You Are Here > Basketball-Reference.com > BBR Blog > NBA and College Basketball Analysis

Announcement: Professional Sports Leagues Steroid Policies

Posted by Neil Paine on November 20, 2009

Sports-Reference, with the help of researcher Greg Spira, is proud to present our definitive, comprehensive reference page regarding the performance-enhancing drug policies in place for various North American sports leagues/associations. In it, you'll find a list (in FAQ format) of the various PED regulations in pro sports leagues, in addition to lists of every athlete suspended under each league's policies.

We want this page to be your best source for information about steroid/PED policies in pro sports. However, pages like these are constantly growing and evolving with new information, so if you know of a policy or a suspended athlete not listed on the page, send us an e-mail and we'll be sure to include it on the site.

Posted in Announcements | No Comments »

BBR Rankings: 2009-11-20

Posted by Neil Paine on November 20, 2009

9450735_Heat_v_HawksOkay, it's time for the inaugural edition of the BBR Rankings, which will be coming to you every Friday from now until the end of the season. The idea behind these rankings is to rate a team's past accomplishments rather than predict what they'll do in the future -- sort of a retrodictive ranking rather than a predictive one. The Simple Rating System is the best predictor of future wins and losses because it focuses purely on point differential, filtering out the whims of lucky or unlucky performance in close games (which has been shown to have no bearing on future performance regardless of coach or players). However, it doesn't really give teams credit for wins and losses, which I feel like is the only real factor when you're looking at how impressive a team's season has been in the past.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in BBR Rankings | 7 Comments »

PI Finds: Dirk Drops Another 30+ On the Spurs Dynasty

Posted by Neil Paine on November 19, 2009

One cool thing about our Play Index is that it allows you to search for single-game performances vs. a specific team (going back to 1986-87, that is). Using the Game Finder, you can also look for the total games in a span matching a certain criteria, and you can combine that with the opponent search to come up with a list like this:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in PI Finds, Site Features | 2 Comments »

Nash Gunning For a Third MVP?

Posted by Neil Paine on November 18, 2009

94508101510_Suns_v_HawksAccording to ESPN's MVP Watch, Steve Nash is currently your frontrunner in the race for the NBA's most prestigious individual award, and our own MVP tracker doesn't disagree much -- it lists Nash second behind the incumbent, LeBron James. Could it be that Nash is on track to capture his the third MVP of his career, giving him the same number of trophies as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, & Moses Malone (and more than Tim Duncan, Karl Malone, & Bob Pettit)?

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Analysis, Awards | 28 Comments »

YouTube Finds: NBA H-O-R-S-E, 1978-style

Posted by Neil Paine on November 17, 2009

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days; Sports-Reference is having its annual company meeting, so I've been a little indisposed. That said, I thought I'd share these gems with you from the 1977-78 season:

(More after the jump...)

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in YouTube Finds | 3 Comments »

YouTube Finds: Knicks @ Rockets, Game 7, ‘94 Finals

Posted by Neil Paine on November 11, 2009

Thanks to loyal commenter Jason J, here's the game I was actually looking for yesterday... This one's for you, John Starks!

(more after the jump...)

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in YouTube Finds | 15 Comments »

Break Up the Heat!

Posted by Neil Paine on November 11, 2009

749000001192_11182008_heat_wizardsThere's a surprising name atop the Southeast Division these days, and it's the Miami Heat, winners of 3 straight and 6 of their first 7 games. How have they been doing it? Well, with Dwyane Wade powering the attack (via 31.8 pace-adjusted P/40) you might think they were an offensive team, but it's actually been their 3rd-ranked defense that's staking Miami to the hot start. After the jump, check out the box score-based defensive stats for the Heat so far (league average pts/possession = 105.9):

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Analysis, General | 21 Comments »

YouTube Finds: ‘92 Bulls-Knicks, Game 7

Posted by Neil Paine on November 10, 2009

Man, this was a physical series...

(more after the jump...)

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in History, YouTube Finds | 9 Comments »

Layups: Name the Team Scoring Leaders of the 2000s

Posted by Neil Paine on November 10, 2009

From Sporcle, here's a great quiz about the decade that was the Oughts (1999-2000 thru 2008-09): Can you name each team's top 5 scorers during the 2000s?

Posted in Layups | 8 Comments »

Layups: 82games Debuts 2009-10 Stats

Posted by Neil Paine on November 9, 2009

In case you're a hoops fan that's been living under a rock these past 6 years, 82games is the web destination for NBA game-tracking data, including plus/minus, counterpart stats, and a variety of other incredible numbers that you can't find anywhere else. Today Roland Beech released the 2009-10 stats pages, so head over and just bask in the raw data. Bask in it!!

Posted in Layups, Statgeekery | 5 Comments »