*Who Makes the NBA?*

That is the new book by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, with the subtitle Data-Driven Answers to Basketball’s Biggest Questions.  Most notably, it was written in thirty days with the help of GPT-4.

It’s quite good!  Excerpt:

A statistically significant percentage of sons of NBA players shoot free throws at a higher clip than their fathers.

Jokic, by the way, started off playing water polo, and that is partly why he passes as he does and has such good court vision.  And this:

And the average NBA player shoots free throws 1.5 percentage points lower in clutch moments in playoff games.

Is some of that due to being more tired rather than choking?  On average taller players choke more on free throws, which is perhaps consistent with this hypothesis?  Being very tall, they are less likely to be athletic and well-conditioned, in equilibrium that is?

I really liked this book, kudos to the author(s)!