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The Breaks of the Game By David Halberstam The Breaks of the Game is sports reporting at its finest--basketball's equivalent to Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer. Join David Halberstam on his yearlong journey with the 1979 Portland Trail Blazers and witness professional basketball from the inside, where front-office egos, big-money contracts, and the colorful personalities of coaches and players collide, and winners and losers emerge. This insightful account is evidence of how much basketball has--and hasn't--changed since 1979, before the money really started rolling in.

Available for the first time in years, David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game focuses on one grim season (1979-80) in the life of the Portland Trail Blazers, a team that only three years before had been National Basketball Association champions.

As Halberstam follows this collection of men through the months, through the losing streaks and occasional victories, the endless trips and the brutal schedules, we come to know them and their world--the other players, coaches, and owners; the competition, drafts, trades, and traditions; the wives, the fans, the media connections--a world of grand dreams, impossible expectations, and bracing realities.

You'll can also browse this book in an Amazon Books 'limited preview' !

 • Author: David Halberstam
 • Paperback: 416 pages
 • Publisher: Hyperion
 • Publishing Date: February 17, 2009
 • Language: English

Canastas sagradas Lecciones espirituales de un guerrero de los tableros Por Phil Jackson y Hugh Delehanty click here to read the full review...

Basketball Statistician's Digest: Double Bonus Situation

Rule Fundamental:
A 'double bonus situation' is a statistic terminology reserved for the U.S. collegiate basketball, where it is ruled the one-and-one free throws rule.

Once a team has committed more than six fouls in a period, the fouled player shoots a one-and-one ( commonly known as one and a bonus ).

Photograph: Arkansas Expats

Rule Interpretation:
According to this rule, the player must make the first free throw in order to get a chance to shoot a second: if the first free throw is made, another one is awarded, if the first free throw is missed, play resumes as normal. Starting with the tenth foul in a half, all fouls committed from that point forward during the remainder of the game result in two free throws being awarded to the opposition.

Free throws are not awarded for player control fouls ( most often charging fouls ), even if the team fouled is in the bonus.

eBA Statistical Register:
To the first situation, we call the first bonus, being the tenth foul situation called the second bonus.

The statistical register is performed as usual and exactly the same as analyzed in Free Throws Statistical Charging.

This topic is resumed in the eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis System
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Basketball 2009 Review: NBA All Star Game 2009 Highlights

Here are the Highlights from the 2009 All Star Game in Phoenix.
Here are all Players:
West: Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Amaré Stoudemire, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, Tony Parker, Chauncey Billups, Brandon Roy, David West, Pau Gasol, Shaquille O'Neal, Dirk Nowitzki
East: Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, Devin Harris, Mo Williams, Paul Pierce, Rashard Lewis, Chris Bosh, Danny Granger, Ray Allen, Joe Johnson.
The Western All Stars won 146:119 (72:67)

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Illegal Lane Invasion on a Last Free Throw Case Statistical Tracking

This Article was updated in
Basketball Registering Stats Referred Questions:
About an Illegal Lane Invasion on a Last Free Throw Case Statistical Tracking

Illegal Lane Invasion on Jordan's Last Free Throw in a Photograph from Worldisround.com

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My Personal Best: Life Lessons from an All-American Journey By John Wooden & Steve Jamison "A good teacher or coach must not only understand others, but himself or herself as well." —John Wooden In this captivating book, beloved Basketball coach John Wooden reveals the educational journey he took throughout his legendary life, from his earliest days on a small Indiana farm to the glory of his historic record-setting UCLA dynasty.

Throughout My Personal Best, Coach Wooden introduces us to the men and women who shaped him and the many important life lessons they taught along the way... This treasure trove of all things Wooden also includes rare, never-before-seen photos from Coach's private collection.

Pairing these priceless photos with evocative personal stories, this modern sports classic encompasses the arc of Wooden's achievements and the spirit of hisAll-American experience, one that will serve as inspiration to anyone who aspires to be a coach--not only on the court but in every arena of life.

"John Wooden, whose UCLA Bruins won 10 NCAA titles in 12 years, is the greatest college basketball coach of all time. Wooden has lived his life with quiet dignity and integrity.
The "life lessons" he presents here are less about basketball than about incorporating some of that dignity and integrity into one's own life. Certainly basketball fans will find a trove of wonderful anecdotes in these pages; after all, teaching the game was Wooden's life's work, and he illustrates many of his points with examples from his coaching career.

