2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry - Revision history

162.158.42.192: Noted that actual citation would be needed, especially taking into account the popularity of Basketball in Non-US countries.

2025-04-28T17:09:16Z

Noted that actual citation would be needed, especially taking into account the popularity of Basketball in Non-US countries.

FaviFake at 13:21, 28 August 2023

2023-08-28T13:21:25Z

Xurkitree10: /* Transcript */

2023-04-20T06:42:21Z

‎Transcript

172.69.34.111 at 16:27, 20 March 2023

2023-03-20T16:27:48Z

ISaveXKCDpapers: correction

2023-02-22T21:52:55Z

correction

172.69.34.86 at 22:13, 31 July 2022

2022-07-31T22:13:32Z

Nitpicking: /* Explanation */ "Fixture" refers to a game, not the best-of-seven series

2022-07-12T11:40:14Z

‎Explanation: "Fixture" refers to a game, not the best-of-seven series

Davidy22: Reverted edits by Explain xkcd server admin (talk) to last revision by Theusaf

2022-05-21T02:54:53Z

Reverted edits by Explain xkcd server admin (talk) to last revision by Theusaf

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Explain xkcd server admin at 21:48, 20 May 2022

2022-05-20T21:48:17Z

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Theusaf: Reverted edits by 👖🔥 (talk) to last revision by Jacky720

2022-05-11T18:45:04Z

Reverted edits by 👖🔥 (talk) to last revision by Jacky720

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@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 ;Have You Heard of Him
-: Although both players are well known in their native United States, elsewhere basketball is considered a minority sport. Of the 7 billion people in the world it is likely that less than 2% {{Dubious}} of the total population will have heard of either player.{{Citation needed}} According to Randall, LeBron James is a more well known player than Stephen Curry.
+: Although both players are well known in their native United States, elsewhere basketball is considered a minority sport. Of the 7 billion people in the world it is likely that less than 2% {{Dubious}} of the total population will have heard of either player.{{Actual citation needed}} According to Randall, LeBron James is a more well known player than Stephen Curry.
 ;President During Most Recent Game 7 Loss
 : In the NBA, the top 16 teams qualify for a single elimination play-off to determine the season champion, with each series played as a {{w|Playoff_format#Best-of-seven_playoff|best-of-seven}} series (first to win 4 games). After the fourth game, fixtures are only played as required. Most series are therefore resolved before the last game. Lebron James has participated in seven playoff game 7s in his career (winning 5 of 7), and the last time his team lost a game seven was on May 18, 2008 ({{w|George W. Bush}} was still President). This also highlights that James is an older athlete, yet has been fairly dominant through his career. Stephen Curry's last game 7 loss came at the hands of Lebron James in the {{w|2016 NBA Finals}} ({{w|Barack Obama}} was President). It is notable that both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers won their respective games 7 in their Conference Finals to make it to this year's NBA Finals.

@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 : In 2027, Stephen Curry will be 39 years old, which is a typical retirement age for NBA players. LeBron James's retirement age is listed as "Unknown." In reality, there is no way to know when either will retire, and if Curry's retirement date is just a projection or prediction, it is unclear why the same could not be done for LeBron (it could perhaps refer to James's high level of play through his mid-30s, when typical players have a decline in their performance).
 ;FiveThirtyEight Total Rating
-: {{w|Nate Silver}} is a political commentator and founder of the website {{w|FiveThirtyEight}}, which uses and promotes statistical approaches in explaining the world.  The site's two major areas of focus are in politics (especially on elections - it became famous for correctly predicting for whom 49 of 50 states would vote in the 2008 US presidential election and every US state in the 2012 election, and though it wasn't as accurate in 2016 it had given Donald Trump a larger chance of Electoral College victory than other mainstream media sources) and sports (Silver first got into statistical analysis via baseball). The presence of both sports-related and politics-related topics in the comic, however related they are (or not) with each other, seems to be a nod towards FiveThirtyEight's content.
+: [[Nate Silver]] is a political commentator and founder of the website {{w|FiveThirtyEight}}, which uses and promotes statistical approaches in explaining the world.  The site's two major areas of focus are in politics (especially on elections - it became famous for correctly predicting for whom 49 of 50 states would vote in the 2008 US presidential election and every US state in the 2012 election, and though it wasn't as accurate in 2016 it had given Donald Trump a larger chance of Electoral College victory than other mainstream media sources) and sports (Silver first got into statistical analysis via baseball). The presence of both sports-related and politics-related topics in the comic, however related they are (or not) with each other, seems to be a nod towards FiveThirtyEight's content.
 : Nate Silver has a much higher 538TR than either Curry or James. As explained in the title text, the 538TR combines basketball skill (either real-life or video game basketball) with election forecasting. This could suggest that Silver is proficient at basketball, presumably the video game kind, or else that election forecasting is heavily weighted.

