The Occupy Movement appears to have spread to basketball courts to address concerns over new Value Add calculations showing the top 1% are now considered “more valuable” than the bottom 44%.
Fans camped outside several basketball arenas this season, and in the college town of Ft. Collins, Colorado, in the photo above many had to brave inhumane conditions overnight simply to get coupons for Chick-fil-A food. March Madness has exacerbated the gap between rich and poor, as CBS Sports glorifies the top 1% and only shows the bottom 44% during humiliating moments.
Perhaps the worst example of the “haves” continuing to steal from the “have nots” was Karl-Anthony Towns. Clearly Towns had amassed much more than any one person needed to be happy. Just one week ago showed him as the 5th most valuable player, worth 9.43 additional points per game to his team. However, he continued to trample the less fortunate.
When one of the bottom 44%, Quinton Chievous of Hampton, attempted to improve his much more modest 0.54 Value Add by making a shot, the 6-foot-6 Chievous watched in shock as the 6-foot-11 Towns use his unfair height advantage to block the basketball from going through the hoop. Towns repeated this crime five more times during the weekend, also using his unfair advantage gained by excessive practicing to make 9 of 10 free throws and 10 of 16 field goals. He accumulated so much Value, that he passed three more players to become the second most valuable player with an 11.31 Value Add.
That figure means that Kentucky would likely do 11 points worse if Towns did not play or not try, which would have been a more charitable approach since Kentucky’s 79-56 win clearly did not require his all-out effort.
All in all, the best 42 basketball players (listed below, top 1%) create an extra 342 addition points for their teams. Therefore those 42 players have more value than the least valuable 1,824 players—or the bottom 44% of all players combined.
Unfortunately, the top 1% goes beyond stealing from the bottom 44% and actually steals from the middle and upper-middle class, too. The only player hogging more value than Towns is Utah guard Delon Wright, who is worth an additional 12.10 points a game to Utah. Wright literally stole much of his wealth. Jared Johnson of Stephen F. Austin had just broken into the top 20% with a 2.32 Value Add he hoped to improve in the opening round. Twice early in the game when Johnson tried to advance himself, Wright took the ball away from him to not even give Johnson or his teammates a chance for success. Keep in mind Wright was already the most valuable player so he had nothing to gain by preventing Johnson’s attempt to spread the wealth just a little and could have been more charitable by giving away some wealth like Bill Gates to drop to No. 2 on the spot.
Duke had the hottest risers in the Value Add database, as Jahlil Okafor and Quinn Cook both surged 15 spots in the rankings heading into their clash with Wright, showing no charity toward either opponent.
In order to shame this top 1%, we are posting their names below with how much Value they hog for themselves, how much their ranking improved in the opening two games of the tournament (Change), and notes on how many times they unfairly took the ball away from opponents (stl for steals), blocked opponents from being able to score (blks for block), threw the ball past an opponent so that their teammate could score instead (ast for assist), or scored in some other manner that was often unnecessary.
However, if you believe in Participation Trophies then you can click on the www.valueaddbasketball.com database, which is much more fair because it lists all 4,113 players and documents the unfair distribution in value. For example, over half of all players (2,250) are told they are basically worthless and worth less than a single point a game to their teams.
Hopefully these inequities will be addressed.
| Rnk | Cha | Top 1% | Team | Value | Stats in 1st two tournament games; next opponent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | Wright, Delon 55 | Utah | 12.10 | 15-18 FTs, 7 assist for surprise Sweet 16; Duke |
