Real-Life Decision Making
Tonight's a home game for your favorite basketball team, the Eagles, and you will be packing along your portable computer and recording the game's statistics. As events happen on the court, you will enter the information into your laptop using a special coding to attribute activities to the correct player for each team.
As a freelance sports statistician, you have a contract to keep the statistics for the Eagles. Normally, teams are responsible for ensuring that statistics are recorded for home games played. When the Eagles play out of town, it is the other team's responsibility to record the stats.
As a recorder of sports statistics, you are often required to make an interpretation, a judgment, about what has happened. For instance, in a basketball game, a player comes up the court and throws the ball at his teammate. The other player fumbles and doesn't catch it.
You will have to credit a turnover. Do you give it to the passer because of a bad pass or to the receiver because he didn't catch the pass? That's one of the primary judgment calls that you will have to make. The correct answer in this case would be the teammate who received the pass because he fumbled it, which implied that he touched it and therefore had a chance to catch it.
Since you're an ardent Eagles fan, you have been recording stats for the Eagles for quite some time. You have become friends with some of the team members. You attend the evening's game and keep the stats, as you always do. However, after the game is over, one of your favorite players approaches you and asks for a favor.
He says, "Hey pal, how about crediting me with that pass that led to a score? I really need to get my numbers up or the coach will dump me from the team."
You are sure that another player made that pass. However, you also know that your friend has been playing poorly for a while because he is distracted by some family problems. You feel sorry for him and you are certain that he will return to his usual good game once things settle down at home.
However, if he is taken off the team, he will lose that chance. The player who really made the pass is in good shape and doesn't really need the credits.
What do you do?