Stumbling On Wins Contest

UPDATE: We have a winner! Buck Nasty’s name was selected at random and will now have a brand new copy of Stumbling On Wins by Dave Berri and Michael Schmidt. Here are the answers:

Question 1: C. Ron Artest
Question 2: D. Jamal Sampson
Question 3: A. Peja Stojakovic
Question 4: D. Brian Grant

We will have another contest next week to give you another shot at winning a copy of the book.

—————————————————————————————————————————-

As a blog gets more notoriety, you start to get asked about pushing products for random companies that have just started up and are looking for exposure. The ironic thing is that you’re probably not anymore well known than they are but you try to luck into some cross-promotion in the hopes that both sides will see a significant boost in traffic.

But occasionally, you get the opportunity to go out and review something that you feel lucky to promote. Some of you may know David Berri and Martin Schmidt from the Wages of Win Journal. It’s a part of my Google Reader and something that I feel makes me a smarter basketball fan every time I read it. With the way advanced statistics have helped us understand sports so much more, it almost seems detrimental to your sports knowledge if you’re not attempting to get more in-depth with the statistical world.

Well, David Berri and Martin B. Schmidt have written a second book (First one can be found here – The Wages Of Wins) and I have the pleasure of reviewing it. Stumbling On Wins is a fantastic read and I’ll have a review of it later on this week. You can go buy it here right now and I recommend that you do. However, we are running a contest along with the promotion of this book and you will get a chance to win yourself a copy.

Contest Rules

It’s pretty simple. There are questions below that you’ll have to answer and for those of you who answer the questions correctly, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free copy of the book. If you get half of the questions correctly, you’ll get an additional entry for the contest. If you get all of the questions correct, you’ll get another two entries into the drawing. All in all, you can have up to four entries off of answering the questions correctly.

You can submit the answers in the comments below or by email (send it to zharper@cowbellkingdom[dot]com). The contest will run until Thursday morning at 10am PST. Then I will compile all of the entries and announce a winner. It won’t be the only opportunity you get to win a book either. We’ll be holding more contests for the book.

Also, FT Press (who published the book) would also like to let you know that people who do not win these contests can still get a reward.  When you purchase Stumbling on Wins from 4/12 – 4/18, you’re entitled to access to a free bonus article – more than 2,000 words in length — on the NBA Draft.  Simply forward a copy of your dated receipt to [email protected].  A PDF version of the article will be forwarded to your inbox.  You can purchase the book at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Borders, and FT PRess.

Without further ado, here are the four multiple choice questions to answer:

Question 1: The Kings haven’t won 50 games in a season since the 2004-05 campaign. Since that time, wins have been pretty difficult to come by. According to the Win Shares stat, Kevin Martin and Brad Miller have been the most productive players for the Kings since their last 50-win season. Who is third?

A: Beno Udrih

B: John Salmons

C: Ron Artest

D: Mike Bibby

Question 2: In the same time frame (2005-06 season to present day), who has had the highest cumulative Win Shares Per 48 Minutes?

A: Brad Miller

B: Carl Landry

C: Ike Diogu

D: Jamal Sampson

Question 3: In the past 10 seasons, the Kings have had six players play at least 10,000 total minutes with a PER (Player Efficiency Rating) over 10.0. Chris Webber has the highest cumulative PER of the six. Who is second?

A: Peja Stojakovic

B: Kevin Martin

C: Doug Christie

D: Brad Miller

E: Mike Bibby

Question 4: Since the Kings franchise has come to Sacramento, there have been 19 Kings rookies to play at least 1,000 minutes in their first season and accumulate a PER over 10.0. Tyreke Evans has the best of the bunch with an 18.3 PER. Who has the second highest?

A: Walt Williams

B: Jason Williams

C: Lionel Simmons

D: Brian Grant

E: Peja Stojakovic