Today is March 14. Aside from being Albert Einstein’s birthday, this specific date is known for another mathematically-relevant reason: it’s pi day.
Yes, pi! The number with infinitely-repeating decimals that represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter... and that also had every middle school know-it-all in a chokehold. Forever ringing in my ears will be the smugness with which Kevin Hardesty (not his real name) chanted “THREE point ONE FOUR ONE FIVE NINE TWO SIX...” and didn’t stop for nearly a minute. It felt like hours.
For those of us who didn’t bother to remember the first handful of digits, pi day may mean a little less... but thanks to basketballreference.com, we now have the definitive list of NBA players who subconsciously love pi more than others:
Portland Trail Blazers Jabari Walker and Dalano Banton both make the list, along with some NBA legends (like Spud Webb and Grant Hill) and some players who have already been lost to the sands of time (apologies to B.J. Tyler).
Banton has slowly improved his three-point shooting, from shooting 25.5% on fewer than than 3 threes per 36 minutes his rookie year, to this year where he’s taking 7.1 per 36 and hitting 36.1% of them. For his part, Walker’s average is HEAVILY buoyed by his record-breaking outburst a few weeks back, which single-handedly raised his three-point shooting on the year from 26.1% to (at the time) 34.1%.
No matter how you slice it, pi day is worth celebrating... even if the implication in this case is less-than-inspiring long range shooting.