This paper analyzes the NBA's communications efforts from June 4 to July 30, 2020 as it prepared for an unprecedented season restart in the early days of a global pandemic. While scholars have examined the media's framing of the NBA in this period, there is a gap in the literature when looking at the official NBA communications strategy of the organization itself. As the first study to use risk communication theory in a sports scenario while also employing corporate social advocacy as the second theoretical basis of analysis, this qualitative study is a thematic and textual analysis of 14 NBA press releases and three existing video interviews of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Findings show that risk communication theory holds up in a sports context as the NBA employed effective use of widely accepted risk communication criteria. The study also puts forth a basis for CSA in sports communication regarding social justice.

Daily fantasy basketball presents interesting problems to researchers due to the extensive amounts of data that needs to be explored when trying to predict player performance. A large amount of this data can be noisy due to the variance within the sport of basketball. Because of this, a high degree of skill is required to consistently win in daily fantasy basketball contests. On any given day, users are challenged to predict how players will perform and create a lineup of the eight best players under fixed salary and positional requirements. In this thesis, we present a tool to assist daily fantasy basketball players with these tasks. We explore the use of several machine learning techniques to predict player performance and develop multiple approaches to approximate optimal lineups. We then compare each different heuristic and lineup creation combination, and show that our best combinations perform much better than random lineups. Although creating provably optimal lineups is computationally infeasible, by focusing on players in the Pareto front between performance and cost we can reduce the search space and compute near optimal lineups. Additionally, our greedy and evolutionary lineup search methods offer similar performance at a much smaller computational cost. Our analysis indicates that due to how player salaries are structured, it is generally preferred to construct a lineup consisting of a few stars and filling out the rest of the roster with average to mediocre players than to construct a lineup where all players are expected to perform about the same. Through these findings we hope that our research can serve as a future baseline towards developing an automated or semi-automated tool to optimize daily fantasy basketball.

本研究使用資料包絡分析法衡量NBA球員之績效值，並探討球員在簽訂複數年合約前後與績效之關聯性，是否有Stiroh(2002)提出之合約年效應，並進而比較NBA官方提供績效值與DEA法計算出之球員績效值何者對於球員薪資具有較佳的解釋能力。 本研究取用2000年至2011年共11年間曾經歷合約到期並再次向球團簽訂複數年合約的184名球員做為樣本；實證結果發現，在控制年齡、年資、提前續約與否、球員位置及先發球員與否後整體技術效率方面及球員每分鐘平均績效值顯示在球員簽約前績效有顯著提高之現象； NBA官方提供績效值與純技術效率簽約前後係數也是負的，雖然未達到統計上顯著水準，因此，本研究結果顯示NBA球員在簽約新約前的確有合約週期現象，亦即為爭取較佳合約球員在簽約前會刻意表現較佳之績效。 此外，根據Vuong Test比較NBA官方提供績效值與DEA法計算出之績效值和球員每分鐘績效值與薪資關聯性的測試結果，顯示由官方提供之績效值對薪資關聯性較高，說明目前NBA官方提供之績效值仍然是球團用來與球員薪資的談判重要參考指標之一。 / The research applies Data Envelopment Analysis to examine the NBA players’ efficiency performance before and after signing a new multi-year contract, and whether there exists the Contract Cycle Effect that suggested by Stiroh (2002). The research also tries to compare NBA efficiency score and DEA efficiency score to test which has a higher association with salary. The samples selected 184 NBA players who signed a new multi-year contract from 2000 to 2011. After controlling the players’ age, seniority, extension, position and starting or not, the empirical results denote that DEA total efficiency score and the NBA efficiency per minute indicate a higher efficiency score before signing a new contract, The NBA official efficiency score and DEA technical efficiency score also reveal a negative coefficient before and after new contract singed, although the statistical test didn’t reach the significant level. The results imply that NBA players do exist the Contract Cycle Effect phenomenon that players will perform better efficiency in order to get a better contract. The Vuong test results reveal that the official NBA efficiency score has a higher association with salary comparing with DEA efficiency score. The finding suggests that the official efficiency score is one of the major references for the NBA teams on salary arbitration.

In this study I examine foul calls by NBA referees alongside the difference in aggressiveness of twelve NBA basketball teams as they compete for the Championship Title. I aim to identify referee biases that increase the likelihood of the NBA Finals ending in a later game due to league revenue incentives. My data consists of 91 individual NBA Finals games played between the 2001 and 2016 NBA Finals. After controlling for changes in play as well as the difference in aggressiveness, I find that NBA referee’s foul calls are more dependent on a call on the opposing team in situations with a larger series score spread. Additionally, I identify a consistent officiating bias towards the home team. My results imply an effort by the NBA to increase the probability of the series ending in a later game, possibly motivated by increased revenues for the league and all parties involved.

