came during a surge, when he was in a higher state of concentration.In his superb book Kevin Pietersen on Cricket, he observed that being in the zone did not, as we tend to think, mean seeing the ball big; it meant seeing it slow. Two shots demonstrated that better than others: the dreamy pull off Dale Steyn during his 149 at Headingley, and the laziest driven six over extra cover off Pragyan Ojha in his immense 186 in Mumbai later that year. There were a few exceptions, most notably the chest-beating duel with Brett Lee during his Ashes-winning 158 in 2005, but the Pietersen surge was usually defined by a serene control and an aura of invincibility. He gave the worlds great bowlers a crash course in futility.There was no pattern to when all this might occur, and he has struggled to understand the frequency with which he entered the zone. The most common trigger seemed to be defiance - of opponents, the media, poor form, or even, at Headingley in 2012, his own team-mates. He might be stimulated by the desire to show off, the match situation or the weather. In Colombo in 2012, he decided he simply could not bat time in the 45-degree heat. So he hit one six, and then he hit another, and soon hed made 151 from 165 balls.That aura of invincibility could be deceptive. For every legendary surge, there were three or four where he got himself out just as word was spreading that something magical might be happening. That jeopardy added to the thrill of the experience, and the reward when he pulled it off was that you could sit at close of play trying to fathom what you had just witnessed. As a sports journalist you can become anaesthetised. The KP surge took me back to being a fan, and being a kid, lost in the wonder of astonishing sport.Rob Smyth is the author of Gentlemen and Sledgers: A History of the Ashes in 100 Quotations****The dry-pitch con job By Andrew Fidel FernandoIf a government job is the most stable employment in South Asia, cricket administration is perhaps the most volatile. Cricket Australia has been stuck with James Sutherland for the better part of two decades. Giles Clarke looks and sounds like Jurassic calcium deposit, and upholds the hairstyle and values of an even earlier age. In South Asia - and Sri Lanka, in particular - cricket governance is forever enlivened by summary firings, interim-committee appointments, judicial injunctions, hostile takeovers, ad-hoc cocktail lunches, impromptu travel junkets, temperamental office Wi-Fi, and so on.So when out of this chaos order emerges, it does seem wondrous. And in no instance do administrators, ground staff, team management and cricketers collude to such consistently fruitful effect as in the preparation of dry tracks for foreign teams.It begins with the curator. In years gone by there may have been some head-scratching as to whether dry tracks are appropriate for certain visiting teams. Helpfully, the cricket world has since organised itself into two distinct groups: teams who can barely play spin, and teams who would rather self-immolate.When the latter sort arrive at the ground, the curator smilingly assures them that, of course, there will be some pace and bounce, not to worry, it always looks like this before a Test, and actually, this is quite like the one that South Africa had won a game on a few years back, youll see, and oh, put the opposition in to bat definitely. Not long after, he instructs his ground staff to scrub the surface down with coir brushes and warns them not to spill so much as a bead of sweat while they do. The curator has, of course, been instructed to prepare a surface just good enough to avoid ICC censure. Just to make sure, board officials are buttering up the match referee, their guest of honour in the extravagant pre-series tamasha. By the eve of the match a little tension has built up, but the tourists are concealing their fears. The visiting captain will make assertive, leader-like comments at his media appearance. They know it will spin, but his men are up to the challenge, he will say. They have trained so hard, they are the best-prepared outfit not just in the history of cricket but also of preparation. And, he says, the top order did continuous trust-falls and sang around the campfire in their team-building jamboree until all memory of traumatic past tours was wiped out.But then the match begins and things begin to go badly. The arm ball proves destructive initially, so the batsmen meet and decide to watch closely for it. The turning ball duly wreaks havoc the next day. Soon they begin to speak of spin bowling as if it is some kind of voodoo. Physically they are deteriorating, like someone is sticking pins into dolls made in their visage. Batsmen are sweating profusely in the heat. They are developing tinnitus from the constant cawing of the vultures around the bat. The legs are not quite moving as they should. The bowlers variations look identical out of the hand, so maybe the eyes are packing up.By now, almost everything the home spinners touch is turning into a wicket. They had smiled graciously while the fast bowlers were given their token two overs with the new ball, but before long, lost patience and strode to the bowling crease to dispatch them to the boundary. That was cute, machan, but its time to really start playing now. For much of the game, the fast bowlers trudge from position to distant position in the field. By the end they have had less impact on proceedings than, say, the sightscreen attendants.The home side eventually saunters to victory. The usual post-match reflection follows. About 48 hours pass. When another dry pitch is unveiled at the next venue, the visiting captain cannot drum up any bravado. This time he knows what he is really looking at: a funeral pyre.Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfos Sri Lanka correspondent. @andrewffernando Matt Breida Super Bowl Jersey . After Gasquet beat fifth-seeded Ivan Dodig of Croatia 7-5, 6-3, Tsonga followed up with a 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-2 win against sixth-seeded Edouard Roger-Vasselin in an all-French match. Custom 49ers Super Bowl Jerseys . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East. http://www.49ersofficialfanshop.com/mike-mcglinchey-jersey-sales.html . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. Jimmy Garoppolo Super Bowl Jersey . Badenhop was 2-3 with a 3.47 ERA in 63 relief appearances for Milwaukee this season. He is 18-20 in his career with three saves and a 3. Trent Taylor Super Bowl Jersey . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. In 2016, the NBA rankings show just how important winning is to a fanbase. The Cavs, up 97 spots from two years ago, come in at second to the list -- behind only those perennial winners in San Antonio. The Raptors, Pistons and Hornets, too, made some of 2016s biggest jumps after unexpected success this season. Meanwhile, on the other end, theres, well...the Knicks. The Suns. The Kings. Fanbases who are tired of paying a lot to win a little. A Cavs-esque jump might be impossible for those teams (unless LeBron James is looking to move?), but who knows what can happen with a title?1. San Antonio Spurs (2 overall)The San Antonio Spurs inched down a spot to No. 2 in the Ultimate Standings after capturing a franchise-record 67 victories, which included an impressive 40-1 record at home. Not much kept them from a third-straight standings win -- after all, theyre the best in sports in ownership, coaching and players -- but perhaps a disappointing Western Conference defeat to the Thunder had something to do with it. -- Michael C. Wright READ MORE2. Cleveland Cavaliers (13 overall)The Cavaliers broke their citys 50-plus year championship curse to rise in the rankings to ... No. 13?! There always has to be something unlucky about Cleveland, doesnt there? Triskaidekaphobia aside, LeBron James & Co.s epic comeback against the Golden State Warriors to capture the Larry OBrien Trophy rightfully has this group up 31 spots in our standings, knocking on the door for consideration as a top-10 franchise in sports. -- Dave McMenamin READ MORE3. Memphis Grizzlies (14 overall)Let Memphis-born legend Ric Flair sum up this past season for Grizz fans: WOOOOO!!! Despite a deluge of trades and injuries, Memphis, against all odds, still managed to snag their sixth straight playoff appearance. That same charmed existence continued in our standings. The Grizzlies once again stayed close to the top by tag-teaming an affordable product with a roster that just refuses to quit. -- Morty Ain READ MORE4. Dallas Mavericks (24 overall)The Mavericks havent managed to get out of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs since they won the 2011 NBA title, but Mark Cubans franchise continues to fare well in these standings. Only the Spurs, Cavaliers and Grizzlies rank higher among NBA teams. -- Tim MacMahon READ MORE5. Oklahoma City Thunder (25 overall)The Thunder have spent the past eight years in Oklahoma City establishing themselves as a model small market operation and building a consistent winner that has competed for championships for the past half-decade. Then everything blew up on July 4, and that left the Thunder to face a future without their biggest star. -- Royce Young READ MORE6. Charlotte Hornets (27 overall)The buzz is officially back. In the second season since they reclaimed their bug-eyed identity from New Orleans, the Hornets finished with the highest win total (48) since pro basketball returned to Charlotte more than a decade ago. Their playoff run lasted but one round, but the future remains bright, and the teams jump of 56 spots from last year was the second-largest in sports. -- Justin Verrier READ MORE7. Boston Celtics (28 overall)Under the guidance of coach Brad Stevens, the Celtics continue to trend upward, both on the court and in the Ultimate Standings. On the strength of their roster and fan relations showings, Boston leaped 29 spots in this years poll. -- Chris Forsberg READ MORE8. Atlanta Hawks (30 overall)Coach Mike Budenholzer, a Gregg Popovich disciple, has remade Atlanta on the court. Now the Hawks new ownership group, led by Anthony Ressler and including Grant Hill, is attempting to rebrand the franchise off the floor. Poor attendance and organizational unrest have been staples, but with an arena renovation set in the center of the citys downtown renaissance, the Hawks are hoping to maintain all-around excellence. You know, just like the