Charles Barkley: Stats guys "never played the game"

Well, anyway, getting back to the point of the thread, people have been judging
basketball players on more than scoring average for many many years.

 

Yeah, the killjoys. You have heard of that word, right?

 

Bill Russell is a great example of this.

 

Guess how many blocked shots per game Bill Russell averaged for his career.

 

How are they killjoys?

 

Without looking, IIRC, it was not recorded.

 

Yep, zero. At the time blocked shots were considered an intangible, unquantifiable event which could simply not be recorded in stats. And so blocked shots were regarded as one of those intangible things whose influence on winning games only seasoned old basketball minds could truly comprehend.

At the time the 'stat junkies' were the people who said, "woohoo, Wilt Chamberlain averages 50 ppg and Bill Russell averages 17," while the wise and seasoned basketball Jedi minds said, "but don't you know he blocks shots? That's something you just can't measure in stats."

 

But analytics will add shit just pulled out of this air for WAR and other shit.

A blocked shot is a blocked shot. It's easily defined. It's an actual event in a basketball game.

 

Well, assists have been kept since day 1 of the NBA, and they are highly subjective.