My Messy Attempt to Compare Basketball Stats
Okay, got this random urge today to dig into the Panathinaikos vs Fenerbahce game stats, no idea why. Wanted the raw numbers, like points scored, who grabbed the ball off the glass, who was passing it around best. Figured it shouldn’t be that hard. Famous last words, right?
First, grabbed my old laptop, fired up Chrome. Was hoping some sports site would just have a nice table ready to go. Typed “Panathinaikos Fenerbahce stats score rebounds assists” into Google. Hit enter. Boom, got a bunch of links. Clicked the first one. Annoying pop-up ad for some betting site plastered over everything immediately. Closed that mess. Scrolled down. Saw some numbers, but they were all mixed up with player pictures and flashy animations. Couldn’t figure out if “PTS” meant points or something else entirely.
Gave up on that site fast. Went back to Google, tried the second link. This one loaded painfully slow. Like watching paint dry. Finally loaded… and bam, asked me to create an account just to see stats! No way, José. Closed the tab hard.
Third link felt different. Looked cleaner. Found the game listed quickly. But wait… saw “Final Score” was clearly stated. Good! Then “Rebounds”… cool, they had it. “Assists” was there too. Problem? No numbers! All it said was “N/A” or blank spaces next to each team! Seriously? Wasted all that time clicking.
Felt stubborn now. Pulled out my phone instead. Opened that sports app I sometimes use. Searched for Panathinaikos. Found the recent game against Fenerbahce. Finally! Score was plain to see. Had to swipe sideways to see different stats categories. Found rebounds and assists listed… but the numbers seemed super low? Weird. Needed to double-check.
Went back to my laptop, determined. Remembered a specific stats-focused website I used years ago. Found it, navigated to basketball, then Euroleague, then found the game. Jackpot! They had:
- Team Totals: Points, Rebounds, Assists
- Even broke it down: Offensive Rebounds, Defensive Rebounds
- Even had the top players!
Okay, this was progress. Copy-pasted all the key team totals into a text file. Score: Panathinaikos X, Fenerbahce Y. Rebounds: Panathinaikos A, Fenerbahce B. Assists: Panathinaikos C, Fenerbahce D. Threw in the rebound split too.
Wanted it neat. Opened Excel. Typed “Panathinaikos” and “Fenerbahce” across the top. Made columns for Points, Total Rebounds, Offensive Rebounds, Defensive Rebounds, Assists. Copy-pasted the numbers from the text file. Hit save. Excel froze for a second. Heart skipped a beat. Thought I’d lost it. But it came back. Saved it as “PAN_FB_stats”.
Looked at the numbers. Noticed Fenerbahce had way more assists, but Panathinaikos killed them on the boards, especially grabbing their own misses. Score was kinda close though. Interesting dynamic.
To be honest, what started as a quick look turned into almost an hour of digging, pasting, swiping, closing stupid pop-ups, and hoping Excel wouldn’t crash on me. But hey, mission accomplished, sorta. Now I’ve got that spreadsheet saved somewhere… probably gonna forget why I even made it by next week. Just remembered my boss pinged me about those overdue TPS reports while I was hunting assists. Whoops.
