New York Knicks

They’re bad and in trouble of late, kicking off the 2009–10 season with the worst start in franchise history – losing nine out of ten games. Recent scandals – like the $11 million sexual harassment suit in 2007 against former coach Isiah Thomas that preceded his dismissal – haven’t helped. All the same, the blue-and-orange are loved. The first song to popularize hip hop, actually, gives it up for the beloved Knickerbockers (Sugar Hill Gang sings ‘I have a color TV so I can watch the Knicks play basketball’). Despite big crowds of Spike Lee and 18,999 others at the Garden, the Knicks haven’t won a championship since 1973.