tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post8161557822281475030..comments2024-03-28T16:22:14.888-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Basketball stats and teaching statsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-11598053492464218762011-03-09T14:08:58.461-08:002011-03-09T14:08:58.461-08:00"Are there any American born whites in the NB..."Are there any American born whites in the NBA who are as good as Nash, Nowitzki, or Ginobili?"<br /><br />Or Pau Gasol ...<br /><br />Yeah, that's an interesting question. Why are tall white guys raised in all white environments having better NBA careers than tall white guys raised in environments where blacks dominate high-level youth basketball? So, Love is an interesting exception to thir new rule (of course he grew up in the most famous liberal whitopia of Portland).Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-46287324621836133062011-03-09T13:14:25.188-08:002011-03-09T13:14:25.188-08:00"Even the Jews?"
Are Jews "whites&..."Even the Jews?"<br /><br />Are Jews "whites" this week?<br /><br /><br />I lost the WN calendar Albertosaurus sent me.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-9324182756452354542011-03-09T09:28:02.020-08:002011-03-09T09:28:02.020-08:00I like the topic.
Are there any American born w...I like the topic. <br /><br />Are there any American born whites in the NBA who are as good as Nash, Nowitzki, or Ginobili?<br /><br />GoatweedAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-87881798710935788512011-03-08T23:05:23.217-08:002011-03-08T23:05:23.217-08:00Basketball really isn't a "Stat" gam...Basketball really isn't a "Stat" game, cause you can't quantify defense or nuance.<br /><br />Joe Blow brings the ball up court, passes the ball to X who makes an incredible falling backwards, over the head 20 footer that barely touches the net. OTOH, Magic throws a behind the back, thread the needle pass to Kurt Rambis who makes a layup. <br /><br />Both are graded as assists. <br /><br />Other than offensive rebounds, 3 point FG percentage and FT percentage most NBA stats are worthless. <br /><br />I loved Dennis Johnson of the 80s Celtics. Stats told you nothing of what was good or bad about his game. He was a great Defensive player - no stats on that. He brought the ball up, sometimes under full court press and ran the offense - no stats on that. And he didn't get many assists because Bird and McHale were great passers but he was a great passer. <br /><br />OTOH, he had a good FG percentage, which was misleading. No one missed more open jump shots than DJ. Sometimes he'd get hot and the Celtics would walk away, but the bottom line is when you throw in the Fast-break layups and open jumpers DJ's STATS completely misrepresented what a hot/cold shooter he was.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-27088127857808232242011-03-08T17:38:51.601-08:002011-03-08T17:38:51.601-08:00"And if we replaced California's whites w..."And if we replaced California's whites with Chinese, we'd do the same with disabillity."<br /><br />Even the Jews?<br /><br />Oh right, you don't like having your stupidity pointed out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-23420539899461867722011-03-08T14:09:00.330-08:002011-03-08T14:09:00.330-08:00"Another thing: the formula, as written in th..."Another thing: the formula, as written in the NYT article has problems besides its complexity. But that is another article for Steve."<br /><br />Any help would be appreciated.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4673603660951170362011-03-08T12:54:58.827-08:002011-03-08T12:54:58.827-08:00Love is a power forward, Steve.
"The proble...Love is a power forward, Steve. <br /><br />"The problem with Love is that what he does does not lead a team to wins. 15 boards is a very impressive stats on it's face, but on further review, he plays in a turbocharged fast-break offense that allows more shots by both teams. He plays for the worst defensive team in the league which allows the other team many early shot-clock opportunities, and his own players are poor shooters, which lead to more offensive rebounding opportunities. "<br /><br />I'm pretty sure Love leads the league in rebounding rate, the percentage of available rebounds, too. His rebounding stats are not a mirage, but it is almost certainly true that he's not a very good defender.BigBabyJesusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-68394799615259560402011-03-08T12:51:01.275-08:002011-03-08T12:51:01.275-08:00"Just out of curiosity, do you happen to like..."Just out of curiosity, do you happen to like any other basketball players who aren't white? In a field dominated by blacks, you seem to only know the white players."<br /><br />If a young relative of Michael and the other Jacksons was setting NASCAR per lap speed records but not winning many races, that would be pretty interesting too.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-26045635558579768352011-03-08T11:41:56.419-08:002011-03-08T11:41:56.419-08:00"I suggested that we just replace all the Cit..."I suggested that we just replace all the City's Blacks with Chinese..."<br /><br />Brilliant idea!<br /><br />And if we replaced California's whites with Chinese, we'd do the same with disabillity.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-22641981629134356662011-03-08T10:59:00.782-08:002011-03-08T10:59:00.782-08:00In another vein - why all the concern with the qua...In another vein - why all the concern with the quality of teachers?<br /><br />You have amassed evidence for years that most of the explained variance in the study of learning came from the student side of the equation not the teacher side. You would seem to be the last person on earth who would be panicked by low test scores into reflexively devoting more resources to the teaching side.<br /><br />When I was a Social Worker in the sixties in San Francisco I used to tell my fellow workers that I could solve the welfare problem. I suggested that we just replace all the City's Blacks with Chinese. <br /><br />Voilà. No more Welfare. The Chinese - even though they were the poorest group in the City - never went on Welfare.<br /><br />So in a similar spirit if you have a failing inner city school - just remove the Blacks and bring in Chinese replacements. Keep the same teachers and administration - they don't matter much. With a new student body the scores will be just fine. You - and most readers - know this to be true.<br /><br />Arthur Jensen predicted today's poor school scores in 1968. Yet somehow we have been encouraged to seek magic solutions to an imagined teacher shortfalls. Current teachers and current teacher remuneration is sufficient for teaching Whites and Asians.