Category: Sports

I’m referring to the trade for Allen Iverson, of course, not the brawl.  For background Matt Yglesias is of course the go-to guy (it also turns out he is right about *The Wire*).  Some of us, like me, feel that Denver will be a worse team for the trade.  Not because of what they are giving up, but because of what they are getting.  The sports logic is straightforward, namely two shooting guys and only one ball, resulting in a discombobulated offense.  (You don’t have to agree in this particular case, the point is that this could be true.)  But how exactly, in the language of microeconomics, does this make Denver worse off?  Aren’t there gains from trade in all cases and thus also between AI and Carmelo Anthony? 

There are two partially unpriced resources, first the basketball and second the attention of the public (which produces endorsement income in the longer run).  Both induce excess and premature exhaustion of shooting opportunities.  (One correspondent tells me the two are each averaging about 24 shots a game, an NBA team averages maybe 80 shots a game, note that AI connects on 41 percent, below the league average, and plays no defense.)  The trade between the two players brings some benefits but also makes these "tragedy of the commons" problems worse.

The lesson for international trade?  The more impressively talented countries you have trading with each other, the greater the need for well-defined property rights in common pool resources such as clean air and ocean use.

Allen Iverson needs to join the Pigou Club.  The presence of Yao Ming in the league — as a force whose time has come — makes this all the more imperative.

Did Ralph Nader really send a letter to NBA commissioner David Stern
complaining about the league’s new basketball, on the grounds that he
is "an advocate for all workers, no matter their salary"? Yes he did.

That is from Kevin Drum.

The match started today, six games, here is a good overview article.  Kramnik gets a million dollars if he wins, $500,000 otherwise.

Here are the rather complicated match rules; Kramnik has unparalleled access to the opening book and workings of the machine.  Here are numerous expert opinions, many favor Kramnik.  Sorry guys, but I predict one computer victory and the rest draws.  Here is commentary by Kramnik.  You can watch the games live here.

One commentator put it well: "The last match was drawn – against a weaker version of Fritz on lesser
hardware.  And there’s no reason to think that since that match, Kramnik
has learnt to calculate an extra 6 billion positions per second."

But so far, in game one, the outcome was a draw and Kramnik had a slight edge throughout…

Addendum: Kramnik missed a win.

Matt Yglesias has read Aristotle:

I concede that the new [NBA] rules have made it harder to play defense.  I
fail to see, though, how that makes defense less important.  Two factors
determine who wins a basketball game: how many points your team scores
and how many points the other team scores.  Since you have the ball
roughly half the time and the other team has the ball roughly half the
time, it stands to reason that offense and defense should have exactly
the same importance.  You could even argue that, in an era when it’s
easier to score than to defend, a guy who can stop the other team from
scoring is more valuable than someone who can put the ball in the
basket.

Amen, and try putting that last point into a Solow model-like framework.  That all said, I don’t understand why there are so few good centers these days.  Why is there no Bob Lanier?  Is the pay too low?  Surely people are not shorter than thirty years ago.

While we are on the topic, I’ll offer up my yearly predictions and opt for San Antonio.  Their new 30-year-old big lug seems able to play center, they have the game’s best power forward, lots of title experience, and an excellent backcourt.  Plus they can play defense.

Addendum: A reader sends in this excellent commentary.

Thus, out of 5 games – 78% of GM Kramnik’s moves match with the first line of Fritz9 [an advanced chess computer].

That is from an official letter written by Topalov’s assistant.  Of course just because someone says it, that doesn’t mean it is true.

According to Chessbase.com, a chess news Web site, at the start of today’s game, Mr. Topalov sat down to play while Mr. Kramnik went to his private area and sat down outside his private bathroom, demanding that it be unlocked.

Chessbase reported that the organizers refused his request and after an hour, the game was declared forfeited in Mr. Topalov’s favor.

Here is one story.

