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Saturday, April 11, 2009
Sometimes Being "Best" Means Being "Oldest"

Was poking around some piles of random basketball stats this morning while waiting to go out on an ill-fated bike ride in the rain, and discovered the following interesting tidbit:

I haven't really looked too deeply into how this compares to other teams of the past, but I noticed that the 95-96 Bulls, NBA champs, winner of alltime record 72 games and arguably the greatest team in NBA history, did have not a single rotation player younger than 27 years old. The only young folks were extras Dickey Simpkins and Jason Caffey, who each played under 12 min/game. See the chart below for the full team info.

1995-96 CHICAGO BULLS, 72-10 and NBA Champs

I'm interested in learning whether or not this is a rare example or not. It's common for great teams to have young players who simply ride the bench, but the Bulls simply had no young players at all. And in fact, my cursory glance at some recent great teams (00s Spurs and Lakers, 80s Lakers, Pistons, and Celtics) reveals that each of these teams not only had young rotation players but stars--each one of these teams featuring players under 27 who made significant contributions to the team.

Yes, this is mostly tiddlywinks, but I find it curiously so.

Labels: basketball, quickthoughts, statistics

posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 4/11/2009 09:27:00 AM 0 comments

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