Sumitro Datta
@sumitrodatta.bsky.social
ESPN/Sportsnet commentator Ray Ferraro has been a longer-term voter (2018-2024) who skews less contrarian, with a bottom 3 finish in 2019.
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
ESPN/Sportsnet commentator Ray Ferraro has been a longer-term voter (2018-2024) who skews less contrarian, with a bottom 3 finish in 2019.
When @domluszczyszyn.bsky.social first started voting in 2020, he was the most contrarian voter, but has been consistently less contrarian in subsequent seasons. He was at his least contrarian in 2025.
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
When @domluszczyszyn.bsky.social first started voting in 2020, he was the most contrarian voter, but has been consistently less contrarian in subsequent seasons. He was at his least contrarian in 2025.
Former NBA head coach and current Prime Video analyst Stan Van Gundy has been on a heater since his first vote in 2023, culminating in a "most contrarian" title in 2025.
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Former NBA head coach and current Prime Video analyst Stan Van Gundy has been on a heater since his first vote in 2023, culminating in a "most contrarian" title in 2025.
Some well-known voters:
@kpelton.bsky.social started voting in 2018. Save for the 3-year period between 2020 & 2022, he's usually in the middle of the pack.
@kpelton.bsky.social started voting in 2018. Save for the 3-year period between 2020 & 2022, he's usually in the middle of the pack.
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Some well-known voters:
@kpelton.bsky.social started voting in 2018. Save for the 3-year period between 2020 & 2022, he's usually in the middle of the pack.
@kpelton.bsky.social started voting in 2018. Save for the 3-year period between 2020 & 2022, he's usually in the middle of the pack.
On the NBA side, it's the NBA Fan Vote selecting Derrick Rose for MVP in 2021 (MVP has five slots and a 10-7-5-3-1 point structure rather than the regular three picks and 5-3-1 structure for other NBA individual awards, which leads to more variation).
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
On the NBA side, it's the NBA Fan Vote selecting Derrick Rose for MVP in 2021 (MVP has five slots and a 10-7-5-3-1 point structure rather than the regular three picks and 5-3-1 structure for other NBA individual awards, which leads to more variation).
The most off-the-wall single pick?
On the NHL side, it was a 9-way tie (reporters being the only one who thought their pick was worthy of a vote, and that too a first place vote!)
On the NHL side, it was a 9-way tie (reporters being the only one who thought their pick was worthy of a vote, and that too a first place vote!)
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
The most off-the-wall single pick?
On the NHL side, it was a 9-way tie (reporters being the only one who thought their pick was worthy of a vote, and that too a first place vote!)
On the NHL side, it was a 9-way tie (reporters being the only one who thought their pick was worthy of a vote, and that too a first place vote!)
Now on to some insights! To answer the question of most contrarian overall:
- On the NBA side, it's Boston Globe reporter Gary Washburn.
- On the NHL side, it's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Seth Rorabaugh.
- On the NBA side, it's Boston Globe reporter Gary Washburn.
- On the NHL side, it's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Seth Rorabaugh.
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Now on to some insights! To answer the question of most contrarian overall:
- On the NBA side, it's Boston Globe reporter Gary Washburn.
- On the NHL side, it's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Seth Rorabaugh.
- On the NBA side, it's Boston Globe reporter Gary Washburn.
- On the NHL side, it's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Seth Rorabaugh.
Shoutout to @owenphillips.bsky.social, who's refined this methodology over the years. As I was working on this over the summer, he also made the suggestion to use DuckDB as the backend (speeding up the queries)!
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Shoutout to @owenphillips.bsky.social, who's refined this methodology over the years. As I was working on this over the summer, he also made the suggestion to use DuckDB as the backend (speeding up the queries)!
How to quantify "contrarianism"?
Take the amount of points a voter gave a player, compare it to what the rest of the voting contingent gave that player & take the absolute difference. Sum these differences across all players who received a vote for this award, and take the square root of this sum.
