Numbers Don't Lie: New Adventures in Counting and What Counts in Basketball Analytics

Description

A typical NBA game can yield approximately 2,800 statistical events in thirty-two different categories. In Numbers Don’t Lie Yago Colás started with a simple question: How did basketball analytics get from counting one stat, the final score, to counting thousands? He discovered that what we call “basketball”—rules, equipment, fundamental skills, techniques, tactics, strategies—has changed dramatically since its invention and today encompasses many different forms of play, from backyards and rec leagues to the NBA Finals. Numbers Don’t Lie explores the power of data to tell stories about ourselves and the world around us. As advanced statistical methods and big-data technologies transform sports, we now have the power to count more things in greater detail than ever before. These numbers tell us about the past, present, and future that shape how basketball is played on the floor, decisions are made in front offices, and the sport is marketed and consumed. But what is the relationship between counting and what counts, between quantification and value? In Numbers Don’t Lie Colás offers a three-part history of counting in basketball. First, he recounts how big-data basketball emerged in the past twenty years, examines its current practices, and analyzes how it presents itself to the public. Colás then situates big data within the deeper social, cultural, and conceptual history of counting in basketball and beyond and proposes alternative frameworks of value with which we may take fuller stock of the impact of statistics on the sport. Ultimately, Colás challenges the putative objectivity of both quantification and academic writing by interweaving through this history a series of personal vignettes of life at the intersection of basketball, counting, and what counts.   Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Introductory Interlude—Records Part 1 1. The Science of Moving Dots Interlude—Rulers 2. The Culture of Moving Dots Interlude—Numbers 3. Counting, America’s Game Interlude—Thermometers 4. Counting America’s Bodies Interlude—My Basketball Soul 5. Counting for Character Interlude—One on One 6. Counting for Competition Interlude—Measuring Sticks 7. Counting for Commerce in College Basketball Interlude—Magic 8. Counting for Commerce in the NBA Interlude—Basketball Jesus 9. The Work of Moving Dots Part 2 10. Approaching Basketball Experience 11. The Ethics of Understanding Basketball Interlude—Basketball Supernatural 12. Feeling Basketball 13. Counting What Counts in Basketball Coda Notes Bibliography Index