Spurs. -- Anthony Olivieri READ MORE9. Detroit Pistons (31 overall) It took a while (try seven years,) but Detroit finally revved up its engines in the playoffs. If you want to know what a hungry fan base looks like, just take a gander at the Pistons 53-spot pole vault from last year. This team is armed with the NBAs Next Big Thing and one of the leagues youngest nuclei, and you get the sense that fans know their journey is just getting started. -- Morty Ain READ MORE10. Golden State Warriors (33 overall)The Golden State Warriors lost a 3-1 lead in the Finals and have fallen down in our rankings. How, oh how, will they ever console themselves? Something tells us theyll find a way. -- Ethan Sherwood Strauss READ MORE11. Indiana Pacers (36 overall)The Pacers enter their 50th anniversary season with a lot to celebrate. Paul George is back to staking his claim as one of the NBAs top five players, with his horrific injury now a distant memory. This offseason, team brass orchestrated one of the leagues most impressive roster overhauls by snagging Jeff Teague, Al Jefferson and Thaddeus Young. But according to these rankings -- the Pacers are down 23 spots -- Indy backers werent digging all of Larry Birds moves. -- Morty Ain READ MORE12. Utah Jazz (43 overall)Utah must have liked improving by 28 spots from last years franchise rankings. This year, however, was a reminder of how far the Jazz have to go: They finished third in the Northwest Division, missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year and fell three spots in these rankings. -- Sean Morrison READ MORE 13. Portland Trail Blazers (46 overall)Portlands first year without LaMarcus Aldridge went better than expected. Led by the dynamic backcourt duo of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, the Blazers made the playoffs and even won a game against the Warriors in the conference semifinals (no easy feat!). They also landed in the NBAs top 10 in average attendance for the ninth straight season. The young Blazers are hoping for a fourth straight playoff appearance this season, but this one wont be a surprise. -- Anthony Olivieri READ MORE14. Toronto Raptors (52 overall)The Raptors are coming off their finest season in franchise history. They won a franchise-record 56 games during the regular season, advanced past the first round for the first time in 15 years and reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time ever. What do they do for an encore? Jump another 42 spots in these standings -- and reach the top half for the first time since 2008. -- Mike Mazzeo READ MORE15. Miami Heat (53 overall)This Heat season isnt just the official end of the short-lived, high-intensity Big Three era. Its a whole new world. Dwyane Wade, who immediately made Miami relevant again and won three titles in 13 years, is gone. He was Miamis Kobe Bryant (without the final Kobe contract that wouldve kept him in Miami). Now this team is in the dreaded rebuilding mode, one of Rileys least favorite terms, but theres a lot of young potential on board. -- Israel Gutierrez READ MORE16. New Orleans Pelicans (66 overall)It was all good just a year ago. The Pelicans jumped 41 spots in these rankings after their first winning season in the Anthony Davis era, and that 45-win season seemed to foretell great things for the team and its leading man. Alas, an encore with more startingg lineups (42) than wins (30) pushed the Pels back to the bottom half.dddddddddddd -- Justin Verrier READ MORE17. Orlando Magic (65 overall)Oh, what a difference a half-decade makes. Way back in 2011, the Magic were perennial playoff-makers (six straight appearances in all, starting in the 2006-07 season), coached by Stan Van Gundy and ranked a lofty 16th overall in these very Ultimate Standings. Five years, four postseason-less campaigns and four head coaches later? Theyre mired in the muck of mediocrity, a disheartening 49 spots lower (No. 65 overall), with no top-50 rankings to their name, besides affordability and stadium experience. Where, oh where, has the magic gone? -- Hallie Grossman READ MORE 18. LA Clippers (69 overall)Was it just a dream? The halo surrounding Steve Ballmers acquisition in 2014 seems to have worn off. After the Clippers enjoyed an all-time high ranking last year (No. 42), L.A. has slid in almost every category, as an ill-conceived branding update foreshadowed a season of injury, disappointment and yet another early playoff exit. -- Andrew Han READ MORE 19. Milwaukee Bucks (72 overall)Last year, it all seemed to be going well for the Bucks after an impressive, 55-spot jump in these standings. But just when we thought it was headed for the top half, the team slipped back into old habits and dropped seven spots from last year. Under head coach Jason Kidd, the teams future remains cloudy, but the leadership on the team will have to step up if the Bucks want to compete against the best NBA franchises. -- Charlotte Gibson READ MORE20. Minnesota Timberwolves (79 overall)Its hard to imagine a worse 27-year start for a franchise. Eight playoff appearances with seven first-round exits; 14 seasons with 30 or fewer wins; 11 coaches; 20 lottery picks, with 10 top-five picks; Kevin McHale and David Kahn; signing decent players to