The NBA as an Evolving Multivariate System
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Abstract
Abstract This article examines the NBA as an evolving system from the viewpoint of evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould who wrote extensively on the disappearance of the .400 hitter in major league baseball, arguing that this is actually a sign of improvement in the quality of play. After reviewing his argument, we use multivariate performance measures of professional basketball players to see if similar characteristics of evolution are observed. It is found that basketball is beginning to exhibit some of these characteristics in recent years, albeit to a much lesser extent than that observed in baseball.