D. Randall Smith, a contributor to the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport was interviewed about home field advantage for yesterday’s story about the New York Knicks’s abysmal season. I have to admit I didn’t know they were suffering, but I have heard David talking about the article on “Home Field Advantage.” This is just one of the many new topics covered in our latest sports publication. Publicist Jeff Rutherford was able to pass the story, and the contact with Professor Smith, to the Times. Here’s yesterday’s article, “At Home, Knicks Go From Bad to Worse”:
In the meantime, the Knicks have apparently lost the vaunted home-court advantage that teams so often cling to like a security blanket. Although not easily defined, the home advantage "is there, it's real, it's a phenomenon that's been studied for 30 years," said D. Randall Smith, a sociology professor at Rutgers who has authored some of those studies.
According to the [Berkshire] Encyclopedia of World Sport, to which Smith contributes, pro basketball teams generally win 64 to 65 percent of their home games.
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