It’s the NBA Playoffs, the perfect time to peruse sports columns, blogs, and general comments from fans and haters. I had forgotten how much of the game – specifically, the hype and rumor mill that the media drives to keep the chatter alive – is about statistic overanalysis and unfounded conclusions. Well, that, and the third-grade trash talk.
At some point in modern sporting history, though, someone came up with the ingenious idea of trying to quantify sports with stats. Now, I think it started as a good idea; in basketball, other than the points scored, people first started caring about rebounds, assists, steals, and other metrics that correlate with a team’s success on the court.
It makes for a pointed study in using stats to say whatever the hell you’d want.