Official Statistician

In basketball, a basketball statistician is an official responsible for recording statistics during games, and providing reports to coaches, league officials, and (depending on the competition) media and spectators.

In organized competition and at professional level, games may have a panel of one or more statisticians in attendance. The statistician’s role is to record the game and provide a report (commonly known as a box score) during breaks between periods, and at the completion of each game. While the game scorer keeps track of points scored and fouls committed, statisticians also record other details of the game, such as assists, turnovers, and field goal percentage.

Game statistics can be recorded using tally sheets, or computer software designed for the purpose. Computerized methods are increasingly being used for professional competition and bigger tournaments.

After each game, the data is then sent to a database where all the data from other games is. In the case of the NBA and NCAA, these databases are huge and can have a huge impact on a player’s career. It is crucially important for an official statistician to do their job well.

Stats that a statistician records:

• points;
• assists;
• turnovers;
• blocks;
• steals;
• offensive and defensive rebounds;
• minutes played;
• fouls;
• technical fouls;
• flagrant fouls;
• free throw attempted;
• free throw made;
• free throw missed;
• field goal attempted;
• field goal made;
• field goal missed;
• bench points;
• fast break points;
• points in the paint;
• second chance points.

Professional sports have been going through a data revolution. More and more teams are turning towards data to help them make decisions when considering which players would be optimal to acquire or keep around. Without stats from every game, this data would not exist. Also, data that is taken incorrectly can lead to a player being portrayed incorrectly and can massively affect negotiations for contracts or trades.

The basketball world looks different now than it did before, and statistics are a huge reason why. A statistician has one of the most important jobs in basketball, and they must do it perfectly.