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Game Theory and the Black Mamba

Kobe Bryant, nicknamed the Black Mamba, is a basketball legend, and an idol to many. With an outstanding 20 seasons, 17 of which he was named an All-Star, he led his team to 5 championships. He is third all time leading scorer of the sport and one of the only two players in the history of the NBA to have scored at least 80 points in a single game. However, while his name will go down in fame, there are statistics that many bring up in order to defame his creditability. Kobe Bryant is also the leagues leader in most missed shots. His overall (true) shooting percentage rests at 0.552, compared to the leagues average of 0.532. A typical true shooting percentage of a league leader is around 0.700. Having a percentage of 0.552 puts him at the 66th percentile, not really where one would expect a “legend” of the game to stand. However, this is due to Mr. Bryant having the persona of what analysts call a “chucker”. Where he ends up still shooting the ball no matter where he is on the court, and no matter how many defenders are guarding him. Another criticism is that Kobe Bryant’s defensive performance, or lack there of, is a design by his own agenda. He can preserve his energy in that aspect of the game. Logically speaking defense is expendable because it is exhausting, and has no real aspect of glory attached with it.

To explain Kobe’s “chucking” tendencies and why his shot choices might not have been so ideal in recent years is explained by how he chose his best strategy. As mentioned in class, anyone in a like situation will adopt a strategy that maximizes his or her best interest/goal. In past experiences, Kobe played with other greats such as Shaq and Pau Gasol, so the load of “carrying” the team throughout the game was lessened and shared among the greats. However, whenever Kobe has thrived his best strategy would always be to conserve his energy playing defense, and execute in what he did best, and that was to have the ball in his hand and shoot. The option to play defense in certain situations or to pass the ball is the lesser option, given that the most trust was to have the ball in his own hands. So like the saying in basketball goes, shooters keep shooting, and that’s exactly what Kobe did.

 

Reference:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2015/12/statistical-analysis-basketball

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