| --- |
| license: apache-2.0 |
| pretty_name: NBA Data Archive (1996-2026) |
| tags: |
| - basketball |
| - nba |
| - sports |
| - play-by-play |
| - shot-charts |
| size_categories: |
| - 10M<n<100M |
| --- |
| |
| # NBA Data Archive |
|
|
| Parquet mirror of NBA play-by-play, shot detail, and player-matchup data |
| from the 1996/97 season through 2025/26. |
|
|
| Built and maintained as the data layer for [HoopsMatic.com](https://hoopsmatic.com) |
| analytics tools and [HoopsHype](https://hoopshype.com) editorial automation. |
| Public so other researchers and tinkerers don't have to rebuild the same |
| pipeline. |
|
|
| ## Layout |
|
|
| Two complementary layouts; pick whichever fits your query pattern. |
|
|
| ### `per_season/` |
| |
| One Parquet file per (data type, season, season type). Use this when you |
| only need a slice — a single season, a recent few years, regular season |
| only, etc. |
| |
| ``` |
| per_season/shotdetail/2024.parquet # 2024/25 regular season shots |
| per_season/shotdetail/po_2023.parquet # 2023/24 playoff shots |
| per_season/matchups/2017.parquet |
| ... |
| ``` |
| |
| ### `merged/` |
| |
| One Parquet file per data type, all seasons + season types concatenated. |
| Use this when you want to sweep the whole history at once (career-long |
| shot charts, all-time leaderboards, multi-season trend analysis). |
| |
| ``` |
| merged/shotdetail.parquet |
| merged/matchups.parquet |
| merged/nbastats.parquet |
| merged/nbastatsv3.parquet |
| merged/pbpstats.parquet |
| merged/datanba.parquet |
| merged/cdnnba.parquet |
| ``` |
| |
| Every row in both layouts carries two provenance columns: |
| |
| - `_season` — int, e.g. `2024` for the 2024/25 season |
| - `_season_type` — `"rg"` (regular) or `"po"` (playoffs) |
|
|
| ## Data types |
|
|
| | Type | Coverage | Description | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | `shotdetail` | 1996/97-2025/26 | Every shot with X/Y court coordinates, distance, make/miss, period, game context | |
| | `matchups` | 2017/18-2025/26 | Player-vs-player matchup possessions and box-score lines | |
| | `nbastats` | 1996/97-2024/25 | Classic play-by-play from stats.nba.com | |
| | `nbastatsv3` | 2020/21-2025/26 | Newer play-by-play schema | |
| | `pbpstats` | 2000/01-2024/25 | Possession-level data with start-type tags | |
| | `datanba` | 2016/17-2024/25 | Play-by-play with on-court action coordinates | |
| | `cdnnba` | 2016/17-2025/26 | Lightweight play-by-play from cdn.nba.com | |
|
|
| Playoff coverage runs through 2024/25; 2025/26 playoffs don't exist yet. |
| Some sources (`nbastats`, `pbpstats`, `datanba`) don't yet have 2025/26 |
| backfilled upstream. |
|
|
| ## Quick start |
|
|
| ```python |
| from datasets import load_dataset |
| |
| # Load all shots from a single season |
| ds = load_dataset( |
| "cdechoch/nba-data-archive", |
| data_files="per_season/shotdetail/2024.parquet", |
| split="train", |
| ) |
| |
| # Or load the full career history of every shot ever |
| ds = load_dataset( |
| "cdechoch/nba-data-archive", |
| data_files="merged/shotdetail.parquet", |
| split="train", |
| ) |
| ``` |
|
|
| Or skip the `datasets` library and read Parquet directly with `pandas` or |
| `pyarrow` — every file is standard, snappy-compressed Parquet. |
|
|
| ## Source and license |
|
|
| Underlying data collected and published by Vladislav Shufinskiy at |
| [shufinskiy/nba_data](https://github.com/shufinskiy/nba_data) under the |
| Apache License 2.0. This dataset is the same data converted to Parquet |
| and redistributed under the same license. |
|
|
| Original upstream sources, in turn: `stats.nba.com`, `data.nba.com`, |
| `cdn.nba.com`, `pbpstats.com`. |
|
|
| Statistics themselves are not copyrightable |
| (*Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service*, 1991). Player names, |
| team names, and game data are factual information used in a nominative |
| reference capacity. No NBA trademarks, logos, or proprietary content are |
| included. |
|
|
| ## Raw archives |
|
|
| The original `.tar.xz` files are mirrored at |
| [jsierrahoopshype/nba-data-archive](https://github.com/jsierrahoopshype/nba-data-archive) |
| on GitHub Releases, one release per data type, in case anyone prefers to |
| work from the CSVs. |
|
|