You'll can also browse this book in a Google Books 'limited preview' !

 • Authors: John Wooden & Steve Jamison
 • Format: eBook & Book
 • Hardcover: 192 pages
 • Publisher: McGraw-Hill
 • Publishing Date: 1st edition ~ April 9, 2004
 • eBook Edition; Enero, 2010
 • Language: English

 • Also available: In the new 2010 eBook format

 • Basketball Books & eBooks by or about John Wooden

Baloncesto por Pere Andreu y Victor Garcia click here to read the full review...

Basketball Game Analyst or Scientific Analyst of the Regressions Type... ?

This Article was UPDATED in
Sunday's Reflexions on Basketball Statistics:
Basketball Game Analyst or Scientific Analyst of the Regressions Type... ?

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2009 eBA Best Basketball Clip Candidate

' Snoop Dogg ~ Rhythms of Basketball and Music '

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Basketball Statistician's Digest: Basketball Coaching Philosophy

From The Coaches Clipboard By Dr. James A. Gels
Download source here: ' Basketball Coaching Philosophy '

"... Each coach must develop his/her own coaching philosophy, or system of beliefs and ideas. When interviewing for a coaching position, the question almost always comes up, "What is your coaching philosophy?" This article discusses a number of thoughts relating to this topic. ..."

"... Whatever your style, be agreeable and, without compromising your principles, be someone that is easy to work with. As a coach, you have to interact and deal with a lot of people... players, administration, faculty, parents, assistants, opposing coaches and players, officials, fans, etc. We all like working with someone who is agreeable and easy to work with, and someone who follows the rules and is respectful of others. ..."

"... Communicate with your players as a group and one-on-one, and maintain an "open door" policy. Before the season starts, meet with each player individually about goals, expectations, etc. Have occasional team meetings to discuss "issues". Ask players for their input at halftime. ..."

"... Flexibility is key here. Some years, you may have race horses and you can use the running game. Other years, you may have mules and bulls and will find the slower paced, inside power game better. Even if you are a coach that structures your entire program on one style of play, you may find that you will need to be flexible in some game situations. For example, we like to press and run. But when we have a couple of our slower players in the game, we may have to drop the press in favor of good half-court defense. ..."

"... Team goals could vary from year to year. A team goal might be to win the state championship, or the conference title, or maybe to finish above .500 with a winning record. With a team lacking in talent or experience, it might be to just be a better team by the end of the season, in preparation for next year. Individual player goals might be developing a post player's moves and strength, or a guard's dribbling, ball-handling, and shooting. But personal character goals are even more important... developing priorities, commitment, work ethic, trust, loyalty, etc. ..."

Read more in The Coaches Clipboard

To read Today's 'Press Clippings' in Spanish, click this week above on the 'Español' tab or afterwards click here: 'Proceso de Toma de Decisiones en Baloncesto' por Damián Iglesias Gallego y otros

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Our Fans in eBA on Facebook frequently suggest us to enrich our eBA Group Sites with social features which instantly awakens and strengthens the great community that visits our sites !

Consequently, from today you are all invited to share your ideas and comments from the eBA Portal (see on the central column "All YOUR Commentaries") ! ...and for Instant Translation Click in 'Translate'

Be Welcome !

Thereby we are now letting our visitors discover each other by joining our "eBA Friends Corner" site ( on the right column of the eBA Portal ) with existing accounts from a variety of services, as Google, Yahoo, Twitter, AOL, orkut y Plaxo, enforcing our existing community.

Become our fan in eBA on Facebook AND ALSO be our friend in the eBA Portal and receive freely your 'Registered Member' password for the eBA Group Sites: to read all the eBA Encyclopedia, write your articles in the eBA Portal, comment the posts here in the eBA Blogs, and access to the reserved forums at the
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Basketball Comments: Kobe Bryant vs. Zone Defense

This video details the superior defenses that Bryant and other superstars have to go up against in the modern era of basketball. Unlike he 80's and 90's isolation brand of basketball, Kobe is the most doubled-teamed perimeter player in the history of the NBA.

"The rules are completely different now,'' said Bryant, comparing his era to Jordan's. "I've always been able to shoot the ball, but the rules have changed since he played in terms of playing a zone defense.
You have to be a jump shooter now because there's no way you can get to the basket -- particularly myself because they just stack guys up.
I wish we had the rules they had back in the day where you could isolate guys and you could go to the basket anytime. But now you have to be able to shoot.''

