Structure of efficiency factor at XIII, XIV, XV, and XVI World Championship in basketball

Simovic S, Matkovic B, Mijanovic M, Kocic M, Vojvodic M. Structure of efficiency factor at XIII, XIV, XV, and XVI World Championship in basketball. J. Hum. Sport Exerc. Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 527-543, 2012. Applying the method of main components by Hotelling and the method of rotation of the main components, i.e. Varimax rotations by Keiser, the latent structure of basketball efficiency was established. It was based on the fourteen manifest indicators of efficiency. Our findings refer to the sample comprised of the game-winning teams at the World Championships: in Greece, 62 basketball teams; the USA, 62 basketball teams; Japan, 80 basketball teams; and Turkey, 80 basketball teams. Factorization was performed on the entire sample of all game-winning teams, that is 284, as well as on the single game winners at the championships in Greece, USA, Japan, and Turkey. There was the total of four factor analyses and within each of them five to seven latent dimensions, i.e. factors based on the fourteen manifest efficiency parameters were extracted. Katell method of landslide indicates a clear elbow between the third and fourth component. These first three latent dimensions in all four factor analysis exhibit the stability of factors and high saturation on the side of the manifest variables. The factors have been defined as: general offensive efficiency factor, three-points shot factor and free throw factor. Having the variables that account for the total number of attempted and made shots dominant within the structure of these factors, it can be concluded that general latent structure of basketball efficiency is indeed explained by means of shot efficiency. These findings confirm both empirical and theoretical speculations of basketball experts, i.e. the overall basketball efficiency is primarily dependent on the shot efficiency, what seems entirely logical. Key words: LATENT STRUCTURE, FACTOR ANALYSIS, WINNER, SHOT