March Dadness: Fatherhood in the NBA
The month of March and basketball are synonymous with one another because of the NCAA tournament, but usually during this month those who have moved on from the NCAA and the college lifestyle into professional basketball careers and began families of their own are overlooked. The NBA is put on the backburner for the entirety of the tournament in terms of media coverage, but many the players who may have began their legacies in college are now fathers and have to balance the challenges of being a parent as well as a pro ball player. Here is a look at how those who have taken the step into fatherhood during their journeys in the NBA have fared so far through this March. The goal here is to use the sample size of the current month to see if there is any correlation between success in the NBA and being a father.
Statistics
Through March 23, 2018, three of the months top ten scorers have children. Lebron James who is second on the list with 31.0 ppg in 12 games played, Russell Westbrook who sits in fifth with 28.3 ppg over 11 games and LaMarcus Aldridge is eighth with 26.8 ppg over nine games. Only five of the top 30 and 11 of the top 50 scorers this month are fathers. Of those 11, the youngest is 27 (Jrue Holiday) and the oldest is 33 year-old LeBron James.
Again, this is purely based on statistics as each individual situation for these 11 players is different and it is impossible to truly weigh the impact of fatherhood on a basketball court. All of this could be a coincidence, but, there already appears to be some correlation with the information found so far.
Since just 22 percent of the top 50 scorers are fathers, that extrapolates out to 99 of the approximately 450 players in the NBA at the moment. And by that measurement, 88 of those players are averaging 16.8 points or less this month, which leads me to a few conclusions.
Analysis
Though they are rough estimates and there could be a few numbers either way, it is clear that the majority of upper echelon players do not have kids. There are some obvious superstars in the top 50, it could be argued that their level of play has dipped after having children.
The best example of this is Westbrook who had a historic 2016–17 campaign that resulted in 42 triple-doubles en route to being named MVP. His son Noah was born in May 2017, and his play so far this season has slipped. The additions of fellow fathers Paul George and Carmelo Anthony joining the Oklahoma City Thunder obviously have a hand in this as they decrease Westbrook’s scoring responsibilities following the loss of Kevin Durant, but a deeper look at advanced stats shows Westbrook has not been as good on the court. The former UCLA Bruin is getting to the line 7.4 times per game this season compared to 11 times last season. He is also averaging 6.2 less points (25.4) on three less shots per game than last year (21). His defense has relatively stayed the same, but his rebounding percentage is down 1.9 percent (14.8).
Conclusion
It is impossible to measure the pressures of having children having any impact on players on the court, but statistical evidence seems to back it up. Scoring is not the only statistic out there, but it is a pretty damn good one to look at when measuring the effectiveness of a player in my opinion. Judging on these numbers, especially with Westbrook, it seems like having kids does impact players on the court.
