Tommy Craggs of Deadspin reports on a former NBA scorekeeper who cooked the books for the Grizzlies, inflating stats such as individual assists and rebounds.
The story suggests that the manipulation of individual stats is endemic in the NBA, and there is plenty of evidence that players are the beneficiaries of measurably higher totals at home. This makes sense: NBA franchises have a vested interest in their players, and a triple-double or an impressive streak of double-digit rebounding games is an easy way to get a team showcased on Sportscenter and makes for a nice capsule in the next day’s notes column.
But what if a franchise wanted to depress the value of its players to keep payroll down?
In the latter half of the 1990s, the Clippers held down their own players’ assists with an almost suspicious regularity. Between 1987 and 2009, home teams assisted on 61.8 percent of their field goals; away teams, 58.3 percent — a gap of 3.5 percentage points in favor of the home squads. Year after year, the Clippers reversed the trend. In 1996, the Clips’ scorekeepers credited the team with assists on 47 percent of its field goals (with only Pooh Richardson averaging more than five assists per game); in other arenas, the same Clippers team assisted on 60 percent of its field goals, a difference of 13 percentage points. No team since 1987 has underreported its own assists by a larger margin. Second-largest: The Clippers in 1999, with a difference of 12.2 percentage points. Third-largest: The Clippers in 1998, at 12.1 points. Fifth-largest: The Clippers in 1997, at 9.1 points.
“The numbers are huge,” Alex says. “It’s pretty amazing. This is total conjecture. But do I think someone from management went to them and said, ‘You need to underrerport stats’? There’s no way — even with an organization as dysfunctional as the Clippers. That would expose them to civil liability, if they’re intentionally diminishing the market for a player — that’s almost criminal. But if someone goes to a statistician and says, ‘We’re being way too liberal on steals, blocks and assists,’ that’s probably legitimate. You can define that as, ‘We want the numbers to be correct.’ But as a practical consequence, your own players look worse on paper.”
At times last season, it was tempting to believe that Clippers fans were being subjected to a conspiratorial disaster. The next time you’re feeling really badly about the team, just remember there was a period when those conspiracies weren’t just metaphors.
11 Responses
Its not true.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/tsplit.cgi?team=LAC&year=1996
Look to the OPP home and away splits. The LAC scorekeeper was just stingy with assists.
pezz Reply:
August 27th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Good find John I was curious about this.
You could still make the argument, however, that the clippers scorekeepers deflating home and away team stats would just be a less obvious means to the same end…after all, it would have a negligible effect upon the opposing players’ stats.
It’s too much of a conspiracy theory for me though… I don’t buy it.
Posted on August 27th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Not buying it for a second. COME ON! These games can be watched. Go watch, I don’t know, 3-5 percent of the games. Compare the stats known to those recorded while watching the games. Do they differ? And where do stats come from? I worked briefly at ABC sports in the 90s logging NCAA football. They took our data and used it for John Saunders halftime report. By doing obvious math, we knew — how many yards per play, and time of play. So… I find it impossible that there’s a conspiracy.
Impossible and now I’m angry because you posted such a stupid post.
JP
Posted on August 27th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
This soooo has to be true. See, if Sterling underreported Eric Piatkowski’s numbers he wouldnt have to pay as much for his extension…
Posted on August 28th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Assists are the most subjective stat there is and really, the only one you can lower… Why would a team manipulate that stat to lower payroll? First of all, the only players who it really might affect at contract time would be point guards… If Eric Piatkowski loses 13% of his assists and goes from 4 a game to 3.5, is that going to make a difference?.. If Pooh Richardson goes from 9 to 7.8, how much would the team really save on his next contract?
None of it makes sense to me… The question is, would it make sense to DTS a well-known cheapskate, especially in those years?
I was reading about a Beverly Hills nanny (don’t ask why) who had the family phone bill scrutinized for every penny by a boss who routinely spent six figures on art… Go figure…
As much as I refuse to believe the logic of this story, anything is possible with DTS who operates with a logic of his own.
Posted on August 28th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Don’t believe it. Too much of a conspiracy.
Posted on August 28th, 2009 at 10:46 am
BORING! Who gives a good diddly do? Can BLOGS go on summer vacation? If they can’t, they should, because this one has obviously run out of things to talk about.
Posted on August 28th, 2009 at 11:27 am
off topic, but today the league handed down suspensions to JR Smith & Jason Richardson. Richardson will be out the first 2 games of the season for Phoenix which helps out the Clips nicely because their first game is our home opener against them! Take ‘em any way we can!!!
Posted on August 28th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Another off topic…
major “mad” props to Kevin for weaving in a great show like Mad Men (best show on tv, IMO) into a hugely popular bball blog like TrueHoop!
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-43-89/Madison-Square-Garden–Mad-Men–and-Preservation.html?post=true
Anybody for preserving the LA Sports Arena?
Posted on August 28th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
All clipper games are going to come out in FOX Sports channel in HD ! The only bad thing is those individuals who don’t have cable wont be able see any games.
Posted on August 28th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Knicks didn’t do this…they just bought players at the inflated prices
http://www.BasketballinBlog.com – NBA News/Discussion
Posted on August 29th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Trackbacks