The Player Rater tells us how good individual players are at accumulating individual statistics relative to the league as a whole. This, I reasoned, is one instance in which fantasy basketball can help us. The other day, I started thinking about the term "all-around player." I rolled it around in my brain, and pretty quickly, I was looking at the Player Rater. If you want to argue that Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time (which I do), you're going to lean pretty heavily on the six rings, but you're also going to lean on the insane combination of points, rebounds, assists, steals, and percentages - the exact numbers we would use if we were discussing his greatness in fantasy basketball. To be sure, statistics can't provide us with a complete picture, but it is also undeniable that when we discuss the long history of basketball, our discussion usually centers on numbers. Still, this line of thinking usually leads me into trying to figure out where fantasy basketball can - on some level - help me actually learn something about how actual basketball works. Rudy Gay's steals and blocks get him the most fantasy attention, but he's put up solid numbers across the board all season.
![is rudy gay a good defender is rudy gay a good defender](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oKmQftbyZyEeGyV1Ksc7Xo7Lr-U=/0x283:3575x2666/320x213/filters:focal(0x283:3575x2666)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/20149347/20130509_jla_aq2_023.0.jpg)
It has something to do with numbers, and probably the many hours I logged staring at basketball cards over the years.
![is rudy gay a good defender is rudy gay a good defender](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2130,w_3200/https:%2F%2Fairalamo.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F1132671238.jpeg)
I don't play much anymore, yet I'm obsessed with basketball just as much as ever.
![is rudy gay a good defender is rudy gay a good defender](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LNKa0qnf0bYmAJE0y4h6w3g5pN0=/0x145:4000x2812/1200x800/filters:focal(0x145:4000x2812)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/30578117/20140323_rnb_ax5_087.0.jpg)
Basketball has always been my favorite sport, but when I was a kid, I was not the type of kid who would sit and watch an entire game by halftime, I was usually out in the driveway playing. Often, I find myself considering the reasons I love fantasy basketball (I promise, this will not be some long-winded, post-holiday missive).