Are Stats Fans Sports Fans?

Dave Berri has a fun piece up at Crooked Scoreboard titled "Why Statistical Analysis Makes Sports Fans Unhappy." As always, Dave is insightful and takes a few swings at some old favorites including Melo and Kobe. An apt observation Dave has is: when people ask a "stats question" like "Was Kobe better than Jordan?" they are looking for an excuse to discuss sports. As such any stats analysis that is quickly obvious -- Jordan was so much better than Kobe that Kobe would need another decade to make it a legitimate question -- is counterproductive to this goal. It's akin to saying at the water cooler: "Did you catch the new episode of the popular television show?" and getting back "No." as a reply. Your goal wasn't to get your question answered, it was an invitation to talk about the show.

I don't think stats ends the conversation in the slightest. Rather, they bring new possibilities. Of course, this requires people to drop the old discussions they've been having -- Kobe vs. any legitimate great, for instance -- and learn new stuff. If Twitter is any indication, this makes more than a few fans unhappy.

A final note. Patrick added career comparison in our Player Tool section a while back. I suspect not everyone realizes this. Go here -- http://www.boxscoregeeks.com/players/compare?utf8=%E2%9C%93&season=career. It's fun to  compare full careers among greats. Although, as Dave warned, this will definitely end a lot of discussions. Of course, it will open a lot more, we hope!

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