Lev Akabas
@LevAkabas
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#SportsBiz and NBA 🏀 data viz 📊. Data Reporter at @Sportico, previously @nytimes and @SLAMonline, all opinions are my own
Manhattan, NY
Joined October 2012
If you like data visualization on sports 🏀🏈⚾️, #SportsBiz 💵💰📈, or other interesting topics, give me a follow on Instagram! . Sneak preview: 👀👇
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82 NFL games in the top 100 most-watched TV shows of 2022. That football emoji at #35 is the 4-10 Broncos losing to the 4-10 Rams by 37 points on xmas. which got more viewers than any NBA game, any MLB game, any World Cup Game, the Oscars, or any scripted TV show
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Here's how the NBA Eastern Conference standings changed over the course of the season 👇
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3-part hypothesis for why we're seeing so many insane stat lines in the NBA:. 1) More heliocentrism ==> stars' usage rates are higher than ever
Would love to open up [gulp] discourse as to why the NBA is seeing these insane stat lines seemingly every night now. - Pace (99.3) has remained stagnant.- FT attempts are up a bit, but relatively stable.- ORTG Efficiency is up 3 full points since 2020. What's your hypothesis?.
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@rodger I took a stab at answering here. Two theories: . (1) Selective breeding has reached its limit due to reduction of genetic variation.(2) People care about breaking records. Horses don't.
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After decades of 3s being much more efficient than 2s in the NBA, teams have finally adjusted their shot profiles such that the 3s and 2s both generate nearly exactly 1.09 points per shot
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They don't call Dyson Daniels "The Great Barrier Thief" for nothing
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The Western Conference had more All-NBA players than the Eastern Conference for the 26th straight season ‼️
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If the Raiders & Chargers tie tonight, they both make the playoffs. If either team wins, only that team makes the playoffs . There are two Nash equilibria in this situation. One of them is a normal football game. The other would be the most awesome event in the history of sports
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Jokic, Embiid, & Giannis are all worthy of the 2023 NBA MVP, and imo it's reasonable to factor in who has/hasn't won previous awards. But I find it extremely hard to not lean towards Jokic after seeing this chart:
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This chart is a joke. Domination in a sport is not supposed to last this long 🎾🏆. 🇷🇸 Djokovic - 22.🇪🇸 Nadal - 22.🇨🇭 Federer - 20
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Here's a 🧵 of 5 graphs showing how far ahead of his peers Patrick Mahomes is 🐐🏈📊. Mahomes’ career playoff EPA/play of 0.312 is not only higher than any other QB with >100 plays since 1999, but also higher than his own regular season mark, despite facing stronger defenses
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Shohei Ohtani is the MLB's leader in wins above replacement since 2021 by a wide margin. Aaron Judge is second
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There were only five members of the 40-40 club prior to this season. Shohei Ohtani finished the season with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases. Unreal
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3) More parity ==> every team has a competent offense and most have a player (or two) capable of exploding on any given night
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Iga Swiatek is leading all tennis players in 2024 prize money by a large margin 🎾🏆💰. Full list: No woman has been the highest-paid tennis player in a single season since 2003, when Kim Clijsters ($4.47M) out-earned Roger Federer ($4M)
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The Miami Heat hit 58% of their wide open 3s in the Eastern Conference Finals versus the Celtics. That's easily the highest percentage any team has shot on wide open threes in any series in the past 10 years!
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And here's how the NBA Western Conference standings changed over the course of the season 👇
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Incredible fact: The West has had more All-NBA players in every single one of the past 25 seasons
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If there's one stat to validate Nikola Jokic's MVP, it's this:. The @nuggets were significantly worse with Jokic off the court than any team without its MVP candidate, but still slightly better with Jokic on the court than the 76ers with Embiid and the Bucks with Giannis
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There are 553 sports teams in U.S.-based leagues averaging more fans per home game than the Oakland Athletics right now . On that list are three Indoor Football League franchises, two college wrestling teams, a professional women’s volleyball team, and a whole lot more 👇
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2) More smallball lineups and fewer rim protectors ==> easier finishing at the rim (and stars can get to the rim better than anyone else to take advantage)
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No school in the west half of the United States has won men's March Madness since 1997
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Fascinating trend this NBA regular season. All 16 teams that shot league-average or better on 3s won at least 46 games. Nearly every team that shot below league-average on 3s finished below .500
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Patrick Mahomes has the highest playoff EPA/play of any quarterback since 1999. His 0.317 postseason EPA/play is even better than his 0.278 regular season EPA/play, despite facing stronger defenses
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UConn women's basketball and Nebraska women's volleyball are the two women's college teams to eclipse $2 million in ticket sales for the most recent season in our @Sportico database
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Shohei Ohtani appreciation #dataviz 🧵. He has more than 2x as many Instagram followers as any other baseball player (1/4)
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In the NBA playoffs, if you don't have a former MVP or the current MVP on your team. don't get your hopes up
"Can't win with xyz". You can't win if you. 1) Don't have an MVP/Top 3 player on your team.2) Don't pay the tax. That's it. Those are the prerequisites.
