Basketball game related statistics that discriminate between players with intellectual impairment and able-bodied players

Abstract

The development of evidence-based eligibility systems in basketball for athletes with intellectual impairment (II) requires investigating the influence of II on performance. Due to this, the present study aimed to compare game-related statistics from II and able-bodied (AB) competitions. The World Men II-Basketball Championship 2013 (n=13 games and 63 players) and the Spanish Men AB-Basketball Championships 2014 under 16-years-old (n=10 games and 95 players) and under 18-years-old (n=18 games and 175 players) were analyzed. Team and individual statistics were normalized to 100 ball possessions and to 40 minutes played respectively. One-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey tests were conducted to compare II and AB-teams. Also, a discriminant analysis was employed to identify which variables discriminated them best. The Kruskal-Wallis and U Mann-Whitney tests were applied to compare the II and AB individual game-related statistics. II-teams played more ball possessions per game (p<0.05) and the variables which best discriminated II and AB-teams were: 2-point unsuccessful shots │SC=-0.384│, 3-point successful │SC=0.456│, 3-point unsuccessful │SC=- 0.399│, free-throws successful │SC=0.319│ and fouls │SC=0.454│. In all playing positions II-players presented more 2-point unsuccessful and lower shooting percentage in all kind of shots. II-guards attempted more field shots and made more turnovers than their peers, showing an unbalanced roles' distribution compared with AB-players. These results confirmed that II and AB-players perform basketball in different ways.