APBRmetrics

simplexml for php is pretty good. if you're interested in what espn/other websites are 'hiding' from you, i'd recommend using firebug. you can see what requests are made and figure out the data source from there, making it easier to retrieve the data you're looking for

i use python with BeautifulSoup, it is quite simple to do import urllib2 import urllib from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulStoneSoup def get_shot_cord(game_id): """ Import Shot Coordinates for game_id """ shot_url = 'http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/gamepackage/data/shot?ga...

espn has shot distance and x,y coordinates for all shots

you have to parse it from
'http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/gamepacka ... ot?gameId=' + game_id

wilq wrote:For any specific reason?

Creating a parser for espn pbp.

working on a parser myself for espn pbp data

for missing shot distances you can get x,y coordinates and distances from the shot data page (plus you then get x,y coordinates)

"http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/gamepacka ... ot?gameId=" + game_id

I am looking through play-by-play data from 2005 (I think this occurs from 2002-2005), and there seems to be two different templates for a 'jump ball' play. I will use this game as an example: http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/playbyplay?gameId=251101021&period=0 1) Time: Start of 1st Quarter Play: ...