Alright so today I wanted to dig into the Fenerbahce vs Anadolu Efes player stats from that big game everyone’s talking about. Figured it’d be straightforward – get the numbers, find who really showed up, and write about it. Man, was I wrong. Let me walk you through this hot mess step by step.
The Plan & Getting Stuck
First things first, I figured I’d just go grab the official stats report. Easy, right? Ha! Official site was slower than dial-up, and the layout looked like something from the early 2000s. I swear my cat could design a better site. Spent a good hour clicking around like a fool trying to find anything useful before I gave up entirely. Big fat zero progress.
Plan B: Manual Slogging
Alright, screw the official stuff. I hit up Twitter and basketball forums. My strategy became “grab every number people throw around and pray it adds up.” Here’s how that pain went:
- Screenshots galore: People kept posting tiny, blurry screenshots of stats from God knows where. My eyes started crossing trying to make out the numbers.
- Spreadsheet madness: Fired up a new Google Sheet. Started typing in points, rebounds, assists… from like six different sources. Some had different totals for the same player! One guy said Calathes had 8 assists, another said 6. Which one is it, dude?
- Naming nightmares: Player names were all over the place. “M. Guduric”, “Marko”, “Guduric”… Is this one guy or three? Felt like herding cats.
Drank way too much coffee. Almost threw my laptop when I accidentally deleted a whole row of numbers.
Trying to Make Sense
Eventually, I had this janky spreadsheet filled with question marks and conflicting numbers. Time to see who actually performed. Math never was my strong suit. My rules were simple: big points, lots of rebounds/assists, high shooting %. Sounds easy? Nope.
- Shooting Woes: Figuring out FG% was a headache. One source had a player 7/15, another had 8/16. Close, but not the same! Do I average them? Flip a coin? Ugh.
- The +/- Trap: Kept seeing this “+/-” number pop up. Still fuzzy on exactly what magic they use to calculate it. Does +10 mean he was awesome or just lucky?
- Impact vs Volume: This dude took 20 shots and scored 22 points. Another guy took 8 shots and got 15. Who was actually better? My brain started to melt.
The “Who Shined?” Mess
After banging my head against the wall, here’s the rough take nobody will probably agree with:
- Calathes kept popping up with big assist numbers (whichever number you believe) and seemed to run the show, even if his shot wasn’t falling.
- Pleiss or maybe Dunston? One of the Efes big guys ate rebounds like breakfast. Tough to tell which was more dominant.
- Somebody named Booker for Fenerbahce scored decent chunks of points quietly, but other stats were kinda meh.
- Larkin for Efes put up points like always, but his efficiency? Wildly different reports everywhere you looked.
So yeah, “best players”? Depends on which random stats page you trust, how much coffee you’ve had, and if you believe a rebound is a rebound.
The Ugly Aftermath
Got it done. Published the post. Immediately people started yelling in the comments:
- “You missed Dunston’s block!”
- “Larkin shot 45% not 38%!”
- “Where’s Beaubois?!”
Honestly? Just proves my point. Finding clear “best players” from this stat soup is like finding a needle in a haystack the size of Texas. You basically pick your favorite stats and shout loudest. Next time someone asks me to do this? Might just hide under the bed.