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About an Assist in two Passes ~ Double Assist

This Article was updated in
Basketball Registering Stats Referred Questions:
About an Assist in two Passes ~ Double Assist

Pau goes up for an uncontested layup in a Photograph from Lakers Gasol.com

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This Week Basketball DVD eBA DVICE !

Duke Basketball ~ Attacking the Zone
By Mike Krzyzewski

With Mike Krzyzewski "Coach K", Duke University Head Men's Basketball Coach; NABC "Coach of the Decade," 12X NABC "Coach of the Year," Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2001), 3X NCAA National Championships ('91, '92,'01)

In an energetic and information-packed on-court presentation, Coach Krzyzewski explains the zone offense and principles he uses in attacking a half-court zone defense.

Mike Krzyzewski believes the secret to effective zone offense is to keep it simple by running one highly effective offense that can be utilized against even the most potent defenses.

Coach Krzyzewski has designed a zone offense that is easy to implement and impossible to stop! In addition, Coach K shares the five major components of this efficient offense when invading the zone.

You'll can also watch the 'Live Footage' of this DVD in a 'limited preview' from Championship Productions !

 • Actors: Mike Krzyzewski
 • Region: All Regions
 • Format: Color, Director's Cut, Full Screen, NTSC
 • Language: English
 • Number of discs: 1
 • Studio: Championship Productions
 • DVD Release Date: 2005
 • Run Time: 40 minutes

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Special Efficiency Values for Playoffs

This Article was UPDATED in
Basketball Statistics Analysis Referred Concepts:
Special Efficiency Values for Playoffs

... Pau Gasol reacts to action in a Photograph from Chris Carlson at Silver Screen and Roll ...

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2009 eBA Best Basketball Clip Candidate

' Basketball Is Like a Game of Chess '

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Basketball Statistician's Digest:
The (Tentative) Rethinking Basketball Rookie Ranking Framework

From Rethinking Basketball By Q McCall
Download source here: ' The (Tentative) Rethinking Basketball Rookie Ranking Framework '

"... Any successful team must have players that can create offense. A team of the five most efficient players in the game would have a tough time scoring because they rely on these high-usage types to create opportunities for them. ..."

"... but for a lot of players, the differences are more subtle and usage rate can help sort out the prospects from the suspects. For the most part, the ability to get your own shot (or get to the foul line) is either something you have or you don't. Usage rates certainly fluctuate from season to season but, generally speaking, usage rate tracks an innate skill. ..."

"... Just to elaborate and make the point more explicitly, a rookie’s ability to produce points might not be quite as important as the means by which the player creates those points. So even if we use points per game as our primary point of reference, paying attention to what the player actually does once they have the ball in their hands may be useful. In some ways it comes down to a matter of creativity – the ability to perceive multiple outcomes to a given situation and having the ability to bring one of them to fruition. ..."

"... Conceptually, Chaiken Efficiency Ratio is the ratio of points a player is individually responsible for to the possessions that a player is individually responsible for ending without points. It’s a proxy for scoring decision making – if a high usage player is able to create points more often than they waste a scoring opportunity, we can say they are making good scoring decisions. ..."

"... This idea essentially fits with a lot of the other ways I already use statistics for analyzing point guards and team dynamics. However, I’m going to deviate from Gomez and colleagues’ framework slightly and look at made free throw rate instead of free three percentage as a secondary proxy with which to analyze a player’s ability to make offensive moves that draw fouls. ..."

Read more in Rethinking Basketball

To read Today's 'Press Clippings' in Spanish, click above on the 'Español' tab or click here: 'Goleada estadística' por Donald Peña

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About the Analysis of Basketball Assists

This Article was UPDATED in
Basketball Statistics Analysis Referred Concepts:
About the Analysis of Basketball Assists

Photograph: Basketball Statistics Online

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Funny Basketball: HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS - Fun moments

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Basketball Statistician's Digest:
Out of Bounds without Ball Control

"... Player is dribbling down the side of the court. During the dribble, he stops touching the ball and allows the ball to bounce a couple of times inbounds parallel to the sideline, as his right foot goes out of bounds a few times. He gets back inbounds and takes control of the ball again and continues the dribble. Is the call out of bounds, even if he did not have control of the ball while his foot was out ?
If positive, which is the stats register ? ..."

