What Happened To The PBA Statistics?

Fans of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) are familiar with hoop stats — from the basics (points, rebounds, assists) to the details (player efficiency, assist-to-turnover ratio).

Aside from fans, players, parents, scouts and coaches will often refer to the box score after a game to decipher how well (or how badly) a game was played. It is no wonder why followers of Asias's oldest basketball league are confused why the PBA stats are not available.

A quick visit to the PBA website and stat page will prompt the following advisory:

"PBA's website is going through major improvements. During this process you may experience errors. We ask for your understanding and we apologize for the inconvenience."

In a related tweet from SPIN.ph's Reuben Terrado:

"For those asking, PBA doesn't have live stats, at least for the moment, because it is using a different software that could account the 4-point shots. FIBA Livestats doesn't have that feature."

Not a few were thinking why was this not considered before changes were adopted?

One of the problems with having to rely on unofficial information is that analysis and analytics are at risk of being skewed towards false understanding of how well a player played.

Statistics have multi-faceted objectives:

1. Players: Stats identify individual strengths and weaknesses
2. Coaches: Decide which player to put in the game for certain scenarios
3. Scouts: Rank and rate players in order to figure out who to recruit to the team
4. Sports analysts: Use as a way to spark a debate: Who’s the GOAT? Well, depends on which stat you determine means the most: championship rings or most points scored in league’s history?
5. General manager: Determine the salary of a player

There’s a saying: You can’t improve what you don’t measure. PBA stats is the ultimate tool to help track and measure performance by the numbers.

For players, it’s hard to know until you play at a more elite level about your strengths and weaknesses. For coaches, lineups are more of a gut feel than a data-driven decision.

Of course, numbers are not the only measure of performance. There’s no stat line for being a good teammate, for making adjustments on the fly, for watching film, for being coachable, or for showing good sportsmanship.

However, stats are the basic foundation to start the thinking process. It is concrete and solid proof of performance. The PBA should seriously consider doing something about this lack of data on the players and on the teams.