Take the amount of points a voter gave a player, compare it to what the rest of the voting contingent gave that player & take the absolute difference. Sum these differences across all players who received a vote for this award, and take the square root of this sum.
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
How to quantify "contrarianism"?
Take the amount of points a voter gave a player, compare it to what the rest of the voting contingent gave that player & take the absolute difference. Sum these differences across all players who received a vote for this award, and take the square root of this sum.
Take the amount of points a voter gave a player, compare it to what the rest of the voting contingent gave that player & take the absolute difference. Sum these differences across all players who received a vote for this award, and take the square root of this sum.
Here's the NBA site: sumitrodatta.shinyapps.io/nba-awards-voter…,
and here's the NHL site: sumitrodatta.shinyapps.io/nhl-awards-voter…. (Bonus for the NHL: the PHWA has said since 2020 that a "searchable database with each member’s voting history will soon be available". I couldn't find one.)
and here's the NHL site: sumitrodatta.shinyapps.io/nhl-awards-voter…. (Bonus for the NHL: the PHWA has said since 2020 that a "searchable database with each member’s voting history will soon be available". I couldn't find one.)
September 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Here's the NBA site: sumitrodatta.shinyapps.io/nba-awards-voter…,
and here's the NHL site: sumitrodatta.shinyapps.io/nhl-awards-voter…. (Bonus for the NHL: the PHWA has said since 2020 that a "searchable database with each member’s voting history will soon be available". I couldn't find one.)
and here's the NHL site: sumitrodatta.shinyapps.io/nhl-awards-voter…. (Bonus for the NHL: the PHWA has said since 2020 that a "searchable database with each member’s voting history will soon be available". I couldn't find one.)
The Github link is here: github.com/sumitrodatta/blu…
And here's a link to Google Sheets: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1…
And here's a link to Google Sheets: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1…
July 14, 2025 at 5:34 PM
The Github link is here: github.com/sumitrodatta/blu…
And here's a link to Google Sheets: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1…
And here's a link to Google Sheets: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1…
Finally, here's the leaderboard from 2024-2025 (min 20 GP). Jerami Grant had the highest likelihood of shooting a tour date in 2024-2025, while James Harden is your most prolific “musician” by volume.
July 14, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Finally, here's the leaderboard from 2024-2025 (min 20 GP). Jerami Grant had the highest likelihood of shooting a tour date in 2024-2025, while James Harden is your most prolific “musician” by volume.
These are the top 10 players in career games played without a "tour date" game (some familiar names in 2x IST champion Darvin Ham & Mavs centre Daniel Gafford). Granted, this could be because these players do not have many games over the 10 FGA minimum requirement.
July 14, 2025 at 5:34 PM
These are the top 10 players in career games played without a "tour date" game (some familiar names in 2x IST champion Darvin Ham & Mavs centre Daniel Gafford). Granted, this could be because these players do not have many games over the 10 FGA minimum requirement.
Having defined a tour date, let's look at the all-time leaderboards (minimum 25 GP). We’ve got brand-new Phoenix Sun Jalen Green topping the all-time leaderboard for now. Russell Westbrook & James Harden are the only active players in the top 10 of career tour date games.
July 14, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Having defined a tour date, let's look at the all-time leaderboards (minimum 25 GP). We’ve got brand-new Phoenix Sun Jalen Green topping the all-time leaderboard for now. Russell Westbrook & James Harden are the only active players in the top 10 of career tour date games.
