Independent basketball research since 2006ish

It’s coming back

This is a basketball data and analysis site that has been around forever, rarely with any cohesive purpose or structure, and liable to drastic change on a whim. Over the years, it has done a lot of things, the main one of which was to gather dust. It got good at it, too.

Now, though, it does – or will do – four things, designed to bring together player research, NBA salary information, cap tools and Collective Bargaining Agreement reference material in one deliberately over-detailed basketball operations site CV thing. It’s coming back. And hopefully, so are you.

Search the player database
View NBA salaries

The Basketball Manifesto

From the archive
The Basketball Manifesto
Explore the project →

●NBASalaries →
●G LeagueRosters →
●EuroLeagueRosters →
●EuroCupRosters →
●NCAAPlayers →
●WorldwideBrowse →

Database

Player Database

Featuring over 11,000 players around the world. One day, this will be a paywalled product for agent partners. That day is not today. About nine years into this project and it’s, what, 60% done? (Still, it’s getting there.) Profiles, career paths, current teams, scouting reports, contact details and player movement from across the basketball world.

Explore the database →

NBA finances

NBA Salaries

Team-by-team salary positions, contract commitments and the numbers shaping roster decisions.

Coming back soon! Really!

View NBA salaries →

Tool

The Capulator

Rather than writing out cap scenarios, with The Capulator, users can essentially draw them, save them, and share them. Ever written an offseason planning piece in which you devise various moves for your team, and create all kinds of charts and descriptions and whatever else to show your working to people? You needn’t now bother. Come here and draw it.

Be as fantastical or as realistic as you choose. The Capulator is not deterministic, and need not be realistic if you don’t want it to be. What it is, it is hoped, is militarily precise about what is legal and possible. It does not tell you what to do. But we are hoping it does tell you what you can do.

Open the Capulator →

Reference

CBA Glossary

Plain-English explanations of NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement rules, including the obscure and irritating ones. The CBA Glossary is an attempt at explaining the complex legal document that is the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. It is designed to cover the complicated rules of the CBA – how they impact NBA roster decisions, what can be done, when it should be done, and why things happen – from the basics to the arcane. It is designed to be accessible and palatable to all.

(Not quite ready. Emphasis on quite. It’s close, very close.)

Read the glossary →

Database shortcuts

Find what you need

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Advanced player searchFilter by team, league, country, position, nationality and career status.Open →

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Browse playersExplore the complete database by league, country, name or position.Open →

Random playerOpen one profile from the database and disappear down an entirely avoidable rabbit hole.Open →

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Team rostersView current roster records and player information team by team.Open →

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The Basketball ManifestoThe large-scale scouting and roster-building project behind much of the database.Open →

About ShamSportsWhat the site is, who built it and the writing, research and media work behind it.Open →

It is for nerds, if we’re honest

Basketball operations, and everything that goes into team building.

The purpose of ShamSports is the overlap: player evaluation affects contracts, contracts affect transactions, transactions affect roster construction, and roster construction bring forth obscure CBA questions. This website is the perpetually unfinished pseudo-culmination of many years of laborious and financially unsuccessful study of the NBA, and more specifically, studies of the basketball operations side of its business. I am continuously intrigued by the esoterica and minutiae of all the aspects of building an NBA basketball team. I want to build the best basketball teams possible. No, I don’t know why, either.

Start with the database →