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This is the fourth straight NBA season that 2s and 3s have been almost exactly equally efficient. For decades, 3s were far more efficient than 2s
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The 2025 Memphis Grizzlies are the second fastest paced NBA team this century. Also. the 7 Seconds or Less Suns would be the slowest team in the league today
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Steph Curry will have the highest salary in the NBA for the 8th consecutive season in 2024-25
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And thus ends the Atlanta Hawks' spooky Season of Symmetry:. 41-41 record.26-26 vs. the East.15-15 vs. the West.8-8 vs. their division.24-17 at home, 17-24 on the road.116.3 offensive rating, 116.3 defensive rating. 🤯🤯🤯.
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Number of NBA teams taking 35% of their field goal attempts from 3-point range. 2013-14: 0 of 30 teams.2023-24: 30 of 30 teams
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I'm not weighing in on the Aaron Judge vs. Shohei Ohtani MVP debate, I'm just reminding everyone that Ohtani is also doing things nobody has done in baseball for 100 years!
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Patrick Mahomes' EPA/play of 0.458 on 3rd or 4th down is so much better than any other QB in any situation that I had to triple check the numbers to make sure they were real. This chart is a joke
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James Harden got the trade he wanted, but playing for the Brooklyn Nets will cost him a small fortune in taxes. @McCannSportsLaw and @SportsTaxMan explain for @Sportico:.
James Harden might win a title with the Brooklyn Nets--and the value of that would be "priceless"--but his trade to New York will cost him as much as $13.6 million in new income taxes. @SportsTaxMan and I break down the numbers in a new @Sportico story:
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Every player who's finished top 5 in NBA MVP voting this century, in one chart 👇
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5 ways that NBA playoff basketball is different from the regular season. a data viz thread 🏀📊🧵. (1) Pace slows down
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Game 5 of Liberty vs. Lynx was the most-watched WNBA Finals game this century. and also less watched than a bunch of Caitlin Clark regular season games
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Noah Lyles claimed the title of "World's Fastest Man" by winning the 100m gold 🥇 . But here's the thing: Lyles didn’t run the fastest 100 meters at the Olympics. that was Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo from the 30m mark to the 130m mark of the 200m race 👟
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NBA players have lost 40% more games due to injury than at this point last season, per @InStreetClothes
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I present this data without comment
Net free-throw attempts since the start of last season (including the playoffs). 1. Lakers (+1,017).2. Knicks (+358).3. Bucks (+344)
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I think officiating hasn't been mentioned enough as a factor in the NBA's offensive explosion this season. 16.6% of all 2-point shot attempts drew fouls this year, a massive increase from 15.2% last season, which was already the highest mark of the 21st century
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"The NFL is the monoculture—so much so that TV is now merely a delivery system for the league. Manufacturers may as well start slapping the Shield on the back of every TV set that’s bound for the U.S. market" - @crupicrupicrupi .
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Wow. Giannis 🇬🇷 averaged more points per game in the 2024 Olympics than any player this century 👀. Also LOL to Patty Mills 🇦🇺 being on this list 3 times
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Every single NBA player on Sportico's Top 100 Highest Paid Athletes in 2021 list has at least 500,000 Instagram followers and made at least $1M from endorsements last year. except Khris Middleton. He's the NBA's invisible star.
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Ohtani is the only baseball player of the last 100 years to have elite WAR from both batting and pitching (4/4)
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Substitution patterns have a huge impact here, but the @nuggets were 23.7 points better per 100 possessions with Nikola Jokic on the court versus on the bench this season, per @cleantheglass. That's the largest swing of any NBA MVP in the play-by-play era
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The insane individual stat lines is its own trend worth pondering, but I wrote a few weeks ago for @Sportico about why overall NBA offensive efficiency is up this year over last year, and why it will almost certainly continue to go up:.