unwarranted, illegal, long-term deals on napkins ... and signing inept players to legal, long-term deals on regular paper. For the better part of the past three decades, to cheer for the Wolves has been to chuckle at -- or disregard -- top-to-bottom, franchise-wide dysfunction. Until now! For the first time in franchise history, theres a new, non-provincial country club in town -- and more young talent on this roster than at any time in the teams history. -- Ross Marrinson READ MORE21. Houston Rockets (80 overall)At the beginning of last season, expectations were high for the Rockets players and fans, after the team made the Western Conference finals in 2015. But an 0-3 start and the firing of coach Kevin McHale 11 games into the season led to a downward spiral. In the end, the off-court drama between James Harden and Dwight Howard got more play than the on-court product. The Rockets were a mess the entire season, and they dropped 45 spots in these standings. -- Calvin Watkins READ MORE22. Washington Wizards (93 overall)A notable increase in prices, major drop-off in performance and lack of talent acquisition dropped the Wizards 30 spots in this years rankings. Improvements might be on the way, but right now, the Wizards are trending downward -- even in their best areas. -- Sean Morrison READ MORE23. Chicago Bulls (97 overall)The Bulls were one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA last season, given the expectations they had coming into the year, so their slide in the overall standings (down 31 spots, near the triple digits) should come as no surprise. Bulls management believed this team could be a title contender, but a combination of injuries and disappointing play was too much for new coach Fred Hoiberg to overcome in a rocky first season. -- Nick Friedell READ MORE 24. Denver Nuggets (101 overall)In 2013, George Karl was let go by the Nuggets after 57 wins and an NBA Coach of the Year award. Denver has not won more than 36 games in the three seasons since. Gone are Ty Lawson and Andre Iguodala, staples under Karl. Long gone is Carmelo Anthony, who was traded during the 2010-11 campaign after six first-round playoff exits in seven full seasons in the Mile High City. Man, even the first round sounds pretty good right about now, doesnt it? -- Anthony Olivieri READ MORE 25. Philadelphia 76ers (102 overall)HBut ... they trusted the process?! Third time wasnt the charm for Sam Hinkie, Philadelphias ill-fated general manager, who, after three seasons spent hoarding draft assets (and losses), resigned from his post in a blaze of 13-page-memo glory in April. As it turns out, 15 wins a season does not a happy front office -- or fan base -- make. Oh, sure, 76ers fans sent their beleaguered GM off on a wave of Thank you, Hinkie! chants after the team landed the No. 1 overall draft pick. But even the glow of Ben Simmons wasnt enough to rescue the Sixers from the Ultimate Standings gutter, where they ranked sub-90 one, two, three, four, five, SIX times. Team of the year! --Hallie Grossman READ MORE 26. Los Angeles Lakers (109 overall)Coming off their worst season in franchise history and after missing the playoffs three straight seasons, is it any wonder the rebuilding Lakers continue their Ultimate Standings slide? The (somewhat) bright side: Kobe Bryant and Byron Scott are out, which gives Luke Walton and the Lakers kids a chance to start anew. -- Baxter Holmes READ MORE 27. Brooklyn Nets (110 overall)Just how bad are things in Brooklyn? The Nets are preaching progress this season -- not wins. Hey, at least new GM Sean Marks and first-year coach Kenny Atkinson are being realistic about the uphill battle the franchise faces on the heels of a 21-61 finish in 2015-16. -- Mike Mazzeo READ MORE28. Sacramento Kings (113 overall)The Kings have not been to the playoffs since 2006, when now-VP of player personnel Peja Stojakovic was still a player. Since Rick Adelman was let go after a playoff loss that year, Sacramento has gone through eight head coaches; the ninth, Dave Joerger, will be on the sideline this season. The lack of stability has permeated the franchise, even more so since Vivek Ranadive bought a majority share in the club in 2013. The Kings have a lack of direction -- except, that is, in our rankings, in which theyve headed to the bottom. -- Anthony Olivieri READ MORE29. New York Knicks (114 overall)Voters in the 2016 Ultimate Standings dont appear to have much faith in Phil Jackson, whose Knicks remain in the bottom 10 of all teams. New York did move up seven spots this year, after a 32-win campaign in 2015-16, Jacksons second full season as team president, but itll take a lot more Ws than that to make up for those ticket prices. -- Ian Begley READ MORE30. Phoenix Suns (120 overall)The Suns fell 13 spots on our list and now are the lowest-ranked team in the NBA. This squad ranks 100th or worse in all but one category: affordability. In that, it is ranked No. 98. Thats ... encouraging? The roster isnt good, and ownership is worse. Put it this way: The Suns havent made the playoffs since a surprise trip to the conference finals in 2010, Alvin Gentrys first season. Gentry is gone, and Phoenix is on its third head coach since. Ouch. -- Anthony Olivieri READ MORE ' ' '