Where Birth Happens
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Jason posted 11/29/2007 from ballhype.com [flag] |
Fun things to do with Google Maps #2: plot the birthplace of every current NBA player.
As with the blog map, 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. You can also filter by team.
A few things that jumped out at me:
- Strong showing from the Euros.
- Zoom in two ticks on the U.S.--the eastern half of the country is dominant.
- Celtics: 100% born in the U.S.A.
- Not a single Pacers player was born west of Texas.
- The Suns are one Yuta Tabuse away from having a player born on every continent.
Thanks to Basketball-Reference.com and Yahoo for the birth data.
Update: A larger version is now available.
Tags:
NBA
Comments (35)
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Jason OK, OK, I'll try to get to the other sports soon. The indoor theory makes sense, and the similarity to our overall population density is undoubtedly a strong factor as well.
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Zorgon I found Adonal! St.Vincent and the Grenadines = Pwnage
And as far as the Suns, you're not counting Antartica. Until we construct biodomes, that dream will never be possible. Mwahahahaha!!!!
Anyway, jeez, this must've taken a lot of work. Nice job, Jason, these maps are really interesting!
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DSPN Canada's best baller is South African. Those crazy immigrants.
P.S. I think your need a much bigger map, along with 50+ translations for your upcoming MLB feature.
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gurdflavor Very cool Jason; you've even got Kyrylo Fesenko on there! There's as many players from the Caribbean Islands as there are from all of South America. -
ashman I doubt this will teach anything to the Slam commenters, but it's nice to see Argentina in South America. -
thehope41 MartelL Webster is from Edmonds, Wa, that's right near Seattle...not somewhere in the middle of the Eastern part of the state. -
Mutombo How you leave me out of Congo and put Mbenga!!?? I block many more shots and wave finga. Mutombo angry!
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Jason Another good catch--Dikembe's marker was hidden behind DJ's. That's fixed now as well.
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goathair_3 I thought LeBron was from another planet.
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colorado620 MISSING? Keyon Dooling, Orlando Magic, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.-
colorado620 NM, it appears when Magic is selected, just not when viewing all. -
Ben Q. Rock One of my fantasy teams is named "FreeKeyon."
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kpelton Hey Jason, do you have a list of the cities that put the most players in the NBA? Looks like Chicago and Philly, benefiting from the fact that New York's players are divided up.-
Jason As you note, boroughs and suburbs cloud this somewhat, but here are the top ten individual cities:
Chicago, IL 17
Los Angeles, CA 14
Philadelphia, PA 10
Dallas, TX 9
Houston, TX 7
Seattle, WA 7
Portland, OR 6
New York, NY 6
Milwaukee, WI 5
Atlanta, GA 5
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chizat Great article.
One mistake: Carlos Boozer was born in Germany.
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pguilian Chicago is on top even with the NYC boroughs added together.
Chicago 17
NYC 16
LA 16 (the valley is part of LA)
Philly 10
#'s based on a rough perusal.
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trustory247 I believe Gilbert Arenas aka Agent Zero aka The Black President was born in Miami not LA
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Jason Interesting - Yahoo/ESPN/etc., who presumably use the official NBA bio data, have Boozer in Alaska and Gilbert in L.A.
Wikipedia (and other sources) have them in Germany and Florida. Maybe there is something to this Wikiality thing.
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chone If Boozer was born in Juneau, he's the northernmost player unless Petteri Koponen counts. So I guess the NBA can cancel the "Where ningaktok nanuk sunasorpok happens" campaign.-
carty64 Classic
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chizat This is indeed a mystery.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/070530&sportCat=nba
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660211447,00.html
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695224754,00.html
Utah media has him as being an American born in Germany.
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Arrowhead Addict For me, it's very ironic that Kareem Rush plays for the Pacers. I was born in Kansas City and am a life-long Pacers fan, and the only player born in K.C. plays for the Pacers. I knew that, but really hadn't thought it through.
Nice work, by the way!
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twoeightnine New Zealand isn't part of the Australian continent, it's part of Oceania or Zealandia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_%28continent%29
So the Suns are missing Asia, Australia and Antarctica.-
chone Technically, the only people born in Antarctica would be citizens of Chile or Argentina, since those are the only two countries with year round research stations (and pregnant women usually aren't allowed to winter over because medical personnell can't get there). So maybe the suns should call this guy?
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missgossip I did not know that JJ Barea was a PR.....
For a second I was confused why I couldn't find Pops Mensah-Bonsu in England.... Still in denial about him getting dropped from the league. -
adam.d.jacobs If anyone's interested, I put a related post on the APBRMetrics forum last year, though without any graphics. I looked at changes over time and it appeared that traditional basketball havens like Kentucky and Indiana were being gradually being outproduced by Western and Southern states.
