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« On hand-checking and logic | Main | Telling the Palestinian story » Thursday, November 16, 2006Court controversyTo honor Milton Friedman's memory, I should probably stop theorizing in such a non-rigorous way about the "economics" of basketball defense. One reader emailed to say: "Let's try what the philosophy majors call reductio ad absurdum -- If you ban all defense, everyone plays defense equally (ineffectively)." I do think that thought experiment supports my view that rules changes can (theoretically) reduce the importance of defense. However, an economist friend comments that when rules reduce the variability of defensive effectiveness among players, the "marginal" benefit of a good defensive play rises. He's too polite to say so, but I think he's saying my shot was stuffed. Posted by Christopher Shea at 07:25 PM
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