Stat Stories Podcast
A stats-driven look at the top sports stories and performances with Chad Shanks and Justin Kubatko from StatMuse.
Stat Stories: To The Extreme
Chad and Justin explain how Major League Baseball has finally joined the other major sports leagues in embracing extreme outcomes.
Stat Stories: Lucky Stars
Chad and Justin detail a new way to quantify successful picks, players, teams and executives in the volatile crapshoot that is the NBA Draft.
Stat Stories: Hand Checks and Balances
With the NBA completing a record-shattering season, Chad Shanks and Justin Kubatko evaluate reasons that could have led to the league-wide offensive explosion and track the trends back to the banishment of hand-checking.
Stat Stories: Greek Army Knife
With Giannis Antetokounmpo posting record-setting totals across the five major stat categories, Chad Shanks and Justin Kubatko examine his place among the NBA’s best “Swiss Army Knife” players.
Stat Stories: With a Little Help from my Friends
Devin Booker’s 70-point explosion is the latest in a long tradition of monster scoring performances that were made possible by teammates’ tampering, as Chad and Justin discuss in the latest episode of Stat Stories.
Stat Stories: E Is For Efficiency
If a player scores a lot of points, does it ultimately matter how he gets them? Chad and Justin define scoring efficiency in the NBA and explain how it affects a player’s overall success and reputation.
Stat Stories: The Defense Rests
In the latest Stat Stories episode, Chad Shanks and Justin Kubatko put an old cliché on trial to determine whether or not data supports the idea that defense wins championships in the NBA.
Stat Stories: The Triple-Double Bubble
Russell Westbrook and James Harden are posting triple-doubles like crazy this season, but they’re not alone. The NBA as a whole has seen an explosion of them in recent years, so in order to figure out why this is happening, Chad Shanks and Justin Kubatko look back at the stat’s history and how it has evolved alongside the game itself.
Stat Stories: Unbreakable
As Russell Westbrook threatens to average a triple-double this season, Chad and Justin use the innovative/nonsensical “Kimmy Schmidt scale” to determine which NBA records are truly “unbreakable.”
Stat Stories: The Best of the Worst
Anthony Davis is off to an incredible start, but his team…not so much. Where does he compare to other great performances from players on bad teams?
Stat Stories: This Too Shall Pass
NFL teams are passing more than ever this season, so Chad and Justin break down the reasons behind the passing game’s decades-long rise and determine whether or not the increase is good for the league.
Stat Stories: Engraved and Confused
Chad and Justin break down the convoluted Hall of Fame selection processes of each of the four major American team sports and offer suggestions to fix them.
Stat Stories: The Immaculate Confession
In the first MLB episode, Chad and Justin discuss the life and death of Ken Caminiti and how his confession of steroid use affected his legacy and forever changed baseball.
Stat Stories: Broken Promise
Chad and Justin assemble a starting five of players whose potentially great careers were derailed by injury.
Stat Stories: The King
Chad and Justin discuss the Cleveland Cavaliers’ epic NBA Finals comeback victory over the Warriors and what it means for both teams and their respective superstars going forward.
Stat Stories: Choked
Chad and Justin discuss the Oklahoma City Thunder blowing their 3–1 series lead to the Warriors and try to define what constitutes choking under pressure.
Stat Stories: Return of the Deadeye
Chad and Justin look at the history of the three-point shot and ask how the NBA went from it being considered a gimmick to Stephen Curry and the Warriors using it to redefine the basketball zeitgeist.
Stat Stories: The Empire Strikes Beck
Chad and Justin are joined by Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck to discuss the 2000–2002 Lakers, the NBA’s last great Empire.
Stat Stories: Manute Hope
Chad and Justin dive into the legendary career and inspirational life of Manute Bol.
Stat Stories: Attack of the Flukes
Chad and Justin discuss some of the flukiest 50-point scoring performances in NBA history and try to calculate which one stands out as the most unlikely.
Stat Stories: The Phantom Nugget
In the first episode of the StatMuse podcast “Stat Stories,” Chad and Justin discuss the underrated career of NBA great Alex English.
