There is also common over-valuing or undervaluing of players according to bad criteria. The only sport I follow closely is basketball where examples of this flourish. The best case is Allen Iverson (who I love, he went to my college) but has been consistently overvalued because he is flashing and athletic and scores a lot of points. The problem is that the reason he scores a lot of points is that he uses a lot of possessions. He scores those points with average efficiency. Moreover, while he (at least in his younger days) grabbed a lot of steals by gambling and jumping after the ball when he wasn’t sure he could get the steal he has always been something of a defensive liability because he is too small to guard most other players who play his position (its worse now that he is older and can’t get the steals). Meanwhile he has been named an all-star 10 times (fan vote).
Actually, most box scores tell you surprisingly little about how good a player is (the relevant statistics are usually not recorded).
*Of course NBA general managers tend to be pretty irrational too, giving big contracts to players who don’t deserve them.
There is also common over-valuing or undervaluing of players according to bad criteria. The only sport I follow closely is basketball where examples of this flourish. The best case is Allen Iverson (who I love, he went to my college) but has been consistently overvalued because he is flashing and athletic and scores a lot of points. The problem is that the reason he scores a lot of points is that he uses a lot of possessions. He scores those points with average efficiency. Moreover, while he (at least in his younger days) grabbed a lot of steals by gambling and jumping after the ball when he wasn’t sure he could get the steal he has always been something of a defensive liability because he is too small to guard most other players who play his position (its worse now that he is older and can’t get the steals). Meanwhile he has been named an all-star 10 times (fan vote).
Actually, most box scores tell you surprisingly little about how good a player is (the relevant statistics are usually not recorded).
*Of course NBA general managers tend to be pretty irrational too, giving big contracts to players who don’t deserve them.