Latest basketball articles

“You can’t teach height” -  Red Auerbach We spent 2 months analyzing 24,489 records of 4,379 NBA players during 69 NBA seasons in order to show how the game of basketball evolved through the evolution of players’ height. Special note to Kirk Goldsberry, whose book “Sprawlball” inspired the creation of this research. This article is a height spinoff of “Sprawlball”.     Key findings: The average[…]

"I always used slam-dunking as a tool for intimidation." - Dominique Wilkins   The purpose of this page is to provide detailed stats about dunks in the NBA league. Feel free to use this information as long as you link to the original source.  The page stats are taken from RunRepeat's database of 169,734 dunks made in the NBA since the 2000-01 season.   Navigation League trends Dunks in the NBA over time Player impact on team dunks Share of dun[…]

  Summary We spent 3 months conducting the largest research on salaries in the NBA league. The database contains 12,211 NBA players’ salaries dating from 1990-91 to the 2018-19 season, with a total of 2,244 different players playing in the NBA over this time. The research spreads over 6 different CBA agreements, with the last one (2017) still ongoing.   Key takeaways: The average salary in the NBA has increased more than 7x since the 1990-91 seas[…]

"Basketball is like poetry in motion; cross the guy to the left, take him back to the right, he's fallin back, then just J right in his face. Then you look at him and say, "What?" " - Jesus Shuttlesworth, He Got Game (1998)   As a truly global sport, basketball has spread its influence way above the sports sphere. The game has become a part of the music culture, fashion, and cinema, among others. We collected every single basketball movie in one[…]

  In 2001, the NBA generated $2.5 billion in revenue from its teams. Ten years later it was $4 billion, and in 2018, the revenue grew to $8 billion. NBA teams are earning more and more money for their owners, so it's not surprising that the value of NBA teams also rises each year. This article will focus on changes in NBA teams' market values in the 21st century, and how/if the on-court performance affects the value of the team.   Summary On average, a[…]

  We decided to dive into statistics and create visual head-to-head comparisons of the World Cup quarterfinalists. Radar charts are created for easier H2H comparison of the opposing teams through offensive and defensive metrics.   1 Argentina - Serbia   Argentina is still undefeated in the WC, while Serbia suffered its first loss (Spain). However, looking at the numbers, Serbia is a clear favorite in this game. Let's look at the charts:  ***Al[…]

  We conducted a 7-day survey among journalists from 32 countries participating in the basketball World Cup. The journalists gave us answers to 12 questions regarding team and individual performances on the tournament. Here are their predictions:   1 Team performance 1.1 Medal winners Only 5 teams are projected to compete for one of the medals, according to journalists. Despite major problems with star player withdrawals, the USA is still a clear favorit[…]

Summary: Fans of Euroleague teams fill 68% of their arenas capacities on average Only 2 teams (Zalgiris and Maccabi) gather more than 90% of their arena's capacity 7 teams in total have above the average attendance regarding the arena capacity %, and 9 teams are below the average in this aspect   Zalgiris fans showed that Lithuania is a land of basketball - 5% of Kaunas population goes to the arena every game Vitoria is following closely with 4.5%[…]

  Will you have a better playing career if you are the shortest or tallest NBA player? It seems logical that the game played "above the rim" should be more suitable for the "giants". However, we did an in-depth analysis of players who led the league in height and their colleagues on the other side of the scale. It turns out that, unless your name is Wilt Chamberlain or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, tallest players are not more successful than their shorter fellas. In fac[…]