CHICAGO — A basketball fan rejected 14 years of statistical evidence Tuesday after watching a veteran player miss a layup during the second quarter of a January game.
“That right there tells you everything,” he said as the ball rolled off the rim.
The player’s career production, efficiency, playoff record, durability, and thousands of successful finishes were briefly presented as counterevidence but failed to survive contact with the most recent thing the fan had personally witnessed.
Asked whether one play might be a small sample, the fan explained that numbers can be manipulated whereas eyes cannot, especially when watching a possession on television from 30 feet away.
A replay showed the player absorbing contact before the miss, which only strengthened the fan’s conclusion that truly great players “finish that.”
The player made his next three shots, but the fan said those attempts were less revealing because they went in.
Researchers later classified the missed layup as an unusually powerful form of anecdotal data.
