Context

When I set out to gather data for my first NBA-related project, I used the IMPORTHTML function from Google Sheets repeatedly on Basketball-Reference's Play Index (now Stathead), which was...not ideal to say the least. So I decided to learn how to web-scrape and compile this historical data for everyone to use (in the mold of Lahman's Baseball Database).

Content

There are 3 leagues represented: the National Basketball Association (1950-present), the NBA's predecessor in the Basketball Association of America (1947-1949) and the NBA's past competitor in the American Basketball Association (1968-1976)

There are three informational files: Player Season Info, Player Career Info & Team Abbrevs. Each player was given a unique player ID to facilitate aggregation into career stats.

On the team side, there are 7 files:

• totals & opponent totals
• per game & opponent per game statistics
• per 100 possessions & opponent per 100 possessions statistics (starting from 1974)
• team summaries

On the player side, there are 10 files:

• player totals
• player per game stats
• player per 36 minute stats
• player per 100 possessions stats (starting from 1974)
• player advanced stats
• player play by play stats (starting from 1997) - percentage of time spent at different positions, fouls drawn & committed, etc
• player shooting stats (starting from 1997) - success rate and attempt rate from different shot distances
• end of season teams (All-Defense, All-Rookie, All-League)
• end of season team voting (All-League)
• all-star selections
• awards voting results (Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player)

For explanations about a certain stat, I'd suggest checking out Basketball-Reference's glossary.

Acknowledgements

Basketball-Reference for being the greatest comprehensive basketball stats site (in my humble opinion)

Robert Frey and David Schoch for determining how Basketball-Reference formats its pages

Photo by TJ Dragotta on Unsplash