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In case you're not a fan of these "advanced" stats, how about this one:. Patrick Mahomes has thrown 41 career playoff touchdowns. No other player had thrown more than 23 by this age
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Mahomes’ career EPA/play when his team faces a win probability of 5-25% is 0.323 — he plays significantly better when his back is to the wall. Most QBs' EPA/play is much higher when their teams are winning
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Of the 100 highest-paid athletes in 2023. • 90 make more from salary/winnings.• 9 make more from endorsements.• Messi straddles the line.• Ohtani is the first baseball player to cross the line
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If the @celtics win Game 4, they'll finish with an 80-20 record. Only 11 teams in NBA history have won 80% of their games in the regular season & playoffs combined
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The Dallas Mavericks are currently +188 to win the NBA Finals on @FDSportsbook . That would be the 3rd biggest upset in NBA Finals history. h/t @BillSimmons @SOHistory
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The amount of contact that offensive players are allowed to initiate now relative to prior eras is astounding. Here’s Jayson Tatum uppercutting his stationary defender and getting *rewarded* with a free throw (also that moving screen by Smart 🤦♂️). (2/6)
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Klay Thompson has made 3 of his last 31 shots in the play-in / playoffs for the Warriors.
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NBA-wide offensive rating is 115.6 this season, on pace to break the all-time record yet again. 🔗: The way officials call the game has never been more advantageous towards offensive players. A 🧵. (1/6)
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@WorldWideWob he's already body checked Garland to the ground by the time he even makes contact with the ball. crazy no call.
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Americans turn on the TV for two things: football 🏈 and politics 🇺🇸
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Teams that shoot a higher 3PT% are 27-9 so far in the NBA Playoffs. Teams that simply attempt more 3s are 27-8 so far in the NBA Playoffs.
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UConn is the only FBS public school in @Sportico's database that spends more money on basketball than football 💵🏀 > 💵🏈. ✍️ @epjackson: It's also the only school to win both DI basketball titles in the same year—which it did in 2004 and 2014 🏆🏆
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Mahomes’ career EPA/play in the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter and OT is 0.391, meaning he plays his absolute best when under the most pressure. Among QBs with >250 qualifying plays since 1999, Derek Carr's 0.240 is the second best and Josh Allen’s 0.239 is the third best
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This might be one of my favorite NBA datasets I've ever compiled. What's the most surprising name on / not on this list?
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Ohtani’s estimated off-field earnings are nearly 6x what anyone else in baseball makes ⚾️💰 . Michael Jordan was 3x to 4x ahead of every other basketball player in the 90s. Tiger and Federer earned ~2x what anyone else in their sports made (2/4)
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NBA team offenses in 2022-23 are better than ever (and also more bunched together). • 2023 Celtics' recent slump has dropped them below several 2020-21 teams.• 2020-21 Nets are still the best offense of all time.• Shoutout to The Process @sixers . What jumps out to you?
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Ohtani has the highest WAR of any MLB player over the last two seasons . He leads MLB again in 2023, and is on pace for the highest season of his career so far (3/4)
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@ryenarussillo Nearly 6000 calories of pure junk food. No way. (the chip section looks the most daunting in the picture, but it's the candies that really add up)
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Here are three charts putting the 18.9M viewers for the women's March Madness final into context 🧵🏀📺👀📊. (1) It was the most-watched basketball game, period, in 5 years
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Shohei Ohtani leads all MLB players with $9M annual endorsement earnings. He's the most popular athlete in the U.S. among those familiar with him. But only 13% are familiar with him
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Man, injuries really suck
Derrick Rose had 32 dunks in the 2010-11 season and then 31 the rest of his career.
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*taps the sign*
Jimmy sitting was predictable. Take the split and let him get ready for 3 and 4 in Miami.
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Corey Seager got a $325M/10yr deal from the @Rangers, but the @Dodgers would've had to pay $401M for Seager to earn the same amount after taxes. Taxes are wild. @McCannSportsLaw and @SportsTaxMan have more details:
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.@Sportico's top 100 most valuable sports teams in the world 👇. Where's your favorite team on the list?
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Andy Murray's 2016 tennis season remains remarkably underrated
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For the first time in NBA history, more than 40% of shot attempts during the regular season have been 3s
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Crypto exchange platform FTX was recently valued at $32 billion. On Friday, it filed for bankruptcy 🪙📉. A lot of sports sponsorship deals are about to go poof:
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@emilio_returns I think it's less about what was happening in 2008-2014 and more that 2001-2007 had a lot of Michael Jordan wannabes dominating their teams' offenses.
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With the @MiamiHEAT retiring their Vice uniforms last night after a colorful 4-year run during which they sold more jerseys than during the 4 years of the LeBron/Wade/Bosh era (!!!), I wrote about the NBA's alternate jersey boom. Story:
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The debate last night between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was the most-watched TV broadcast of the last four years other than the four Super Bowls
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The 2024 Boston Celtics are just the 3rd championship team in the past 34 years without an NBA MVP winner on the team. Amazing roster building by Brad Stevens
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