Basketball Assist

There is nothing like the feeling of being responsible in assisting a teammate in making the shot. Assist is similar to a pass but is one of those pass that are credited and attributed to the player’s statistics as APG or assists per game. A pass resulting in a field goal does not necessarily become credited as an assist as it requires some judgment involved. There are times a pass can be counted as an assist even if the player who receives the pass dribbles the ball first before making the basket. However, the original definition of an assist does not cover such situations, making comparison of assist statistics across different basketball eras highly incomprehensible.

The truth is assist statistics in basketball contain lots of errors as this performance indicator is filled with subjectivity. The fluctuations involved in how assists are recorded in different leagues make them hard to interpret as each leagues interpretation or description of an assist itself is different.

In a National Basketball Association statistician manual, it says that an assist should be “credited to a player tossing the last pass leading directly to a field goal, only if the player scoring the goal responds by demonstrating immediate reaction to the basket.” This sounds simple enough, but when you try to apply this definition during game play, the definition becomes very vague as there are no details on the extent a shooter should take after receiving the pass. There is no indication how much dribble, steps, pivots, moves, or fakes can be taken between the pass and shot before it can be credited as an assist.

In the game of basketball, it is the point guards that get the most assists per game. This is mostly because the role of a point guard is to be a ball handler and passer. Most center position hardly makes assists. However, if a center has a good court vision and presence, that player can help make the team dominate through assists. Since a center is always on the inside of the court, he has the best position and angles for making pass and dishes to open teammates on scoring areas. To this day, the NBA player with the most career assist is held by John Stockton with 15,806 assists and averaging about 15.5 assists per game. However, the most assist made in one game is 30 and is held by Scott Skiles of Orlando Magic back in December 1990.