That basketball is a sport in continuous change is evident. You just have to see the revolution that it entailed the arrival of Stephen Curry to the NBA to prove the importance of the triple and ‘spacing’ in the current game. An evolution that does not slow down and is experiencing its next stage with the arrival of players like Victor Wembanyama or Chet Holmgren, who have completely broken the archetype of the interior player that dominated basketball just 20 years ago.
At that time the reference was a Shaquille O’Neal who dominated from strength, height and also kilos. In fact, the Newark giant has been the protagonist this week by confessing his weight during the 2002 Finals, when the Lakers won their third consecutive ring. He did it on the SiriusXM podcast with Tom Brady and with a surprising statement.
The center, who dominated the NBA thanks to his size, arrived in the league with an official weight of 129 kilos. Very far from the weight that the scale showed when he won his third championship title. Specifically, almost 60 kilos less than 10 years after his debut in the league. “In our first championship I weighed 146 kilos. Then I had a great summer and in the second ring I reached 174. And in the third I was 188 kilos.”
A statement that seems like an exaggeration – especially since the official weight given to Shaq during those seasons was 148 kilos – but it makes clear the paradigm of the inside game in the NBA two decades ago. Large centers, even overweight, who dominated the league thanks to their physical superiority. An archetype that has changed completely over the years.
You just have to look at two of the interior players who are destined to dominate the NBA in the next decade. Victor Wembanyama, eight centimeters taller than O’Neal, and who has given an official weight of 104 kilos. That is, 25 less than Shaq. in his debut and 84 less than in his third ring with the Lakers… according to the Newark giant.
Another example of this new product coming out of the current inside player mold is Chet Holmgram. Oklahoma center shares height with whom he was NBA MVP in 2000 and one of the most dominant players in history. However, The scale places him very far from Shaq since the Minneapolis player’s official weight is just 94 kilos.
A featherweight compared to what Shaq scored or for example Nikola Jokic, current dominant player in the league at 129 kilos and which Holmgren has already faced. “I think he needs experience, I think he needs to be a little fatter honestly,” said the Nuggets player after the confrontation with Holmgren who was quick to respond: “It’s hard to gain weight when you’re not fat. I have to start somewhere part, I guess.”
KILOS/METERS RATIO
A tendency towards stability
Mean and median of the evolution of the relationship between weight and height of NBA centers from 1980 to the present.
This trend is not only seen when comparing the figures of Shaquille O’Neal and Wembanyama. It is also observed in the data and in the evolution of the weight/height ratio of NBA interior players since 1980.
At the beginning of the 1980s, both the mean and median ‘Kilograms/meters’ were relatively low, indicating that pivots had a lower weight/height ratio at that time. As we move forward in time, Between 1980 and 1995, we see a gradual increase in the weight/height ratio. This rise could be due to a greater importance given to the inside game and physical strength in the NBA.
In the following 20 years, between 1995 and 2015, the value remains between 54 and 55 kg/meters, showing a certain stability in the weight/height ratio. The median and mean tend to be close to 54.5, which indicates that in that range the pivots on average maintained a constant relationship between their weight and height. From 2015 onwards, the trend begins to change and both the average and the median drop slightly to 53 kg/meter, reaching just over 52kg/meter in the current season.
That is, less weight per centimeter that carves the change in the mold of the inner player. Within this, the physical trend within the area has a lot to do with the change in the game that has been seen in recent years. The radius of offensive action moves further and further away from the rim and the kilo of agile and mobile center is increasingly valued capable of threatening from any point on the court and not only from the zone.
Now the centers play, for the most part, facing the rim, threatening with the outside shot or with penetrations in which they can go beyond their torque due to speed. A change in trend, with exceptions like Jokic who dominates both fortunes, and who It began to be seen for the first time in players like Pau Gasol or Kevin Garnettwhich moved the centimeters away from the vicinity of the ring, and which has reached its maximum expression in tall clones that mark the current rule as Wembanyama, Holmgrem and Aday Marawhich is the next step in this evolution.
Passionate about basketball since he was a child, Guillermo García has managed to make the sport of basketball his profession. Graduated in Humanities from the Carlos III University and with a Master in Journalism, he began working at Marca in 2003, where he had time to do everything from football to reports and opinion, including the closing section. In 2011 he began as an editor on the official NBA website in Spanish and since then he has covered basketball information with special attention to what is happening in the United States. In addition, he has covered two Eurobasket, two World Cups and two Olympic Games, along with a multitude ACB playoffs, NBA and Euroleague Final Four games. He has also been able to interview figures from other sports such as Usain Bolt, Simone Biles or Armand Duplantis. …
David Acosta is a Big Data engineer in Relevo’s data department. He studied Industrial Electronic and Automatic Engineering at the UPC of Terrassa and the Master of Sports Big Data at UCAM. He has previously worked for You First Sport, one of the most important representation agencies in the country, performing analysis and scouting tasks. Specialized in data extraction, automation and analysis, wherever he is, he always tries to find the hidden value of players through statistics. …
2023-11-01 12:27:03
#arent #centers #overweight #anymore #Relief
