Numbers Don't Lie: New Adventures in Counting and What Counts in Basketball Analytics

A typical NBA game can yield approximately 2,800 statistical events in thirty-two different categories. In Numbers Don’t Lie Yago Colas started with a simple question: How did basketball analytics get from counting one stat, the final score, to counting thousands? He discovered that what we call “basketball”—rules, equipment, fundamental skills, techniques, tactics, strategies—has changed dramatically since its invention and today encompasses many different forms of play, from backyards and rec leagues to the NBA Finals.

Numbers Don’t Lie explores the power of data to tell stories about ourselves and the world around us. As advanced statistical methods and big-data technologies transform sports, we now have the power to count more things in greater detail than ever before. These numbers tell us about the past, present, and future that shape how basketball is played on the floor, decisions are made in front offices, and the sport is marketed and consumed. But what is the relationship between counting and what counts, between quantification and value?

In Numbers Don’t Lie Colas offers a three-part history of counting in basketball. First, he recounts how big-data basketball emerged in the past twenty years, examines its current practices, and analyzes how it presents itself to the public. Colas then situates big data within the deeper social, cultural, and conceptual history of counting in basketball and beyond and proposes alternative frameworks of value with which we may take fuller stock of the impact of statistics on the sport. Ultimately, Colas challenges the putative objectivity of both quantification and academic writing by interweaving through this history a series of personal vignettes of life at the intersection of basketball, counting, and what counts.