Three Mavericks’ point guards have the same birthday in the same year
Sports broadcasts love to throw out obscure and mostly meaningless statistics. More often than not, these bits of data depend on random coincidences such as players’ listed heights, an arbitrary confluence of counting stats, and even previously irrelevant observances like the number of times a guy falls to the floor. The key isn’t that the statistics particularly matter, but that they seem notable.
The Dallas Mavericks have inadvertently created the ultimate random statistical oddity. As noted by Reddit user “mickeyman123,” three of the team’s point guards have the same exact birthday. Deron Williams, Jose Juan Barea, and Raymond Felton were all born on June 26, 1984.
So, just how rare is this occurrence? Another user, “aurnik,” did the math on several variants of the issue and found that the possibility of one team having three of 15 players with the same birthday is roughly 0.00182 percent. Yet the probability that each player would play the same position (if we conservatively estimate that the team employs five point guards) is 0.00004 percent. Given current league age distributions, there’s a 1-in-9000 chance that three players on the same team would have turned 31 on the same day in 2015. According to the first probability, this event should occur every 1270 years.
So we’ll check back in 3285, when the NBA will presumably employ interdimensional entities that can’t even be said to have classically defined birthdays. Of course, Tim Duncan will still average 12 and 8.
It’s worth noting that Williams only signed with the Mavs in the last few days, so this trio has yet to celebrate their birthday together. Here’s hoping that everyone sticks around through next June to share the special day as a team. This cake should ensure that everyone leaves happy.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
