Anyway, at halftime of the Houston-Phoenix game, Barkley casually stated that the Rockets and Suns are the two worst defensive teams in the league. Any semi-regular follower of the NBA knows that's not the case at all. If you go with defensive efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions), the Rockets currently sit at 7th in the league, and the Suns are 17th. If we use that stat, actually, the two worst defensive teams on track to make the playoffs are the Cavaliers (22nd) and Clippers (20th). Of course, Charles Barkley has no idea about any of this, because he claims to despite "analytics".
(Psst: Even if we don't use the "analytical" stat of defensive efficiency, neither Houston nor Phoenix are last in points allowed per game, either.)
Rockets GM Daryl Morey apparently caught wind of Barkley's claim, and had the following retort, via Twitter:
Best part of being at a TNT game live is it is easy to avoid Charles spewing misinformed biased vitriol disguised as entertainment
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) February 11, 2015
Shots fired! Following the Denver-LAL tilt, Barkley responded to Morey's tweet with a generic, uneducated rampage about how he rejects analytics and numbers-based thinking in general. Here's part of it:
Analytics don't work at all. It's just some crap that some people who are really smart made up to try to get in the game because they had no talent. Because they had no talent to be able to play. So smart guys wanted to be able to fit in, so they made up a term called "analytics." Analytics don't work. What analytics did the Miami Heat have? What analytics did the Chicago Bulls have? What analytics do the Spurs have? They have the best players. They have coaching staffs who make players better. And like I say, the Rockets sucked for a long time. So they went out and paid James Harden a lot of money - they got better. Then they went out and got Dwight Howard - they got better. They had Chandler Parsons, and now this year, they went out and got Ariza. The NBA is about talent.
All these guys who run these organizations, who talk about analytics, they have one thing in common. They're a bunch of guys who ain't never played the game, and they never got the girls in high school, and they just want to get in the game. Come on, man.He said a lot more, but you get the idea. Basically, he seems to disagree with those that use statistics. Barkley, in reality, is missing the point completely. He's right in that the NBA is about talent, obviously. Everybody knows that, and nobody questions it. Morey has even (several times) in the past said that winning in the NBA is about superstars, and that's why he's always been hell-bent in his pursuit of superstar players.
Sir Charles fails to realize that nobody that actually knows what they're doing uses numbers as the only way of evaluating players and teams. There's a reason we still watch the games. There are a lot of variables that go into the actual games that can't be accounted for or measured statistically. Statistics (and, furthermore, "advanced" stats) are used as a way of validating what we see when we watch the games. They go hand-in-hand. It's not one or the other. Compare it to a scientist that conducts experiments in order to validate an initial hypothesis. That's exactly why people use statistics when trying to evaluate basketball, and sports in general.
Barkley's entire diatribe reeks of someone that has no clue what he's even talking about. He's outright rejecting the idea of "analytics" because, for some reason, he feels threatened by it. His citing of the Spurs' success as a way of trying to further his point is also laughable, by the way, because San Antonio happens to be one of the more analytically-minded teams in the entire league.
We don't need numbers to tell us that LeBron James is probably the best player on earth. We can see
 |
| Charles Barkley Photo Credit - R24KBerg/Flickr |
Analytics/statistics aren't the be-all, end-all of player/team evaluation, just like the eye test isn't, either. Charles breaking out the tired, old "I played the game" card sums up his meandering, uneducated rampage fairly well. When all else fails, tells us that you played the game, because obviously that means you know waaaaaay more than the rest of us, Charles. Actually having played in the NBA would be a really great tool for analyzing basketball if it was utilized properly. It's a shame guys like Barkley and Shaq fail to do so so often.
I say all of this as someone that has always loved Barkley on TV. Of course, if you're tuning in to Inside for some insightful basketball analysis, you're in the wrong place. The whole point of television (and basketball, for that matter) is entertainment. Barkley's always been entertaining, which is why he's enjoyed such a successful post-basketball career.
I've not heard of the "smart-shaming" technique Barkley's trying to use here, but it sure is a strange way to go about things. Basically, he's saying that those that use analytics are dumb because they're smart...or something. I'm not really sure what his endgame was with that comment.
Whatever the case, Charles Barkley has been making statements like these for years, so it'd be a waste of our time to expect him to change his ways any time soon. He's dug-in on this, and that's well-established. Let's just hope enough of those watching know better.
No comments:
Post a Comment