---
title: "NBA Foul Bias Analysis"
author: "George Privon, Kelly Hondula"
date: 2019-03-09
status: in progress
---

In an [online discussion](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19211538) about [game fixing by NBA referee Tim Donaghy](http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25980368/how-former-ref-tim-donaghy-conspired-fix-nba-games) there was discussion of whether the NBA actively encourages/pushes referees to adjust their calling to keep games interesting.
In that thread, the following comment was made:

>  If you've watched any NBA in the past decade you can see a trend of calling fouls against teams that are winning too heavily against favorites. It's not hard.
>
> – [drenvuk](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19212814), 20 February 2019

This seemed like something that should be straightforward to test, given available statistical data.
Fortunately the website [Eight Thirty Four](https://eightthirtyfour.com) has datasets of [play-by-play information](https://eightthirtyfour.com/data) for NBA seasons beginning in 2000.

## Data Analysis