Goals scored in a calendar year were never really important, until Messi made everyone count them in 2012. Since then, people all of a sudden became very interested in this kind of statistic, and now whenever a calendar year ends – we get the stats of how many goals in the last calendar year scored the leading scorers in the world. Continue reading
An update: Here’s the link to the updated 2015 rankings
Ok, we’ve looked at the most successful SWC’s for female swimmers. Now, what about the male swimmers? Who had the most successful single SWC ever? Is it Phelps? Is it not Phelps??? Is this tension too artificial? Well, yeah, sort of. So ok, you know already that Phelps holds every possible record there is, but let’s see whose records he broke and what other great hauls were there, in the history of the SWC’s…
The criteria to enter the all-time lists here are the same as they were for the female swimmers – 3 gold medals and 4 total medals at a single SWC. Well, no further explanations are needed, let’s see who are the best of the best! Continue reading
I love the NBA All-Star game. Well, true, I used to love it more in previous years, when teams were actually playing some defense BEFORE the 4th quarter, but I do enjoy the game even now. It’s one of those rare occasions when you can see all the best players in the league sharing the same court.
Anyway, a couple of days ago I filled out my NBA all-star ballot, and I would like to share my picks. I think I started voting for the all-star game back in 2008, and it’s funny to see how some of my picks in 2014 are the same as they were back then. Continue reading
An update: Here’s the link to the updated 2015 rankings
We have already seen who are the most successful swimmers overall – male and female, in the history of the Swimming World Championships. It is time now to embark on the second half of our journey through the SWC’s: a journey that this time will take us to the most successful individual performances in a single championship.
For the making of the rankings you will see here I used those excel files I created, based on that awesome FINA handbook (and updating it with the results from recent SWC’s). Swimming is different from Track & Field because of the real possibilities for swimmers to win multiple medals in a single SWC. In T&F it’s rare to see athletes win 3 medals in a single championship, and it’s really unique to see an athlete grab 4 medals. In swimming, it’s not unusual. One has to be pretty fucking awesome to win 4, 5 or 6 medals, but it is possible, and you don’t even have to be an all-time legendary swimmer to achieve that, as you will see shortly. Continue reading
Hey, Kobe passes! (ba-dum-tss)
So yeah, like you probably already know, Kobe Bryant passed Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list. Does that mean he is greater than Michael?
Well, of course! Up until this game Michael was greater, and in fact he was still greater than Kobe all the way through the first quarter, but then, when Kobe scored those free-throws in the second, their greatness was reversed. All the books that have rankings of great NBA players in them were called back to the stores to hastily correct the order and to put Kobe before Michael, all the websites that have the same rankings underwent some massive editing, and even “Space Jam” inserted Kobe’s CGI head over Michael’s body to account for Kobe bumping Michael from the greatness pedestal. Continue reading
Triple Doubles. A testament to all-aroundness in basketball. One has to be pretty damn versatile to achieve them. It’s not enough to score – almost anyone can score. Rebounds are a bit more difficult, but even guards can manage to collect 10+ of them in a game. Assists are always the most difficult issue – there are always fewer assists than rebounds. For example, the highest all-time assists average over the course of a whole season? 14.54. And this number is not even in the top-100 all-time best rebounding seasons. However, if you have the assists – you can more easily get the rebounds, than the other way around. This is why guards were always more dominant in the triple-doubles department – they usually have the assists. Sure, there are also triple doubles with blocks (rare) and steals (extremely rare), but the points-rebounds-assists combo is the most popular one, by far. Continue reading
So… previously, on the third best sports blog in the world: we surveyed the all-time international caps record, its history, and two potential candidates to break it – Iker Casillas and Landon Donovan. This time we’ll have a look at some younger candidates, all of whom are very famous footballers, and who all accumulated a whole load of international appearances at a very young age. Let the fun begin! Continue reading
International caps. The hallmark of a professional footballer. Being selected to represent your country – I mean, what could be better? Well, being selected to do so many many times, of course!
When I was younger (like 10 years or two weeks ago) I liked to daydream about being a good footballer – I pretty much sucked in real life. Titles at the club level were always featured in those dreams, but even more important for me were the international caps – being selected to the national team… I always thought that if I were a footballer, I would make myself available for the national team for as long as I could walk. Just like Kobi Kuhn said about the great Stephane Chapuisat – As long as I could kick a football, I will be available for international selection. I mean, there is no higher honor than that. This is why I always admired players like David Beckham (do I sense a Hall of Fame induction? Well, yes I am! But not now, though), who always behaved like I imagined I would in his place – Beckham ALWAYS made himself available for England, and never suppressed his desire to play for the three lions, even when he was nearing the end of his career (The fact that he wasn’t selected to be a part of GB’s 2012 Olympic team is an outrage). This is so much different from so many players, some of them from the top of the top, who retire from international play for a variety of reasons. Although I can understand their logic, this is something I really can’t relate to. Continue reading
Michael's Sports Statistics 