<br /><br />AlbertosaurusAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-116673311654479202011-03-08T10:52:43.855-08:002011-03-08T10:52:43.855-08:00Yeah, I saw the Sleestak thing, too at 4 am. One o...Yeah, I saw the Sleestak thing, too at 4 am. One of the other Sleestaks was played by David Greenwood of Verbum Dei HS, who was Laimbeer's archrival big man in SoCal basketball and spent 12 years in the NBA.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-6013917381363691922011-03-08T10:39:30.372-08:002011-03-08T10:39:30.372-08:00I don't think Basketball stats will ever be as...I don't think Basketball stats will ever be as comprehensive as those of Baseball. Nor will those of Football.<br /><br />Baseball is a unique sport that seems to have been invented by someone with a knowledge of experimental design. In basketball and football everybody moves at once. So when someone gets free and scores you never really know what happened. The scorer might have done well or perhaps it was the blockers. Or since both of these sports rely on deception, maybe the defense was fooled by the actions of someone else not in on the play.<br /><br />But baseball controls the confounding variables. <br /><br />In proto-baseball we can imagine that the team batted as a group. The opposing pitcher tossed the ball over the other team - like the throwing of the bouquet at a wedding - and all the batters swung at it. In such a game you would never know who was the best batter. <br /><br />You would also need a lot more batting helmets.<br /><br />AlbertosaurusAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-61268943237227492972011-03-08T09:18:30.903-08:002011-03-08T09:18:30.903-08:00Love is a good player, in fact his stats will prob...Love is a good player, in fact his stats will probably get him a max contract, or at least near; this is where the problems start. <br /><br />The agent for a guy averaging 20 points and 15 rebounds a game will demand a long-term 15+ million dollar deal. That dictates that as the highest paid player on the team, he will also, probably be the best.<br /><br />The problem with Love is that what he does does not lead a team to wins. 15 boards is a very impressive stats on it's face, but on further review, he plays in a turbocharged fast-break offense that allows more shots by both teams. He plays for the worst defensive team in the league which allows the other team many early shot-clock opportunities, and his own players are poor shooters, which lead to more offensive rebounding opportunities. <br /><br />Additionally Love is one of the worst defenders in the league, at a position (power forward, not center, Steve) that generally demands defense.<br /><br />BTW, neither blocked shots nor steals are considered the end-all of good defense; Rodman, for all of his leaping abillity never blocked shots. <br /><br />Those stats are are more of an indication of athleticism and tendancy to gamble. Guys who block a lot of shots are often considered good defenders but not always: Love's center, Darko, leads the league in blocked shots per game.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-6407186924798468252011-03-08T08:17:22.466-08:002011-03-08T08:17:22.466-08:00What I'd be interested in would be teacher sta...What I'd be interested in would be teacher statistics that could be used not to rank teachers from a scale of good to bad, but to assess teachers for fits to different types of classes: he'd be good for handling smart but difficult-to-manage kids, she's great in small groups with dedicated students, etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-32605189561744213282011-03-08T07:47:53.508-08:002011-03-08T07:47:53.508-08:00Your analogy with high school sports doesn't q...Your analogy with high school sports doesn't quite fit. Some schools tend send kids directly to varsity while some send them to JV or Fresh/Soph.<br /><br />So, the pool of kids that you are competing against is not stable. It's not as if the same kids are competing with the same kids at each level.Alberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11377238342964044592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-91217567729352254782011-03-08T07:24:22.444-08:002011-03-08T07:24:22.444-08:00This post prompted me to learn a (to me) astonishi...This post prompted me to learn a (to me) astonishing fact about Bill Laimbeer: I thought I remembered that his father went to Harvard (which he did), and I checked the Wikipedia entry to see where the son had gone to school... Only to find this shocker: "Laimbeer played one of the three Sleestak characters in the Sid and Marty Krofft television show Land of the Lost after high school."<br /><br />Oh: and @Anonymous<br /><br />If you were really following this blog, you'd know that Mr. Sailer also knows about Manute Bol, who was the color of eggplant.slumber_jnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-34860052491662350102011-03-08T05:31:07.354-08:002011-03-08T05:31:07.354-08:00Kevin Love was one of the most popular players in ...Kevin Love was one of the most popular players in SoCal history. He's obviously of local interest. <br /><br />Bill Simmons scored a 1400 on his SATs and went to Holy Cross. It's a credit to him that he has written middlebrow and attracted such a large audience.<br /><br />Finally, and of note, Kevin Love has appeared on Simmons podcast (The BS Report) like 4 times. He's a great guest and Simmons and Love get a long extremely well.DCThrowbackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02595347138052680931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-91527191802532384472011-03-08T05:03:39.458-08:002011-03-08T05:03:39.458-08:00The teacher in the NYT article should not worry ab...The teacher in the NYT article should not worry about tenure - if she is so stellar as the article says, the article should be a perfect job application form for a private school.<br /><br />At least if there is some brains somewhere.<br /><br />Another thing: the formula, as written in the NYT article has problems besides its complexity. But that is another article for Steve.Swordnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-73499257819139876302011-03-08T04:23:08.964-08:002011-03-08T04:23:08.964-08:00Just out of curiosity, do you happen to like any o...Just out of curiosity, do you happen to like any other basketball players who aren't white? In a field dominated by blacks, you seem to only know the white players.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com