Isaac
Years ago
LeBron vs Oscar Robertson, adjusted stats
Thought these couple of paragraphs in ESPN's Daily Dime today were interesting:
And for as much as we hear about the great Oscar Robertson's triple-double season of 1961-62, LeBron's current numbers dwarf the Big O's when adjusted for pace of play. Back when Oscar got his 3D, teams averaged 118 points and 71 rebounds per game. Today, they average just 99 points and 41 boards.Daily Dime #1: LeBron Taking His Game Even Higher
Back in March, when ESPN's brainiacs in the Stats & Information department compared LeBron's stats to Oscar's, they told me LeBron would average 40 points, nearly 15 rebounds and 9.6 assists in the up-tempo, shot-happy game of 1961-62. Oscar, on the other hand, would average 21.7 points, 8.4 assists and 6 rebounds today.
Records are one of the reasons I don't love the idea of the NBL's possible shift to 40 minute games. Teams will quickly beat the 'Lowest team score' record, but when will anyone be able to top 40 points, 20 boards, 10 assists, etc? How much harder will it be for a player to beat various records for made baskets, threes and free throws?
The other week, Ben Fitz dropped me an email about a great statline from Jason Kidd and I bet there's similar talk generated by great numbers in the recent NBL too ("Luke had 20+ boards, you should've been there!"). I just can't imagine the same amount of word spreading when getting 7 boards is quite good, or breaking 20 points is pretty decent, or 6 assists is the game high.