We’ve arrived at an interesting point in major sports, where some of the highest levels of competition have become homogenized and a little predictable. Derek Thompson over at The Atlantic guessed recently that it could be due to a variation of the “Shazam effect,” a term he coined in 2014, where smart people have essentially found a way to utilize efficient data to ruin the beautiful unpredictability of life (in the case of the “Shazam effect” specifically, the kinds of songs you hear on the radio).
Basketball heat maps and baseball’s strikeout and home run numbers can tell a parallel story if you look at them a certain way.