https://youtu.be/qxLbovrPaj8
Prior to the start of the 2020-21 season, basketball-reference locked away their analytical tools behind a paid service called Stathead. I relied heavily on those services in past years when I needed to supply my video descriptions with a sprinkling of hard numerical facts, so it was a no-brainer that I would pay for the service once it was put behind a paywall.
What I didn’t realize, but is now obvious in hindsight, is the immense rush of power I would feel whenever I looked up something on the Stathead service. When accessing those informative numbers about a player or players, the knowledge that those numbers are hidden from the view of the public until I choose to disclose them is something that gives me great glee, bordering on euphoria. I just pulled up a table of how Armoni Brooks stacks up against other rookies in a particular category, and I feel drunk with power. My compulsion to lord this power over others is overriding all my normal ethical standards. When I use Stathead, I truly become a different man, and I’m not sure if it’s a better man. It’s definitely a more powerful man.
In this case, the stat in question is “rookies with most games attempting ten or more three-pointers”. Armoni Brooks is third among rookies in that stat, with five such games (including this one, where he went 4-of-11 from tripletown). The two players ahead of him are Anthony Edwards and Saddiq Bey. But those two dudes have been playing big minutes for the whole season, while Brooks has only appeared in eighteen games for the Rockets. Give him a whole season to work with and he would be right up there with the most enthusiastic three-point shooting rookies in the league.
Don’t you feel insignificant knowing that I have the power to enrich myself with these stats while you do not? You can only rely on the unreliable generosity of internet strangers to be so statistically enriched. Frankly, you are at my mercy. Through the unholy power of Stathead, I control your perception of the NBA. And it only costs me ten US American dollars per month to have this control.