Moneyball<\/em>\u2018s Michael Lewis<\/a>, the article details how a maverick GM has gained insight into basketball players using untraditional statistics.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a snapshot of the argument from the article:<\/p>\n\u201cThe year after Battier joined the Grizzlies, the team\u2019s general manager was fired and the N.B.A. legend Jerry West, a k a the Logo because his silhouette is the official emblem of the N.B.A., took over the team. \u201cFrom the minute Jerry West got there he was trying to trade me,\u201d Battier says. If West didn\u2019t have any takers, it was in part because Battier seemed limited: most of the other players on the court, and some of the players on the bench, too, were more obviously gifted than he is. \u201cHe\u2019s, at best, a marginal N.B.A. athlete,\u201d Morey says.\u201d<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s the thing: the guy\u2019s a marginal athlete, supposedly.\u00a0 Look at what happens to the teams he plays for, though: <\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe Grizzlies went from 23-59 in Battier\u2019s rookie year to 50-32 in his third year, when they made the N.B.A. playoffs, as they did in each of his final three seasons with the team. Before the 2006-7 season, Battier was traded to the Houston Rockets, who had just finished 34-48. In his first season with the Rockets, they finished 52-30, and then, last year, went 55-27 \u2014 including one stretch of 22 wins in a row. Only the 1971-2 Los Angeles Lakers have won more games consecutively in the N.B.A. And because of injuries, the Rockets played 11 of those 22 games without their two acknowledged stars, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, on the court at the same time; the Rockets player who spent the most time actually playing for the Rockets during the streak was Shane Battier.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is Battier\u2019s effect on his team?\u00a0 Not much\u2013just the difference between mediocrity and excellence:<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThis year Battier, recovering from off-season surgery to remove bone spurs from an ankle, has played in just over half of the Rockets\u2019 games. That has only highlighted his importance. \u201cThis year,\u201d Morey says, \u201cwe have been a championship team with him and a bubble playoff team without him.\u201d Here we have a basketball mystery: a player is widely regarded inside the N.B.A. as, at best, a replaceable cog in a machine driven by superstars. And yet every team he has ever played on has acquired some magical ability to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the hilarious thing about this article\u2019s insight.\u00a0 It stares us in the face.\u00a0 Instead of emphasizing stats like \u201cpoints scored,\u201d it urges us to take a more organic approach to basketball evaluation, to judge players by their effect on the team, not simply their individual statistic totals.\u00a0 This sounds like a brilliant idea, and in fact it is because no one does it, but in reality it\u2019s so basic it makes you want to cry.<\/p>\n
I have a theory.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty simple.\u00a0 It\u2019s this: the world is filled with bad coaches who make their decisions based on stupid factors, like who can score the most points for a team.\u00a0 Just think about that for a minute.\u00a0 Is the sole measure of a player, let\u2019s say a basketball player, how many points he scores?\u00a0 Is there not a whole side of the game called \u201cdefense\u201d that he must also play?\u00a0 Could the quality of his defense he plays, then, factor in significantly to his overall value, such that if, for example, he gets outscored by his defender in the game, he\u2019s not really as valuable a player as originally thought?<\/p>\n
The sporting world, from my armchair perspective, is rife is stupid coaching that fails to take into account the most basic realities of athletics.\u00a0 People are so easily seduced by the glamorous aspects of sport that they overlook the small things, which are often the difference between winning and losing.<\/p>\n
This is, I think, a reality that shows us that the fall affects every part of life.\u00a0 It affects theology and philosophy, yes, but it also affects sports and playtime.\u00a0 It creates massive injustice in systems and causes people to shortchange those who may justly deserve a shot.\u00a0 As Lewis has showed in Moneyball<\/em><\/a>, it causes talent scouts to look more at a player\u2019s physique than his actual skill set.\u00a0 That is a travesty, and it\u2019s one that has effects on real people.<\/p>\nSo what?\u00a0 What\u2019s the big deal?\u00a0 Well, ultimately, this isn\u2019t that big of a deal.\u00a0 But as the article shows, the world is bound to stupidity.\u00a0 Watch the NBA draft every year\u2013there will be a number of seven footers drafted.\u00a0 Most of them won\u2019t amount to anything.\u00a0 Meanwhile, a number of scrappy, undersized players will go undrafted and eventually claw their way onto rosters.\u00a0 This is a sign of injustice.\u00a0 It shows us that, despite the very poor history of many seven-footers in basketball, people are blind to the fact that height and impressive strength does not equal talent or effectiveness.<\/p>\n
Injustice and stupidity are everywhere.\u00a0 They\u2019re also hard to take.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad that a few people out there are pushing back against this reality, hard though the case may be to make.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I found corroboration for a view I\u2019ve argued for years in a New York Times Magazine piece on basketball player Shane Battier.\u00a0 Entitled \u201cThe No-Stats All-Star\u201d and written by Moneyball\u2018s Michael Lewis, the article details how a maverick GM has gained insight into basketball players using untraditional statistics.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a snapshot of the argument from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13055,580,1818,2024,2076,13217,2631],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basketball","tag-basketball-stats","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-michael-lewis","tag-moneyball","tag-new-york-times","tag-shane-battier"],"yoast_head":"\n
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I found corroboration for a view I\u2019ve argued for years in a New York Times Magazine piece on basketball player Shane Battier.\u00a0 Entitled \u201cThe No-Stats All-Star\u201d and written by Moneyball<\/em>\u2018s Michael Lewis<\/a>, the article details how a maverick GM has gained insight into basketball players using untraditional statistics.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a snapshot of the argument from the article:<\/p>\n