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straight.bangin This is a towering accomplishment. -
cwallen Elton Brand was born in Cortlandt, NY, near Peekskill, just north of NYC -
truthaboutit Nice work Jason...Yea, it's easy to see that this correlates to US population density as you pointed out, but I was curious about which states produce the most talent.
I broke your numbers out according to NBA players per capita for each state.
Interesting stuff.
http://www.truthaboutit.net/2007/11/us-state-expansion-onwhere-are-nba.html
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truthaboutit BTW....you may kill yourself if you try to do this for other sports. Can you include NFL practice squads too? Just kidding....
Links (12)
Wolves Updates 11/29
Published 11/29/2007 by SG at TWolvesBlog
... Jason at Ballhype plots the birthplace of every current NBA player. The results can also be sorted by team. ...
Where Are NBA Players From?
Published 11/29/2007 at ESPN.com - True Hoop - Blog
... Jason Gurney of Ballhype did a fancy little thing with Google Maps that plots the birthplace of every single NBA player. You can also sort by team. ...
Greenland’s Hoops Suckiness Confirmed
Published 11/29/2007 by GC at Can't Stop The Bleeding
I don’t get it. Can’t the Suns or Spurs send a qualified scout to Godthaab for a few years?
Thursday Footnotes
Published 11/29/2007 by TZ <info@sactownroyalty.com> at Sactown Royalty
... Ballhype's Jason Gurney put the birthplaces of every NBA player into a Google Map. Man, Beno Udrih is far from home. That map's a lot of fun to look at; the player born closest to Sacramento was a bit of a surprise. Concord's finest! ...
Seattle Hoops Represent!
Published 11/29/2007 by Seth at Enjoy the Enjoyment
... Over at Ballhype, Jason created a Google Maps mashup that shows the birthplace of every NBA player. Is Seattle represented? Yes, oh yes. ...
The coolest thing you'll ever see.
Published 11/29/2007 by Seth
... has done us one better: a map with every single birthplace of every single NBA player on it. Shit's crazy, awesome, and crazy awesome. Go check it out, and kill a couple hours scanning around the globe for your favorite players. I know I did.
Today's quality shots
Published 11/29/2007 by Pradamaster <info@bulletsforever.com> at Bullets Forever
... Hogs Haven, Steinberg, and Jason LaCanfora have been doing an outstanding job covering the Sean Taylor tragedy. Keep those diaries coming. A pessimist would look at the number one guy on this list. An optimist would consider the guy who should be on there and is five years younger. Michael Lee loves him some Pacers. Ballhype's Jason Gurney plots the birthplace of every NBA player on a Google map. Fun times.
Where Amazing Birth Happens.
Published 11/29/2007 by lilnemo at SportsFilter
Jason Gurney of Ballhype sets up a Google Map that plots the birthplace of every current NBA player. Shamelessly stolen from TrueHoop. Read Story.
The Boston Celtics Are America's Team
Published 11/29/2007 by Matt Watson at FanHouse
... plotted the birthplaces of every NBA player on a map, and if you sort by various teams, you'll see that the Celtics are one of four teams in the league that's 100% American born and bred. Xenophobes unite! Everyone cheer for the leprechauns! (Why not cheer for the other three? Because I can't really picture many people getting behind the Knicks, Clippers and Pacers these days ...) ...
Friday Bucks Notes
Published 11/30/2007 by Alex <info@brewhoop.com> at Brew Hoop
... One of the coolest things I've seen in a while: Jason at Ballhype Googlemaps every NBA player's birthplace. You can filter by team, as well as zoom in and look at a specific area. Milwaukee is home to five NBA'ers: Chris Mihm, Devin Harris, Anthony Carter, Mike Wilks, and Carl Landry. ...
A U.S. State Expansion On...Where Are NBA Players From?
Published 11/30/2007 by truthaboutit at truthaboutit.net
Very cool stuff by Jason Gurney of BallHype....using Basketball-Reference.com, Yahoo and Google Maps, he was able to plot the birthplace of every NBA player. ...
Come Get Some LeBron
Published 12/2/2007 by redsarmy at RedsArmy.com: The Voice Of Celtics Fans
... | Full map of where every NBA player was born (C’s one of 4 teams with no foreign born players) ...
Thoughts on the eastern dominance: Could it have something do with weather? Something like the need to play an indoor sport in the winter and late fall (when schools are in session and organized sports most often take place) affecting year-round play. It would be interesting to see the concentrations for other sports, too.