First, we have to define a "tour date" game:
- FGM is the month, and FGA is the day
- Bad shooting (<40% from the field)
- Has some volume (>=10 FGA)
- The date makes sense (so Kobe's last game of 22/60 doesn't count)
- FGM is the month, and FGA is the day
- Bad shooting (<40% from the field)
- Has some volume (>=10 FGA)
- The date makes sense (so Kobe's last game of 22/60 doesn't count)
July 14, 2025 at 5:34 PM
First, we have to define a "tour date" game:
- FGM is the month, and FGA is the day
- Bad shooting (<40% from the field)
- Has some volume (>=10 FGA)
- The date makes sense (so Kobe's last game of 22/60 doesn't count)
- FGM is the month, and FGA is the day
- Bad shooting (<40% from the field)
- Has some volume (>=10 FGA)
- The date makes sense (so Kobe's last game of 22/60 doesn't count)
On Kaggle, Eoin Moore has compiled a dataset of historical box scores which is tailor-made for this analysis.
NBA Dataset - Box Scores & Stats, 1947 - Today
Updated daily. Player & team statistics since 1947. Current / all past games.
www.kaggle.com
July 14, 2025 at 5:34 PM
On Kaggle, Eoin Moore has compiled a dataset of historical box scores which is tailor-made for this analysis.
That is correct, buzzer beater by Jabari Smith!
July 9, 2025 at 11:53 PM
That is correct, buzzer beater by Jabari Smith!
The GitHub link is here: github.com/sumitrodatta/dec…, and the Google Sheets link is here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1…
July 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
The GitHub link is here: github.com/sumitrodatta/dec…, and the Google Sheets link is here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1…
Finally, this 2017 game between Boston & the Lakers is currently 7th on the games played list (next game in 2017 or later comes in at 40). We've got Tatum, Brown, Lonzo, Zubac, Caruso & Josh Hart.
nba.com/game/1521700012
nba.com/game/1521700012
July 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Finally, this 2017 game between Boston & the Lakers is currently 7th on the games played list (next game in 2017 or later comes in at 40). We've got Tatum, Brown, Lonzo, Zubac, Caruso & Josh Hart.
nba.com/game/1521700012
nba.com/game/1521700012
By regular season games played by its participants (favouring older SL games), the winner is this 2009 game between the Thunder and Grizzlies. Majority of the contribution comes from Harden, Westbrook, Ibaka and Shaun Livingston.
nba.com/game/1520900011
nba.com/game/1520900011
July 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
By regular season games played by its participants (favouring older SL games), the winner is this 2009 game between the Thunder and Grizzlies. Majority of the contribution comes from Harden, Westbrook, Ibaka and Shaun Livingston.
nba.com/game/1520900011
nba.com/game/1520900011
By # of players, this 2023 game between the Rockets & Blazers had 15 players. Names include: Shaedon Sharpe, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith, Amen Thompson and Scoot Henderson. That 2023 Portland team also holds the record for most NBA players on one summer league team, with 10.
nba.com/game/1522300004
nba.com/game/1522300004
July 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
By # of players, this 2023 game between the Rockets & Blazers had 15 players. Names include: Shaedon Sharpe, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith, Amen Thompson and Scoot Henderson. That 2023 Portland team also holds the record for most NBA players on one summer league team, with 10.
nba.com/game/1522300004
nba.com/game/1522300004
And last rule, setting the bar for an "NBA-level" player at 20 career games played after the SL game, to weed out the one-game/silly-season heroes.
July 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
And last rule, setting the bar for an "NBA-level" player at 20 career games played after the SL game, to weed out the one-game/silly-season heroes.
Using the nba_api Python package, I gathered summer league box scores and player reg season stats.
3 rules:
Not counting any player who didn't actually play in the game.
Calculating remaining career totals to lessen the effect of veterans who join SL for "one last shot".
3 rules:
Not counting any player who didn't actually play in the game.
Calculating remaining career totals to lessen the effect of veterans who join SL for "one last shot".
July 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Using the nba_api Python package, I gathered summer league box scores and player reg season stats.
3 rules:
Not counting any player who didn't actually play in the game.
Calculating remaining career totals to lessen the effect of veterans who join SL for "one last shot".
3 rules:
Not counting any player who didn't actually play in the game.
Calculating remaining career totals to lessen the effect of veterans who join SL for "one last shot".