Photograph: Washington Post

Commentary=
He's out. The key is that he still did have player control because he was dribbling. If there is a situation where the player had touched the ball but did not have control he may go out and return to be the first to touch it or get control. In the play you described there was no loss of player control.

eBA Basketball Statistics Registration=
Unforced Turnover if the player was not forced to go out of bounds; and
Forced Turnover if the defensive pressure of an opponent forced the player out of bounds.

This topic is resumed in the eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis System
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48 Championship Basketball Drills By Marty Schupak Marty Schupak and the Youth Sports Club, the producers of the best selling videos "The 59 Minute Baseball Practice" and "Championship Soccer Drills" take on the sport of basketball. This high digitized DVD shows coaches and parents from the youth level all the way up to High School a wide variety of useful drills. 48 Championship Basketball Drills covers: shooting, conditioning, defensive skills, rebounding, ball handling, passing and foul shooting techniques. The 22 shooting drills are especially valuable and many of them have been used by teams at all levels.

The DVD concludes with four sample practices along with ten coaching tips. The DVD is fast paced and each drill starts with a picture of a basketball court with the placement of where the players should line up.

From Marty Schupak himself: "... I had the pleasure of producing 48 Championship Basketball Drills with one of the best high school coaches in the United States.

The drills are designed to keep everyone involved. There is constant movement of players for each drill and valuable tips are pointed out throughout the DVD. My personal favorites are the rebounding and shooting. ..."

You'll can also watch the 'Live Footage' of this DVD in a 'limited preview' from ...

 • Actors: Marty Schupak
 • Region: All Regions
 • Format: Color, Director's Cut, Full Screen, NTSC
 • Language: English
 • Number of discs: 1
 • Studio: Youth Sports Club
 • DVD Release Date: September 20, 2003
 • Run Time: 42 minutes

Basketball Steals Statistical Tracking / Registration

This Article was UPDATED in
Basketball Statistics Analysis Referred Concepts:
Basketball Steals Statistical Tracking / Registration

... Mikael Pietrus steals the ball in a Photograph from The Basketball Oracle ...

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2009 eBA Best Basketball Clip Candidate

' Liquid Freedom '

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Basketball Statistician's Digest:
The proper application of Basketball Statistical Analysis

From Pro Basketball News/ By David Friedman
Download source here: ' The proper application of Basketball Statistical Analysis '

"... Morey tells Lewis that in basketball there can be, as Lewis phrases it, "a tension ... between the interests of the team and the interests of the individual." This does not exist so much in baseball or football. "There is no way to selfishly get across home plate" is the analogy Morey uses; in contrast, Morey says that when he worked for the Celtics the team had a point guard who would not pass the ball to a particular player, something that would not necessarily negatively affect that point guard's statistics but definitely negatively affected the team. ..."

"... Morey uses an adjusted plus/minus system as one analytical tool to evaluate players. Plus/minus simply records the point differential when a player is on the court versus when he is off the court, so the number can be "noisy" due to the impact that the other nine players have on the game but Morey uses certain methods that he will not disclose in order to get rid of a lot of the "noise." ..."

"... It cannot be emphasized strongly enough that Morey is not merely looking at spreadsheets and randomly assigning arcane values to certain combinations of numbers; statistics give him an indication of what to look for when he watches game film but he still has to watch game film to determine why players are putting up the numbers they do and to figure out what exactly those numbers mean. ..."

"... In other words, Morey appears to understand the limits of a purely mathematical approach to the game and thus uses numbers to confirm what his eyes tell him -- and vice versa. This is a completely different approach from the one taken by far too many stat gurus who are so enamored with their formulas that they dismiss the importance of actually watching games -- perhaps because they are in fact not truly capable of watching basketball games with any real understanding of what is happening on the court. ..."

Read more in Pro Basketball News

To read Today's 'Press Clippings' in Spanish, click above on the 'Español' tab or click here: 'El Scouting ~ Cómo Conocer al Rival y a Nuestro Equipo' por Miquel Ballester Ferrer

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About Measuring Basketball Players

This Article was UPDATED in
Basketball Statistics Analysis Referred Concepts:
About Measuring Basketball Players

Photograph: Day Life

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FIBA U19 World Championship ~ Auckland, New Zealand

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Throw-in ~ Official or Scorekeeper Error

This Article was UPDATED in
Basketball Registering Stats Referred Questions:
Throw-in ~ Official or Scorekeeper Error

Photograph: from Southwest High School Basketball

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Explosive Finishing Moves for Basketball By Dorian Lee Advanced Basketball Trainer Dorian Lee's Explosive Finishing Moves gives you over 40 ways to finish the play. Dorian covers a multitude of ways to finish including: Runners, Floaters, Reverse Lay-Ups, Pro Hops, Spins, and Transition Moves.

