Layups: ABA Factoids
Posted by Neil Paine on November 22, 2009
Perhaps you've heard Keith Law's name come up this week a time or two? Well, sorry to disappoint, but this link has nothing to do with his Cy Young ballot... Instead, it's a piece about the old ABA -- basically a handful of nuggets about the renegade league that changed pro hoops forever. And of course, if you like the ABA, I'd be remiss if I didn't also highly recommend Terry Pluto's Loose Balls, one of the best sports books ever written.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:58 am
Neil, have you guys discussed ways of converting players' ABA numbers into NBA equivalents?
Somewhere, you've used 3/4 of ABA Win Shares, I think, to add to NBA totals. What about equivalent Pts, Minutes, or anything else?
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Yeah, it was here:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=3199
3/4 was the (very rough) approximation. We only did that with minutes at first, and then extended it to Win Shares, which was logical because the 3/4 ratio was based on the way ABA teams' WPct's went down when they were absorbed by the NBA (a gross oversimplification, I know). So I'm not sure if it holds for points/rebounds/etc., though. I guess you'd have to look at players who switched leagues and see what effect it had on their rate stats... But then you'd have a huge selection bias problem, because only the good players made the leap to the NBA. It's a mess at that point.