本研究嘗試探討美國大學籃球選手使用NBA官方效率衡量方法，計算並比較美國大學選手兩個時期其中之關聯，並期望找出最能預測NCAA籃球選手進入NBA之關鍵成功因素，以及探討選手大學表現與其預職業生涯表現之關聯性。本研究使用1996-2000年期間，208位參與選秀進入NBA的球員當作觀察對象，並以其進入NBA後10年之表現，作為評估其職業生涯之表現。 研究結果發現球員大學表現以NBA官方效率公式所計算之效率值越高，選秀順位就越前面，尤其選手的得分與阻攻影響選秀順序最大，得分越高與阻攻次數越多，選秀順位就越前面。其次，大學時期的表現與進入職業以後的表現不論用NBA的效率值，或Hollinger 的效率值都有顯著正相關。就整體而言，大學時期的養成表現，確實可預測球員職業生涯的績效。

Globalization in the sports world is a phenomenon that has received considerable attention in the sport studies literature (Maguire, 1994, 2004). A significant aspect of globalization is labor migration in professional sports, which has been investigated extensively in recent years (e.g., Magee & Sugden, 2002; Takahashi & Horne, 2006). Basketball is one sport that has been discussed in this context (Falcous & Maguire, 2005). The sports encounters of athletes in foreign cultures are often diverse and entail differing pressures, rewards, and interdependencies (Falcous & Maguire, 2005). Players may deal with significant stressors such as performance expectations as is typical of professional sport settings, while simultaneously adjusting to organizational and cultural differences. In light of the various challenges of sport participation in an unfamiliar culture, the purpose of this study was to investigate US professional basketball players’ experiences of playing overseas using an existential phenomenological interview approach (Thomas & Pollio, 2002). Ten current and former professional male players, ages 24 to 55, participated in the study. The diverse sample of this study included six Black and four White players who had competed in a total of 26 different countries. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed eight major themes, four of which pertained to athletes’ personal lives (Learning Local Mentality, Experiencing Isolation, Connecting with Others, Exploring Physical Environment) and four that dealt with basketball-specific aspects of the participants’ experiences (Dealing with “The Business,” Adjusting to Team Resources, Managing Team Dynamics, Playing “The Game”). It was concluded that while playing overseas required these players to manage difficult stressors (e.g., organizational pressures) it also afforded them with unique opportunities for personal (e.g., learning about foreign cultures) and professional (e.g., gaining a different perspective on the game of basketball) growth. In contrast to previous literature (e.g., Cronson & Mitchell, 1987; Kroll, 1979), co-participants in the current study emphasized the positive aspects of their experiences overseas rather than focusing solely on the pressures and obstacles they encountered. Both the positive and negative aspects of their overseas experience seemed to contribute to the self-actualization (Cochran & Cochran, 2006) of these players, as athletes and as people.

Title: Management of the project Jr. NBA League 2016 Objectives: The main aim of this master thesis is to elaborate a detailed analysis of the Jr. NBA League 2016 management, point out its strengths and weaknesses, potential opportunities and threats, and according to these discoveries to make a list of proposals and recommendations leading to a removing the weaknesses, an elimination of potential threats and thus to a complete development, an increasing of attractiveness and improvement of an organization of the next Jr. NBA League seasons. Methods: To achieve the aims of this master thesis were used methods of a case study, a semi-structured interview, participating observations, a document's analysis and a SWOT analysis. Results: The master thesis describes the process of this, above mentioned, sports project for children. A part of this thesis is focused on all periods necessary to organization of this type of event. Thanks to the case study were discovered many imperfections e.g. financial and communication problems. Because of these discoveries were, by the author of the thesis, proposed 8 detailed drafts to improve this project. These drafts can be also used for other similar projects. Key words: Management, marketing, sports event, organization, planning, basketball, Jr. NBA League, case...

The thesis investigates APT attacks, which are professional targeted attacks that are characterised by long-term duration and use of advanced techniques. The thesis summarises current knowledge about APT attacks and suggests seven symptoms that can be used to check, whether an organization is under an APT attack. Thesis suggests a system for detection of APT attacks based on interaction of those symptoms. This system is elaborated further for detection of attacks in computer networks, where it uses user behaviour modelling for anomaly detection. The detector uses k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) method. The APT attack recognition ability in network environment is verified by implementing and testing this detector.

This essay investigates impoliteness in the context of Twitter-based comments on award announcing tweets for the Most Valuable Player-award (MVP) in the National Basketball League (NBA) and the Women´s National Basketball League (WNBA). A comparison was made between how impoliteness is realized in the male NBA and the female WNBA,allowing for a comparison of received impoliteness based on gender. The essay spans the period of five years of MVP-winners for each league for a total of five Twitter posts per league. The data were analysed using a discourse analytical framework and werecategorised using Jonathan Culpeper´s (2005) impoliteness strategies. The essay offers an insight into how often and what type of impoliteness athletes receive on social media. As the study concludes, the results were compared and contrasted with the findings of other impoliteness studies, as well as how the landscape of sports media contributes to the presence of impoliteness on social media.

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