Image factors and typologies of professional basketball players

Coaches appoint players based on an image of them that is a synthesis of a large amount of subjective information, and spectators have expectations about the player’s performance based on the player’s image. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to extract image factors from the subjective characteristics of players, to typify players based on the combination of “offensive factors,” which play a central role in the image and other factors, as well as to further compare. The evaluators were 67 coaches who hold JBA-certified coaching licenses, and the evaluated players were 12 basketball players who have played in the B. LEAGUE (B1), which has a high degree of recognition in Japan, in order to make the evaluations easier for many people to form an image. The evaluators responded to a questionnaire on subjective characteristics consisting of 35 items about the evaluated player using a five-point scale. After the principal factor solution was performed on the data obtained, an oblique rotation with Promax criteria was conducted. As a result, the four factors of were extracted by categorization based on the expert’s image, and further categorization. The typology of players based on subjective images indicated that three factors influenced the classification. The objective data also showing similarities and differences among the subjective classification of the positions and physical ability of the players. The above result allows us to suggest that the experts have a more detailed image of the offense.