The Nick Van Exel scorekeeper controversy

[dockingsched]

i'll copy and paste the lakers/NVE relevant stuff, but its a league wide story.


http://deadspin.com/5336974/an-assist-f ... -the-books

In January 1997, the Lakers' Nick Van Exel handed out 23 assists in a 95-82 victory over Vancouver, a feat less attributable to his sharpshooting teammates than to the numbers-fudging Lakers fan working the Grizzlies' scorer's table.up some numbers, and SportsCenter might just bring itself to show a Grizzlies highlight.

Which is how, one night in Vancouver, Nick Van Exel nearly tied Magic Johnson's team record for assists in a game...

Partly because I disagreed with the blatant stat manipulation (that I did) and partly because I'm a Laker fan, I gave Nick Van Exel like 23 assists one game. If he was vaguely close to a guy making a shot, I found a way to give him an assist. Afterwards, I fully expected someone to talk to me about it. Indeed they did. A senior management guy - "great job Alex, that'll get this game on Sportscenter tomorrow morning!" We (VAN) lost badly, of course.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... nba,182998

[Anklebreaker702]

Doesn't surprise me cash, this is how people are now a days. Manipulation over integrity. Goes on in almost all walks of life. It's a shame.

[Patterns]

Chris Paul

[Sofa King]

Chris Paul

I'll raise you Steve Nash.

[Slava]

WTF, I thought this kind of crap ended with the ABA.

[slickgreek]

Oh kind of like Lebrons triple doubles...unbelieavable. This is a shock to me....

[Sofa King]

Kobe scored 81 right?

[bastosbruddah]

Oh kind of like Lebrons triple doubles...unbelieavable. This is a shock to me....

+1

[supaflash]

I've been saying the last few years that assists in general have been somewhat overrated because of how they are tracked. I started a big thing with some NO fans that CP3's numbers were inflated, I wrote a huge article about it when he was in the race for MVP with Kobe that year. I watched a couple of NO games in a row and counted the assists and both times he ended up with 2 or 3 more then what I counted. A real obvious one was when they were playing GS toward the end of the year I did it again and CP3 was having an AWFUL game against Baron, and the whole NO team was shooting like 30% and CP3 had to sit out long stretches because of foul trouble and yet I look up at the stats and he had like 11 assists showing when I had counted 5 mayyybe 6 if you were generous...

Not to say that he or Steve Nash or Deron or Kidd are any less of players, they are still quite amazing BUT it does say a little bit about the overall value of the assist stat when looking at guys.

[The Skyhook]

Kobe scored 81 right?

lol they have the highlight reel of every point scored so I believe he did.

[TonyMontana]

Chris Paul

I'll raise you Steve Nash.

[SApuro_]

Where are the checks and balances? It would have been ashamed if a bum like NVE were to surpass magic just because of a some scorekeeper lacked integrity.

[The Skyhook]

One of the first things that comes to mind with this is Lebron James MSG triple double. He was given a triple double but soon one rebound was taken away from him after reviewing it.

[miggs]

[Shiggity]

so assists are the silicone breasts of the league while points are the real deal? wonder what rebounds are then

[snaquille oatmeal]

so assists are the silicone breasts of the league while points are the real deal? wonder what rebounds are then

nose jobs?

[Verbal]

Tummy tucks?

[lakersfanatic]

i guess once the hype and crowd gets into it... officials do as well. I guess they want to be noticed as well. Scary thought.