After each move Mr. Kramnik immediately heads to the rest room and from it directly to the bathroom.  During every game he visited the relaxation room 25 times at the average and the bathroom more than 50 times – the bathroom is the only place without video surveillance…

Should this extremely serious problem remain unsolved by 10.00 o’clock tomorrow (September 29th, 2006), we would seriously reconsider the participation of the World [chess] Champion Veselin Topalov in this match.

Here is the story.  Kramnik is leading 3-1; with the exception of his B x f8?? move in game two, his tactical play has been uncannily accurate, and indeed computer-like, at key moments.  Or maybe he has learned that new style by playing with computers.  Here is my previous post on the topic.

Takashi Hashiyama, president of Maspro Denkoh Corporation, an electronics company based outside of Nagoya, Japan, could not decide whether Christie’s or Sotheby’s should sell the company’s art collection, which is worth more than $20 million, at next week’s auctions in New York.

…he resorted to an ancient method of decision-making that has been time-tested on playgrounds around the world: rock breaks scissors, scissors cuts paper, paper smothers rock.

In Japan, resorting to such games of chance is not unusual.  "I sometimes use such methods when I cannot make a decision," Mr. Hashiyama said in a telephone interview.  "As both companies were equally good and I just could not choose one, I asked them to please decide between themselves and suggested to use such methods as rock, paper, scissors."

Christie’s won, and here is the full story, via Jason Kottke.

The two were not evenly matched.  Duchamp was one of the best players in France, and no doubt swept Beckett off the board in most of their encounters.  But still they enjoyed each other’s company, and continued to play.  The two came together again in the summer of 1940, converging on the Atlantic coastal town of Arcachon, southwest of Bordeaux, as they fled the Nazi onslaught.  All summer they played lengthy chess games together in a seafront cafe.  While their conversations were not recorded, we can imagine that they discussed their mutual interest in chess’s dialectic between total freedom and complete constriction, between choice and futility…[Beckett] once remarked that the ideal chess game for him would end with the pieces back in their starting positions.

That is from David Shenk’s new The Immortal Game: A History of Chess.  If you are going to read only one book on chess, this is it.  I don’t read this stuff any more, but was persuaded to buy it by Stephen Dubner’s strong blurb.

It turns out, without knowing it, I had held a minor record of sorts for 29 years, and now the record is broken.  Read an interview with me — the modern me — about this story.

Serbia and Montenegro [sic] 104, Lebanon 57.

That is from the ongoing FIBA World Championship series.  The USA just whupped China and the US team has been running at about 63-70 percent in the betting markets, despite winning only a bronze medal in the Olympics.  This time they are taking international rules seriously, playing defense, and investing in role players, or so we are told.  Spain, Argentina, and Greece are the major rivals.  At least we edged out Puerto Rico, 111-100, which in per capita terms has to count as a loss.

Do I have a theory for all of my idiosyncratic preferences?  Well, with soccer it is simple.  There is too much apparent noise in the data.  Too many salleys and thrusts lead to immediate reversals.  Moving the ball down the field generates information about the relative strength of the teams, and in theory that is interesting, but I am poorly equipped for interpreting this information.  (I recall reading, with bewilderment, the claim that the French 1-0 victory over Brazil "wasn’t even close.")  To me all that back and forth looks random.  In this regard soccer is like baseball, hockey, or perhaps even chess and Go.  Only the cognoscenti know what is going on.  In particular, the meaning of the drama is clearer when you grow up with it.

Basketball, my favorite sport, generates ongoing data but those results are marked by numbers, most notably points scored, but also rebounds, turnovers, steals, etc.  It is far easier to approach a basketball game "cold" and figure it out on the fly.  If you tune in during halftime, a few stats will indicate what is going on.  It is the perfect sport for people who, like myself, don’t have much time for sports.

Here is a good essay on whether soccer is boring.  Read this too, it compares soccer and hockey.

Kevin Grier, economist and MR commentator, circa March 21, states his most absurd view:

"I believe Shaq will win another championship."

Over at www.tradesports.com, the Dallas Mavericks, while down 3-2 in a seven-game series, are still favored with a contract trading in the 53-55 range.