An Interactive Sports Experience

Stats Aren’t Everything

Stats Aren’t Everything

Aug 25, 2013

When it comes to sports there is always a simple way for people to measure a player. Skills or play style mean something but usually when we evaluate a player the first thing that’s mentioned is that player’s stats. I mean that’s fine as an addition to the argument of someone’s greatest but stats definitely don’t mean everything.

Things are getting even worse with this new analytical side to things, that’s going wild within the NBA. The stupid stat that shows what a players stats would be per 36 minutes. They take a player who gets limited run (let’s say about 15 minutes per game) and show how good he could be with extended minutes. My response: get the hell outta here with that mess. These guys don’t play that long for a reason. Really all those per 36 stats do is double a player’s averages, which is really no indication of what that player can really do.

Stats can make someone look like they had a great game when in reality they didn’t. They can also make some one look completely garbage when that’s not the case. Stats are a fine measurement of a player when talking about them overall, but it can’t be the only thing you see. Without watching the game, you’ll never know an athlete’s true impact.

A great example of this is Tim Tebow. Yeah I know Tebow isn’t very good from what his stats say but if u watch the game and see him run you get a better understanding. He can play football but he can’t throw. The stats will make him look absolutely awful because of all the blown passes he throws, but when you look deeper and see the yards he picks up, you’ll see he’s not that bad.

The point I’m trying to make is that the impact a player has on the game itself is way more important than the stats itself. That’s why you can see NBA players on bad teams averaging 20 plus points, and it means absolutely nothing. That’s also why you can see someone like Zach Randolph only averaging 15 points per game, but sitting right there at the all-star game.

Even with all this said I still love the random stats that ESPN pulls out.

Ex. LeBron James is the first player to score 30 points and get 15 assist who stood taller than 6 foot 5 vs the New York Knicks.

Now that’s just a made up example but yes, this really happens every week, and we all see that those stats mean nothing.

Was good though, it's me Everick Davis Jr. Born and raised in Portsmouth Virginia, I'm currently a senior at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. I watch every sport (not so much golf) but I am huge on the NBA. My favorite players right now are J.R. Smith, Russell Westbrook & Nick Young. Drinking beer and watching sports is my favorite past time and I do it year round! I used to play basketball on the regular until everyone else kept growing and I still stood at 5'6. So that's when I channeled my efforts into becoming the next Stephen A Smith or anything close to that. I currently write for "The Carolinian" newspaper in Greensboro, NC and intern for http://theurbantwist.com/ Random Fact about me, I love anime, my favorite one is One Piece! Second random fact, I got beatz! check me out http://www.reverbnation.com/ielabs

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