Jack Toft
Years ago
Maher Theorem
Everyone has heard of the Kevin Bacon theorem. In Hollywood, all actors have a "Bacon number" indicating their degrees of freedom away from Kevin Bacon. If they have been in a film with KB, then they get a "1", if they haven't been in a film with him, but have been in a film with a person who has, they get a "2".
While Kevin Bacon is not the centre of the Hollywood universe (The Man with the Golden Gun, Christopher Lee, is) nearly all actors are within 3 degrees of freedom.
So bearing that all in mind, and with players moving around the NBL, what about the NBL's equivalent? I propose that there is a "Maher number" and rather than being in the same film, would apply to being in the same NBL team. For example, Andrew Gaze hasn't been in the same NBL team, but would have a Maher number of 2 (i.e. Copeland has played with Maher, Gaze with Copeland)
I would suggest that most NBL players would be within a few degrees of freedom of the great man.
My challenge to all you poindexters out there is simple.
Q1: What is the average Maher number of the current (2011) list of players?
Q2: If Brett is not the centre of the NBL universe, who is?
