The Ewing Theory
There’s a theory in sports that was developed in the mid 90s called “The Ewing Theory.” See this article – http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/010509a – for some basic information on the Ewing Theory. The theory comes from NBA Hall-of-Famer Patrick Ewing, and it basically says that a team can actually perform better if they lose their star player. In the ’99 NBA Playoffs, Patrick Ewing got hurt and everyone immediately thought his team, the New York Knicks, had no chance anymore. The Knicks went on to win 3 of their next 4 games and advance to the NBA finals without their star center. The idea behind this theory is that, even if a team has a star who is by far the best player, they are not usually successful if their star is used significantly more than the rest of the team. This idea is explained in depth in this article – http://gravityandlevity.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/braesss-paradox-and-the-ewing-theory/.
To me, “The Ewing Theory” has a striking resemblance to Braess’s Paradox, which we have discussed in class. Braess’s Paradox says that adding resources to a transportation network can sometimes hurt performance at equilibrium. In comparison, consider the star player in the Ewing Theory the added resource. There can be times when adding a very effective route of transportation can actually slow down transportation times – this is Braess’s Paradox. This article – http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/07/06/huh-4-cases-of-how-tearing-down-a-highway-can-relieve-traffic-jams-and-help-save-a-city/ – gives 4 different examples of cities that improved their transportation networks by removing highways. The same has often happened with sports teams with the Ewing Theory. The University of Tennessee won a national championship the year after their star quarterback Peyton Manning left.
The irony…