Read SprawlBall A Visual Tour of the New Era of the NBA Kirk Goldsberry Books

Product details Hardcover 256 pages Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (April 30, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1328767515

SprawlBall A Visual Tour of the New Era of the NBA Kirk Goldsberry Books Reviews

• In February of 2018, Reddit user u/BreezyBlue had just finished a 4-year prison sentence and incredulously asked, "Wow the Warriors are really good now. Is Stephen Curry really the best player in the NBA?" According to the NBA's previous year's MVP award, the answer was a unanimous **yes**. To answer our time-traveler's follow-up questions of *Why?* and *How?* I would direct him Kirk Goldsberry's Sprawlball.
  
  Kirk Goldsberry was mostly known to me as the guy who made awesome shot charts, but he also spent time as the VP of Analytics for the San Antonio Spurs. Sprawlball tells a familiar tale the rules of a game are set, and "Jeopardy James" abuses the economics of the Daily Double and algorithmic traders gobble-up tiny arbitrage opportunities. The NBA has, likewise, been in the process of squeezing out every statistical advantage that the introduction of the three-point line and rules protecting shooters can offer. Goldsberry doesn't really need to spend much time making a case here, but rather spends time pulling back the curtains on what you already know to be true. As a huge NBA fan, this is one of the few NBA books that I really feel increased my knowledge not just about the league's history but basketball strategy.
  
  Sprawlball is not a perfect book by any means. There is a lot of repetition of knowledge that could have been edited out. Some of the pivotal charts maddeningly span from dark purple (good) to white (average) to dark green (bad). And also, the chapter recounting the Warrior's 15-16 championship run was a bit meandering. But overall, holy crap I ate through this book and loved it. The next time one of your friends gets out of a long prison sentence and is confused about the state of the NBA, boy do I have a book for them.
• This is a very interesting book. I have played professional basketball for 6 years all over the world after playing in the NCAA Tourney twice in college. I love data driven point so view and this book is no different. There are so very many pieces of data that Kirk has captured over the years to and put together in a very specific way, that its content is inarguably true. Everything in this game (and other sports too) can be tied back to a piece or a set of data. This is and has been a peculiar approach to sports, it has been proven that knowing the data behind what we see can assist in “making” new athletes. Several of the data points utilized in this book can and I am sure will be used by coaches, parents, mentors, and athletes themselves to further develop their game while they can learn and understand what areas to work on, and what are the areas of opportunities. For basketball lovers like myself, I would highly recommend this book, if anything it is a fact based entertaining book that teaches a lot about the game (focusing on the NBA) today. For coaches of high level athletes, AAU stars, or other folks with hopes to play the game professionally, I would consider that this read could be very beneficial as well. Also, Aaron Dana did a phenomenal job with illustrating this book, very accurate and good looking art. Please let me know if you found this helpful by clicking on the “Helpful” button below, or leave a comment below if you have questions or would like to see other pictures and I will do my best to answer it. Cheers. Cass
• By way of background, I have watched the league change radically from the 80s. Capturing these changes through the lens of transformational players, Kirk Goldsberry details this evolution in a way that only he can.
  
  His heatmaps and Aaron Dana's wonderful illustrations provide compelling visuals to a fascinating story the metamorphosis of the league. As Goldsberry points out, though, this story isn't necessarily a positive one. I for one have decried the state of the league since the Warriors' 73-win season. Everyone is trying to mimic Golden State and Houston but few teams possess the personnel. Beyond that, the new NBA is often painful to watch.
  
  This is the best book that I've read on the NBA since The Punch One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball by John Feinstein.
• Received this book today and read almost all of it while watching the playoffs. A great analysis of the rise of the three and the potential decline of LBJ type rim attacks. Very insightful and filled with stats. If you like ball and enjoy the analytics of the game this is the perfect book.
• One of the major reasons the demise of Grantland is mourned by so many people are the wonderful analytics Mr. Goldsberry provided the site. He is still going strong on ESPN and this compendium expounds on his brilliant work for both sites. If you know his work, you are already a buyer. If you don't know his work... order this right away if you enjoy pro basketball. He is the heir to Dean Oliver's throne.