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TIME's Sean Gregory: "So if these games are lost in a lockout, the thinking goes, NBA cities lose out on big money. The empirical work of a few sports economists, however, has proven otherwise. For example, a 2000 study by University of Maryland-Balt...

The homepage of the Memphis Commercial Appeal is a study in overstimulation. All kinds of Grizzlies stories (great unexpected news!) commingled with all kinds of flooding stories (terrible unexpected news!). Here's hoping that a week from now basketb...

D. Lippitt/Einstein/NBAE/Getty Images In 2007, David Stern staked out a position that is increasingly at odds with the evidence. When The New York Times published the preliminary results of research about referees and race by economists Joe Price a...

Academics studied international rugby referees and found evidence of national bias. Javier Espinoza of The Wall Street Journal: "In the Super 14 rugby union competition, for example, the study found that the home team would win only in 38% of the cas...

A new study finds that maybe there is such a thing as hot hand, at least at the free throw line, where players who make the first free throw are slightly more likely to hit the second. The suggestion that the Lakers might do well to fight through t...

TrueHoop reader Jonathan e-mails: Honestly, it's getting really obnoxious with you referring to to the people who study analyze basketball statistics as "geeks" or "dorks." Whether intentional or not, you bring a stigma to the people who study it an...

Kevin C. Cox, Getty Images Sport Kevin Garnett leads the league in physical contact. Almost every way I tried to write the headline of this post, I could imagine it becoming a punchline on Deadspin. And you know what? Let them laugh. Players ...

In a study of soccer, a natural human tendency to see bigger people as more aggressive seems to translate into referees' whistles. Basically, researchers found that smaller players can get away with more physical play than taller players. One o...

By Henry Abbott A high school coach once told me that it pays to knock the other team around early, because referees get used to your style of play and have a tendency to let it happen. They also, he told me, like to see both teams with similar...

By Henry Abbott A study finds pro athletes are not more likely to commit crimes than ordinary citizens. Whoa. This is going to be controversial in Detroit: A claim the Ben Gordon is too good to compare to Vinnie Johnson. "The Microwave" practic...

Hedo Turkoglu and Shawn Marion -- a study in contrasts...and similarities. Did Nate Robinson have a breakout year? And how are Lakers fans processing the Ron Artest acquisition? Zarar Siddiqi of Raptors Republic: "Investing for 5 years in...

TrueHoop reader Tom has been very interested in this hot hand talk. A big hang-up for Tom, and a lot of people has been the word that the groundbreaking recent study fixated on how likely a make was to be followed by a miss. As if two shots captured ...

Last week I wrote about a study showing that what seems to be hot shooting, what we all assume to be one of the most important aspects of the game, is apparently seldom real. Then you have to ask ... did anybody see Ben Gordon shooting tonight? It wa...

A study shows that rebounding can be hazardous to your health.Why the Spurs are great. A must-read story of funerals, family, and people being classy.Yesterday I blogged about Chris Smith's Donnie Walsh profile in New York magazine. It included a gre...

Kevin Hassett is the director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and an adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign. Like a lot of economist-types, Hassett has been inspired lately to poke around the available facts a...

A study finds (Insider) (and an earlier version, here) that weak teams that have a strong preseason, historically, do go on to have good seasons the vast majority of the time. That's good news for Indiana, Memphis, Orlando, and Atlanta.Randy Foye is ...