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"All That Statistical Stuff About Nick Fazekas"

By Trevor, Section Journals
Posted on Wed Jun 27 2007 at 2:14 PM EST
More on: (all tags)

by Trevor Freeman

"As the thirty-fifth pick approaches, Erik once again leans into the speaker phone.  If he leaned in just a bit more closely he might hear phones around the league clicking off, so that people could laugh without being heard.  For they do laugh.  They will make fun of what the A's are about to do; and there will be a lesson in that.  The inability to envision a certain kind of person doing a certain kind of thing because you've never seen someone who looks like him do it before is not just a vice.  It's a luxury.  What begins as failure of the imagination ends as a market inefficiency:  when you rule out an entire class of people from doing a job simply by their appearance, you are less likely to find the best person for the job."-Moneyball

I just got forwarded a tidbit from the Bill Simmons/Chad Ford Interactive Mock Draft.  Apparently NBA Draft nonexpert Chad Ford made the following comment:

"With that said ... knowing Billy Knight, he's reading all the statistical stuff out there on the Internet and will take Nick Fazekas at No. 3."

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=nbamockdraft/070627

Let the record show that my "Moneyball" argument about Nick Fazekas came out in January which is well ahead of anybody else's.  Also let the record show that I stand by every word I wrote that day.  If Billy Beane was an NBA GM, he would definitely draft Nick Fazekas.  Every meaningful statistic supports the fact that this player will be a solid pro.  He averaged a double-double in college and shot over 40% from the three point range.  All these writers who knock Fazekas' chances of being an NBA player know not what they are talking about.  

If the NBA Draft had any kind of statistical logic to it then Nick Fazekas would no doubt go in the Top 20.......which is where he belongs.  

If you have any questions or comments feel free to e-mail me at trevor@sportscolumn.com.