Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagNBA

scoring-the-winning-points-at-a-basketball-game-stockpack-adobe-stock
Scoring the winning points at a basketball game

Sabrina Ionescu’s Hot Hand

When basketball players hit a "streak," does that elevate the probability of success?
Athletes do sometimes get hot—not that their chance of success is 100% but that it is temporarily elevated above their normal probability. Read More ›
the-toss-stockpack-unsplash.jpg
the toss

Spot and Choose: Fair Play is Uniquely Human

How snake drafts, cake cuts, and queues exemplify human uniqueness

In the National Basketball Association All-Star exhibition game that was played yesterday, Team LeBron defeated Team Durant by a score of 170-150. The captains (LeBron James and Kevin Durant, both pictured) had taken turns choosing players for their teams. LeBron got the first pick (Giannis Antetokounmpo), Durant the second (Steph Curry), LeBron the third (Luka Doncic), and so on. The talent is so uniform among the top two dozen NBA players that there is no real advantage to choosing first or second: any given player is arguably as good or better than the player chosen before him. In addition, the game is just an exhibition intended to entertain the fans with spectacular offensive plays, while the defense mainly tries to Read More ›

Hong Kong Protesters

How Business in China Becomes Ethically Expensive

Hong Kong raises the cost of rights and freedoms rhetoric steeply. Many advocates are bowing out

Apple had once positioned itself in opposition to Big Brother. The NBA had been a strong advocate of social justice. But with Hong Kong, they suddenly caved to Beijing. What’s at stake?

Read More ›