Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2017 October 4

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October 4

How come in sports like basketball, a single player can make the difference in success, but not in football?

I've noticed that it's common in certain sports, particularly basketball, for a single player to make the difference between championship contenders and being cellar teams. Theoretically, a bad team one year could become a playoff contender or even a championship contender with the addition of one or two good players. Conversely, the departure or injury of even one key player could ruin a team's chances. By contrast, in other sports (like football), while one player could make some difference, success or struggles seem to stem more from overall factors as opposed to a single player. For example, in the case of Leicester's 2016-17 struggles, while N'Golo Kante's departure from the team was cited to be the biggest cause, there were also other factors that affected the team's situation; meaning Kante's departure was not the sole reason. By contrast, in the 2012 NBA playoffs, Derrick Rose's injury was pretty much enough for the Bulls to be defeated in the first round, despite having the 1st seed. Why is this the case? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 01:30, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Oh that kind of football. Perhaps the level of play in soccer is so high that players' skill levels in top leagues are closer together (Leicester is/recently was Premier League right?) Also, 1 player is 1/5th of the basketball starters, 1/11th of the soccer. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 01:44, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Every sport is different. You might have the greatest pitcher in the history of the world, someone who wins every game - but he's only going to get a fraction of the wins a ball team needs to qualify for the post-season. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:33, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

In basketball, every player is involved in nearly every play, whereas that doesn't seem to be the case in football (and baseball). Clarityfiend (talk) 05:39, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Because in Basketball, a player on the floor is 1/5th responsible for his team's success, where as in football he's 1/11th. 1/5 is a larger number than 1/11. Math is hard.--Jayron32 11:23, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

That's a factor but not the only one. In basketball a ball possession usually ends with a shot with a good chance of scoring, even if some of the team is mediocre. A star player can take a large part of the shots. In football you need a team to set up scoring chances. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:22, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

One issue is the pace of the game. In basketball, scores happen continuously. The goal is score at a faster rate than the opponent. You can't stop them from scoring. You just try to slow them down. This is caused by the shot clock. Once your team has the ball, they must attempt to score in 24 seconds. The fast pace means that in basketball the ball moves quickly from player to player. No single player gets to dominate the ball. In football (soccer), the pace is completely different. Scores of 0-0 are common. A score of 1-0 or 0-1 is expected. A score of 3-0 is a blowout. With the pace being so slow, a single player can dominate the ball. If you added a shot clock to football that required the offense to attempt a goal in 24 seconds, the pace would increase and players would share the ball more. In football (gridiron), it is a completely different game. Only a few players ever touch the ball, but those who rarely touch the ball (such as the linemen) are the ones most involved in every play. If you have a bad offensive guard, it weakens your line and you can't run the ball to the weak side or protect he quarterback to try a good pass. Every play becomes a panic to escape the weak side of the line. Any weakness is easily exploited and drastically limits what may be done. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 18:03, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Looking at it in the most general terms, some sports rely more on teamwork, and others don't. For example, a relay race relies on every member of the team, while with some other "team sports", they just take the top individual score or two, and in this case the scores of the rest of the team don't matter at all. StuRat (talk) 18:47, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Also compare baseball and cricket. In baseball, a guy only bats once every nine batters But in cricket, a good batsman can stay in there and score a whole mess of runs. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:16, 7 October 2017 (UTC)

Who dressed the best?

PopCrush had an online voting poll. It was to determine who it the Best Dressed Queen of 2017. Camila Cabello and Ariana Grande made it to the Finals. The voting closed the other day. But PopCrush didn't reveal the results. Who won the Best Dressed Queen of 2017?2604:2000:7113:9D00:E489:B375:36EB:1AC5 (talk) 11:16, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

The 3rd "final" round of voting ended Monday, October 2 at 11:59 p.m. EST: [1] -- you still need to wait for the final results to be published. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:65A7:28DA:7F79:4E50 (talk) 14:45, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

With a contest title like that, I'd expect entries from RuPaul, etc. StuRat (talk) 14:48, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

In the meantime, be sure to visit the site often ...and click on the ads! ;) — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:65A7:28DA:7F79:4E50 (talk) 15:55, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

And once again,shameful overlooking of Elizabeth II here... Lemon martini (talk) 23:39, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

This is not a foul?

[2] Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:47, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

To paraphrase the old adage: "your right to swing your basketball ends where my nose begins". It looks like he just missed his nose. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:65A7:28DA:7F79:4E50 (talk) 20:42, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

I am not aware of ANY basketball Personal foul that does not require physical contact. There is no contact made in that video, thus no foul. There is the possibility of a technical foul, but I can assure you there's nothing there that qualifies as a technical foul. --Jayron32 21:21, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

So it seems it's not (I don't know the rules to the last letter) Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 21:31, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

If you look carefully, it looks to me like part of his hand and part of the ball go behind the defender's head. So I think the perspective is messing you up, and he didn't do this right into the guy's face, but off to the side. It just looks like a close call. --Floquenbeam (talk) 22:05, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia: Fact or fiction

Loudwire has a series of videos on Youtube entitled 'Wikipedia: Fact or fiction'. Here is an example with two members of Stone Sour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7S5XgqC-6Q What do you think about editing wikipedia articles on the basis oftheir content? Munci (talk) 20:44, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Questions asking for opinions should not be answered in this venue. --Jayron32 21:35, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Where should it be asked then? Munci (talk) 06:37, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Village pump. Alansplodge (talk) 10:17, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Or Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard. InedibleHulk (talk) 02:38, 6 October 2017 (UTC)