Latest basketball articles

After an unpredictable 2019 World Cup in China, we decided to once again gather the opinions of top basketball journalists for the Olympic tournament in Tokyo. 83 basketball journalists and analysts answered the 11-question survey to predict medalists, over/underachievers, and best players of the men's Tokyo tournament. Key Findings Winner: USA (72.3%), Australia (10.8%), Spain (9.6%) Runner-up: Spain (34.9), Slovenia (20.5% ), Australia (19.3%) Best offense: USA (75.9%)[…]

After analyzing the influence and continued growth of American players in the EuroLeague, we decided to look at the evolution of domestic players in the highest European basketball competition. We analyzed 2,634 EuroLeague players over 21 seasons to see how domestic players’ overall numbers and contributions changed in recent years compared to early seasons. Key findings Domestic players’ time on the court over the last 3 EuroLeague seasons declined 36% compa[…]

“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 NBA player has never been shorter[…]

We analyzed 2,581 players from 85 Euroleague teams from 2000-01 to 2019-20 season. The focus was on players from the USA, and their continued growth over the years. Summary: USA players dominate the Euroleague: Share of Americans in the Euroleague grew by 119% since the 2000-01 season. Their minutes share in the league grew by 84%, and points share by 76% since the first EL season. Europeans are declining in the Euroleague, dropping by 27% since the 2000-01 season. Since[…]

"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 dunks in team points Distribution of[…]

172 games were played in the Orland bubble, 89 seeding, and 83 playoff games. We analyzed the first 89 games of each of the past 5 seasons (corresponding with 89 bubble seeding games), along with 5 previous playoffs. We counted the total number of games NBA players missed due to injury during this period and compared the bubble with “outside”. Key findings NBA bubble turned out to be the safest on-court environment for the NBA players: Players in the bubble m[…]

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 season. Median salary has s[…]

"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 place. If you are a fan of[…]

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, an NBA franchise in 2019[…]

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: ***All Units on the Charts are presented[…]