In Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success. In order to answer the book’s overarching question — What makes high achievers different? — Gladwell begins by investigating why a disproportionate number of elite Canadian hockey players are born in the earlier months of the calendar year. He finds that since youth hockey leagues determine eligibility by calendar year, children born on January 1 play in the same league as those born on December 31 in the same year. Because children born earlier in the year are statistically larger and more physically mature than their younger competitors, and they are often identified as better athletes, this leads to extra coaching and a higher likelihood of being selected for elite hockey leagues.
Which led me to wonder — Is a similar phenomenon apparent in basketball? Hardly. Instead, the NBA’s talent was born throughout the year, with each zodiac sign possessing some of the greatest basketball players of all-time. We’re here to determine which astrological sign has produced the premier collection of talent. In order to use a large enough sample size that wasn’t random or personally biased, I leaned on ESPN’s 100 greatest players in NBA history . Once the list was sorted by zodiac sign, we tailed up the following three categories — regular season…
