Sportscenters' fakakta stats

[poindexter]

Some intern at Sportscenter has been given the green light on giving absurd NBA stats. Anthony Davis is only the third player to average thirty points, 11 rebounds and two assists in the month of February! James Harden is just the second player to get 35 points in under 25 minutes in a game! The first was Kevin McHale!

Get the **** out of here with this stupid ****. The stats have no reference point, and they aren't even interesting. It is usually accompanied by some grainy shots of Bob McAdoo or MJ from back in the day.

I get it. You have a big supercomputer that can find these statistics. But they are mindless.

 

[Big Circus]

It's not ESPN, but I love this from Fox Sports last night:

 

[poindexter]

It's not ESPN, but I love this from Fox Sports last night:

haha - the same ****ing thing!!!

 

[User 149557]

I respected these obscure numbers back when someone like Tim Kurkjian or Jayson Stark had to go through thousands of player profiles in books to find them. (Stark writes a really fun story about these searches in this year's introduction to the Baseball Reference book, btw. He'd go through every baseball player's numbers for MONTHS to find out if it was something never done before.) Now it's a five-second search. It has lost all its charm.

For some reason, that matters to me. That it was a labor of love instead of something to fill up a Chyron.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I saw one the other night that said LeBron was in such elite company that he was the only member of the club. Can’t remember what plateau he hit, but he was already the only guy to hit those thresholds well before they became nice round numbers.

 

[Steak Snabler]

It's not ESPN, but I love this from Fox Sports last night:

Thaddeus Young: Hall of Famer?

 

[Songbird]

facacta and cockamamie are great words.

 

[User 149557]

I do love these for futility, though.

When a guy is in a funk, I want to know if that funk is historically bad or if he's the worst at what he's doing that's ever done it.

Or ones that calculated how long it would've taken Rafael Belliard to break Hank Aaron's record. Those are quality obscure stats.

 

[poindexter]

I respected these obscure numbers back when someone like Tim Kurkjian or Jayson Stark had to go through thousands of player profiles in books to find them. (Stark writes a really fun story about these searches in this year's introduction to the Baseball Reference book, btw. He'd go through every baseball player's numbers for MONTHS to find out if it was something never done before.) Now it's a five-second search. It has lost all its charm.

For some reason, that matters to me. That it was a labor of love instead of something to fill up a Chyron.

Stark's stats were interesting - right?

One of two players to score 35 points in 25 minutes - is that interesting to you?

 

[User 149557]

Stark's stats were interesting - right?

One of two players to score 35 points in 25 minutes - is that interesting to you?

I don't know. I was really young then, so I don't know if they were actually interesting or I just had no life.

I think the rule should be it can't just be an outlier stat, like the Thaddeus Young one. It better signify that what that guy is doing is historic and part of a larger narrative about the player.

LeBron reaching these milestones is informative. It's evidence for his case of being the greatest basketball player (He's not, but it's real evidence, right?) The Thaddeus Young stat is just a statistical quirk. Someone in that truck needs to know if this actually means something or it's a stupid computer trick.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The thing about that Fox chyron is that they had to create marks the four really great players surpassed with ease to allow them to get Young into the picture. 13.5 points a game? Really?

 

[bumpy mcgee]

 

[Big Circus]

I don't know. I was really young then, so I don't know if they were actually interesting or I just had no life.

I think the rule should be it can't just be an outlier stat, like the Thaddeus Young one. It better signify that what that guy is doing is historic and part of a larger narrative about the player.

LeBron reaching these milestones is informative. It's evidence for his case of being the greatest basketball player (He's not, but it's real evidence, right?) The Thaddeus Young stat is just a statistical quirk. Someone in that truck needs to know if this actually means something or it's a stupid computer trick.

Clarification: It was Fox Sports Indiana. Doesn't make it any less ridiculous, but it provides some context into why they wanted to hype up a random Pacers mediocrity like Thad Young.

 

[User 149557]

Clarification: It was Fox Sports Indiana. Doesn't make it any less ridiculous, but it provides some context into why they wanted to hype up a random Pacers mediocrity like Thad Young.

Living in Indiana, I'm all too familiar with their work. But also to be fair, they're probably just trying to break up Quinn Buckner's never-ending stream of consciousness with something, anything.

 

[Della9250]

I saw one the other night that said LeBron was in such elite company that he was the only member of the club. Can’t remember what plateau he hit, but he was already the only guy to hit those thresholds well before they became nice round numbers.

LeBron is the only player in NBA history with at least 30,000 points, 8,000 rebounds and 8,000 assists

 

[LongTimeListener]

OK yeah that was it.

He was also the only player in NBA history with 30,000 points, 7,900 rebounds and 7,900 assists, right?

 

[HanSenSE]

The whole matter of made-up records should bother us, though. Like the fuss when UConn's women's basketball team won more consecutive games than UCLA's men's team, or Ichiro's combined homers in Japan and the US surpassed Bonds.

 

[poindexter]

The whole matter of made-up records should bother us, though. Like the fuss when UConn's women's basketball team won more consecutive games than UCLA's men's team,

When I was creating this thread, that dumb sportscenter 'record' came into my mind.

Just stoopid.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

It's not ESPN, but I love this from Fox Sports last night:

I don't get the animosity toward this stat. Yes, the numbers are odd, but they are all common, mainstream stats.

That's a really remarkable group. Four of the top 10 players of all time -- and that's being really conservative -- and Thaddeus F'ing Young.

 

[heyabbott]

It's not ESPN, but I love this from Fox Sports last night:

How many did it without aid of the 3 point line? 30% from 3? That’s pretty arbitrary but not as arbitrary as 49% from the field. How many did it with 50% FG and 29% 3 pt?
Chamberlain did it every season from 60-61 to 71-72.

If you look just at stats, Wilt is the greatest player in history. He has 9 seasons of 30+ points a game and 20+ rebounds a game. LeBron ever do that, once? Larry? Magic? Oscar? Wilts worst rebounding season is twice as good as LeBron’s best.