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 ==Transcript==
 :'''NBA Playoffs ''DataDive'' '''
 :'''LeBron James and Stephen Curry'''

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 : It is claimed that their best sport is basketball. This fact should be exceedingly obvious, as they are arguably the two greatest current basketball players; considering all the work they would have dedicated to reach that point, it is extremely unlikely that they have reached an even greater level of mastery in any other sport.
 ;Height
-: Both are listed as over 6 feet tall, which is not at all unusual for professional basketball players. Stephen Curry is 6'3" and LeBron James is 6'8", although this chart does not distinguish the exact heights. In most contexts, bucketing humans into broad height-groups would be unsurprising, but in basketball more detail is relevant. Thus, the information is accurate but uninformative --- like the rest of the data in this comic.
+: Both are listed as over 6 feet tall, an extremely typical height range for professional basketball players, but does not go into any further detail. In most contexts, bucketing humans into broad height-groups would be unsurprising, but in basketball more detail is relevant. Thus, the information is accurate but uninformative --- like the rest of the data in this comic. (Stephen Curry is 6'3" and LeBron James is 6'8".)
 ;Retirement Year
 : In 2027, Stephen Curry will be 39 years old, which is a typical retirement age for NBA players. LeBron James's retirement age is listed as "Unknown." In reality, there is no way to know when either will retire, and if Curry's retirement date is just a projection or prediction, it is unclear why the same could not be done for LeBron (it could perhaps refer to James's high level of play through his mid-30s, when typical players have a decline in their performance).

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 :The Federal Interest Rate, or {{w|federal funds rate}}, is an interest rate set by the {{w|United States Federal Reserve}}. This rate is increased or decreased periodically based on the health of the U.S. economy. As of the time of publishing, the federal interest rate was targeted at 1.75%. The rate has fluctuated from a high of around 5% to a low of near 0% (during the time of the {{w|Great Recession in the United States|2008 recession}}). James' career average federal interest rate is higher than Curry's, because James began his career before Curry, when interest rates were higher.
 ;Name Scrabble Score
-:Both "lebronjames" and "stephencurry" are worth 22 points in {{w|Scrabble}}. However, proper names are not recognized as scorable words in Scrabble, and thus would be worth nothing.
+:Both "lebronjames" and "stephencurry" are worth 22 points in {{w|Scrabble}}. However, proper names are not recognized as scorable words in Scrabble, and thus would be scored only if no other player challenges the word's validity.
 ;Best Sport
 : It is claimed that their best sport is basketball. This fact should be exceedingly obvious, as they are arguably the two greatest current basketball players; considering all the work they would have dedicated to reach that point, it is extremely unlikely that they have reached an even greater level of mastery in any other sport.

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 : Although both players are well known in their native United States, elsewhere basketball is considered a minority sport. Of the 7 billion people in the world it is likely that less than 2% {{Dubious}} of the total population will have heard of either player.{{Citation needed}} According to Randall, LeBron James is a more well known player than Stephen Curry.
 ;President During Most Recent Game 7 Loss
-: In the NBA, the top 16 teams qualify for a single elimination play-off to determine the season champion, with each series played as a {{w|Playoff_format#Best-of-seven_playoff|best-of-seven}} series (first to win 4 games). After the fourth game, fixtures are only played as required. Most fixtures are therefore resolved before the last game. Lebron James has participated in seven playoff game 7s in his career (winning 5 of 7), and the last time his team lost a game seven was on May 18, 2008 ({{w|George W. Bush}} was still President). This also highlights that James is an older athlete, yet has been fairly dominant through his career. Stephen Curry's last game 7 loss came at the hands of Lebron James in the {{w|2016 NBA Finals}} ({{w|Barack Obama}} was President). It is notable that both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers won their respective games 7 in their Conference Finals to make it to this year's NBA Finals.
+: In the NBA, the top 16 teams qualify for a single elimination play-off to determine the season champion, with each series played as a {{w|Playoff_format#Best-of-seven_playoff|best-of-seven}} series (first to win 4 games). After the fourth game, fixtures are only played as required. Most series are therefore resolved before the last game. Lebron James has participated in seven playoff game 7s in his career (winning 5 of 7), and the last time his team lost a game seven was on May 18, 2008 ({{w|George W. Bush}} was still President). This also highlights that James is an older athlete, yet has been fairly dominant through his career. Stephen Curry's last game 7 loss came at the hands of Lebron James in the {{w|2016 NBA Finals}} ({{w|Barack Obama}} was President). It is notable that both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers won their respective games 7 in their Conference Finals to make it to this year's NBA Finals.
 ;Pog Collection
 : {{w|Milk caps (game)|Pogs}} were a {{w|fad}} in the 1990s. It is unclear why either would have a large collection of them, or why LeBron's collection would be even more "staggeringly large" than Curry's, besides being 4 years older than him.