bSPARQ

bSPARQ is an offshoot of SPARQ, which stands for Speed Power Agility Reaction and Quickness, and it is a tool to measure the athleticism of NBA Draft prospects.

NBA% is the percentile of athleticism a player’s bSPARQ scores at his position. Those position designations are automated based on how a player was listed at the NBA Combine.

SPARQ was originally developed by NIKE and some version of it has been used to measure the athleticism of athletes for several years. It is extremely popular among certain NFL teams, for example. By reverse-engineering the formula that was used to measure SPARQ for high-school athletes, we were able to create a similar metric to measure the athleticism of NBA prospects.

bSPARQ ratings are available only for players who participated in the 3/4 court sprint, lane agility drill, bench press, standing vertical leap, and maximum vertical leap, and had measurements taken of their height, weight, and standing reach. If a player is unlisted, he did not participate in the requisite number of drills to qualify for a bSPARQ score.

bSPARQ does NOT measure how good a player is at basketball. It strictly measures his performance in athletic testing at the combine relative to his peers. The bSPARQ Athletic Similarity Scores are generated solely using anthropometric and strength and agility testing numbers from the combine and do not have a player performance component.