Where Birth Happened: Six Decades of NBA Origins

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Where Birth Happened: Six Decades of NBA Origins Links3
Jason Jason posted 12/6/2007 from ballhype.com [flag]

Fun things to do with Google Maps #3: plot the birthplace and high school location of every NBA player from the 1946-47, 1956-57, 1966-67, 1976-77, 1986-87, 1996-97, and 2006-07 seasons.

As with the last version, use the controls on the left to zoom, and drag 'n drop to pan. This time, multiple players from the same city are grouped into a single marker, with the number indicating how many players are represented. Click markers to see the list of players. And change the season to see how origins have evolved over time. A larger version is available here.

Season:       Location:

The most obvious trend is the league's internationalization, beginning in the 80's and exploding in the last decade. There also seems to be a fair amount of rural-urban migration between birth and high school, apparently as early as 1946-47.

Thanks to Basketball-Reference.com (and last week's commenters) for the birth and high school data.

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Comments (6)

  • tykeenan tykeenan
    +9
    For your next one, I suggest marking all of Wilt's conquests.
    Posted 12/6/2007 [reply] [flag]
    • Crucifictorious Crucifictorious
      +5
      Good idea, but Jason's a busy guy--for Ballhype's sake, he can't be tied up on one project for the next two months.
      Posted 12/6/2007 [reply] [flag]
  • truthaboutit truthaboutit
    +2

     

    Wow...nicely done. The evolution of the NBA as a world game. You sure wouldn't get that progression in the NFL. Baseball though? I'd be very curious. 

    Or....you can do the NBA player data for every single year so we can organize it by decade....just kidding.

    Posted 12/7/2007 [reply] [flag]
    • Jason Jason
      +2
      Agreed, baseball should be interesting as well.  More players will make it a bit more challenging, but I'll try to tackle it at some point.
      Posted 12/7/2007 [reply] [flag]
  • goathair_3 goathair_3
    +2
    Brian Cardinal is from Tolono, IL (and that's his high school too).
    Posted 12/7/2007 [reply] [flag]

Links (3)

Thursday Bullets
Published 12/6/2007 at ESPN.com - True Hoop - Blog
... Remember that cool map that showed where NBA players are born? A second version has the same thing over six decades, while adding in maps of where everyone went to high school. Pretty cool. ...

Linked In - Wondering About OJ Mayo, Eva Mendes' Booty, Gypsies, Worst NBA Player Eva & The Pineapple Express
Published 12/6/2007 by truthaboutit at truthaboutit.net
... >> More diligent work by Jason Gurney of BallHype. He's entered NBA player birthplace data for a single year for the past 7 decades. The progression of the NBA as a world sport has been amazing. Rumor has it that Jason's next project is to plot the birthplace of every player who has every played in the NBA. Be sure and check out the DC/Bal-more representing in '96-'97. ...

Thursday Footnotes
Published 12/6/2007 by TZ <info@sactownroyalty.com> at Sactown Royalty: Front Page Posts
More incredibly fun mapping from BallHype's Jason Gurney. The 1970s were Sacramento's high school basketball peak. An unsurprising victor in a largescale 'Worst Sports Announcer' bracket. Kevin Martin hasn't had his MRI yet. Assumedly, that MRI could give us a more exact return expectation. But with groins, it also tends to be an inexact science. Shoals looks at double standards when it comes to familial tragedy for good guy/bad guy athletes. As such, the limited press on Ron Artest's situation with his daughter Diamond is ...

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