As a bonus, Dorian Lee shares his "Hang Time" secrets for hanging in the air longer to finish the play.

The moves on the DVD will challenge you to be able to finish with either hand, from various angles, and off one or two feet.

Explosive Finishing Moves will give you an arsenal of moves to use when finishing the play that will always give you an option to score with.

You'll can also watch the 'Live Footage' of this DVD in a 'limited preview' from ...

 • Actors: Dorian Lee
 • Region: All Regions
 • Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video
 • Language: English
 • Number of discs: 1
 • Run Time: 60 minutes

Are the Deflections an Indicator of Good Defense ?

This Article was UPDATED in
Sunday's Reflexions on Basketball Statistics:
Are the Deflections an Indicator of Good Defense ?

... Manu Ginobili deflects a ball in a Photograph from Sports Illustrated ...

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2009 eBA Best Basketball Clip Candidate

' Is Kobe Bryant Real ? '

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Basketball Statistician's Digest:
Statistics and Basketball for Beginners

From Baseline Scenario By James Kwak
Download source here: ' Statistics and Basketball for Beginners '

"... I think that the general difficulty that many people have in understanding statistics is an important problem, because it leads people to misinterpret the world around them. ..."

"... But in the second segment, they take up that favorite example of statisticians everywhere: There are no streak shooters in basketball! (And if you think there are, you are just a weak creature of habit and prejudice who refuses to accept the pure truth of numbers.) ..."

"... This story has become such an article of faith in the “statistics are right/intuition is wrong” camp that it bears a little examination. ..."

"... However, they actually prove something more modest: that the chances of a given player making a given field goal attempt are not related to the success or failure of his immediately preceding attempt or attempts. I can raise some quibbles here, like the fact that they don’t look at how much time passes between those shot attempts; if you hit two shots in the second quarter and then miss one in the fourth quarter, that’s the same to them as if you shoot on three consecutive possessions. (I believe some of their analyses even span separate games.) ..."

"... So I will buy the conclusion that data about recent field goal attempts cannot be used to predict the outcome of the next field goal attempt. This is an analog to the efficient market hypothesis – you cannot predict which way an asset price will go based on its recent price movements. But I don’t think this proves that basketball players don’t shoot better in some periods and in some games than in others. ..."

"... When it comes to basketball, it strains belief to think that your ability to shoot the ball is a constant, day after day, play after play, all the time. For one thing, sometimes you are tired, or sick (and few of us can replicate Michael Jordan’s “flu game”), or injured, or distracted; the idea that this wouldn’t affect your shooting seems preposterous. If your actual field goal attempts end up looking like random patterns, then I think that’s more likely a result of the complex and un-modelable way in which you, your team, and the other team adapt to each other. ..."

Read more in Baseline Scenario

To read Today's 'Press Clippings' in Spanish, click above on the 'Español' tab or click here: 'El uso del video en el baloncesto' por Frederic Sarre (Francia)

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Basketball Statistician's Digest: Team Possessions Responsibly Percentage

How to calculate the Individual % Team Possessions ( % team possessions responsibly for when a player is on floor ) from box scores or from play by play info ?

First of all we must calculate the possessions: making a search for "possessions" in this eBA Blogs and reading the "Possessions Analysis" exposition at eBA Clinics for the individual possession formula, we can find that a typical formula to calculate the basketball possessions is:

Possessions=FGA Field Goals Attempted - OR Field Goals Attempted +TO Field Goals Attempted +0.4* Free Throws Attempted
(the eBA System applies the factor UP-TO-THE-LINE instead of the .44 FTA factor)

Photograph: Miguel Volcan Sánchez' Basketball

Now we can make an estimation of the % team possessions responsibly for when a player is on floor from their minutes and the team rate of possessions.

% = individual possessions / team possessions / individual minutes * team minutes / 5

As in every statistical calculation with the 'time played' element included, you'll have problems for low minute players.

This topic is resumed in the eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis System
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July Cover ~ Basketball Beautiful Faces:
From the NBA Atlanta Hawks Dance Team !

Photograph: Every Joe

Our Basketball Beautiful Faces of July 2009 Cover

... Atlanta Hawks dance team member acts as a silent cheerleader ...

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