| 2 | 3 | Towns, Karl-Anthony 12 | Kentucky | 11.31 | 6 blocks, 9-10 FT, 10-16 FGs, up to No. 2; WV |
| 3 | -1 | Kaminsky, Frank 44 | Wisconsin | 10.99 | 16-27 FGs, 8-10 FTs, 43 pts, 19 reb; UNC |
| 4 | 0 | Payton, Gary 1 | Oregon St. | 9.90 | final 2 Pac-12 games 9 sts, 12 asts, 15 rebs, 30 pts |
| 5 | 2 | White, Aaron 30 | Iowa | 9.41 | 47 pts on 18-27 FGs, 4 steals; lost 2nd gm Gonzaga |
| 6 | 2 | Walden, Corey 2 | Eastern Kentucky | 9.29 | 8-12 threes, 12 reb, 13 asts, 7 steals; NIT TN-Mart |
| 7 | -1 | Grant, Jerian 22 | Notre Dame | 9.09 | all 85 minutes at PG, 33 pts, 10 asts; Wich State |
| 8 | -5 | Cauley-Stein, Willie 15 | Kentucky | 8.86 | only 0.78 pts per trip allowed; WV |
| 9 | 3 | Van Vleet, Fred 23 | Wichita St. | 8.71 | 44 pts, 10 asts, 6 stls; Notre Dame |
| 10 | 0 | Tuttle, Seth 10 | Northern Iowa | 8.55 | 11-12 FTs, 16 rebounds, 4 sts; lost 2nd game Lville |
| 11 | 0 | Russell, D’Angelo 0 | Ohio St. | 8.41 | 28 pts to beat VCU before loss to Arizona |
| 12 | 6 | Randolph, Levi 20 | Alabama | 8.32 | 37 pts, including 4 stls in 2nd round NIT Miami loss |
| 13 | 0 | Pointer, Sir’Dominic 15 | St. John’s | 8.32 | ONE game vs. SD St 21 pts on 9-16, 10 reb, 2 stl |
| 14 | -5 | Smith-Rivera, D’Vauntes 4 | Georgetown | 8.20 | 37 pts, 8 asts; loss Utah 2nd game |
| 15 | 0 | Morris, Monte 11 | Iowa St. | 8.08 | 15 pts, 4 asts, 4 stls in 1st game loss to UAB |
| 16 | 16 | Payne, Cameron 1 | Murray St. | 7.92 | 17 asts, 7-14 threes, 34 pts; NIT at ODU |
| 17 | 12 | McConnell, T.J. 4 | Arizona | 7.91 | 10 asts, 9 stls, 31 pts on 17 shots (3rd top 20 yr); Xavier |
| 18 | 4 | Portis, Bobby 10 | Arkansas | 7.91 | 33 pts, 27 rebounds, 5 asts, 6 steals; lost UNC |
| 19 | 1 | Tarpey, Terry 25 | William & Mary | 7.83 | ONE NIT gm vs. Tulsa 5/0 Ast/TO, 14 pts |
| 20 | -6 | Kalinoski, Tyler 4 | Davidson | 7.75 | 5 pts, 6 reb 1st round loss to Iowa; (1&done) |
| 21 | 2 | Wiltjer, Kyle 33 | Gonzaga | 7.70 | 47 pts on 18-24 FGs, 15 reb; UCLA |
| 22 | 1 | Baker, Ron 31 | Wichita St. | 7.65 | 9-10 FTs, 5 Stls vs. Indiana, 0 Tos vs KS; Notre Dame |
| 23 | 15 | Okafor, Jahlil 15 | Duke | 7.65 | 21-27 field goals for 47 points; Utah |
| 24 | 19 | Cook, Quinn 2 | Duke | 7.61 | 9-18 three-pointers, 37 points; Utah |
| 25 | 10 | Hunter, R.J. 22 | Georgia St. | 7.58 | 36 pts, stunned Baylor with bomb; lost Xavier 2nd gm |
| 26 | 13 | Rozier, Terry 0 | Louisville | 7.57 | 37 pts, 12 asts; NC State |
| 27 | 7 | Trimble, Melo 2 | Maryland | 7.52 | 29 pts, 17 rebs, 4 asts; 2nd game loss to WV |
| 28 | -9 | Pangos, Kevin 4 | Gonzaga | 7.48 | 8-16 threes, 8 assists; UCLA |
| 29 | -4 | Richardson, Josh 1 | Tennessee | 7.46 | last 2 SEC 44 pts, 16 reb, 5 ast, 5 stls |
| 30 | 15 | Paige, Marcus 5 | North Carolina | 7.44 | 34 pts, 5-10 threes, 7 asts, 6 stls; Wisconsin |
| 31 | 0 | Hayes, Nigel 10 | Wisconsin | 7.42 | 29 pts, 6 asts, 13 rebs; UNC |
| 32 | 4 | Jones, Tyus 5 | Duke | 7.37 | 13 assists; Utah |
| 33 | 18 | Hawkins, Corey 3 | UC Davis | 7.37 | ONE NIT gm at Stanford 34 points on 22 shots |
| 34 | 3 | Hilliard, Darrun 4 | Villanova | 7.36 | 27 pts, 6-10 threes in 2nd game loss to NC State |
| 35 | -2 | Harrell, Montrezl 24 | Louisville | 7.34 | 22 pts, 10 rebs; NC State |
| 36 | -19 | Dunn, Kris 3 | Providence | 7.33 | BE vs Nova 22 pts, 9 asts, 7 reb before Dayton loss |
| 37 | -6 | West, Jalan 12 | Northwestern St. | 7.31 | 8-14 threes, 34 pts, 10 reb, 6 ast in ONE NIT game |
| 38 | -22 | Boatright, Ryan 11 | Connecticut | 7.25 | injured for loss to AZ State in NIT 1st round |
| 39 | 2 | Christmas, Rakeem 25 | Syracuse | 7.25 | 12 reb, 5 blocks in season finale vs. NC State |
| 40 | -14 | Harrison, Aaron 2 | Kentucky | 7.24 | 3-7 three-pointers vs Cincy; WV |
| 41 | -1 | Gill, Anthony 13 | Virginia | 7.17 | 27 pts, 1 turnover – lost 2nd game to Mich St |
| 42 | -15 | Hield, Buddy 24 | Oklahoma | 7.15 | 30 pts, 7 asts; Michigan St |
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.