Do Muslim athletes perform better when fasting

during Ramadan?
Dauphin Abdullah Flores
B.S. Computer Engineering, University of Maryland Baltimore County

To whom correspondence should be addressed; e-mail: E7E438E2@opayq.com

The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of fasting during the month
of Ramadan on an athletes individual performance. The side-effects of ab-

staining from food and water during daylight hours while participating in
athletic competitions is disputed among athletes, fans, and sports journalists
around the world. This study examines the statistical careers of both Muslim

and non-Muslim professional basketball players in the NBA. The findings may
be useful for Muslim athletes who compete during the month of Ramadan to
better train and prepare for events. This study analyses individual claims of

performance enhancement or degradation, but further advancements in data

collection for sports are necessary in order to search for larger trends.

1 Introduction

Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic lunar calendar. Among other things, it is a time of
compulsory fasting for able-bodied adult Muslims. Abstaining from food and water during day-

light hours may prove difficult for professional athletes, so some opt to use special exemptions
to postpone their fast until a later date, but many Muslim athletes observe the fast even while

1
competing. Common sense might suggest that their physical performance would be negatively

impacted by the lack of nutrition and hydration, but many athletes claim that their performance
is actually enhanced.
The actual impact of fasting can be found by comparing the individual statistical measures

of an athletes performances during Ramadan to their performances during the rest of the year.
Given a large enough sample size of performances during and outside of Ramadan, any trends
or lack thereof will be revealed.

2 Materials & Methods

2.1 Materials

Initially, a list of Muslim professional athletes encompassing all of the major sports was com-
piled. Most athletes were disqualified due to the lack of meaningful individual statistics that

are tracked in their sport, most notably futbol. Others were disqualified due to an insufficient
sample size, often the result of a short career or too few games played during Ramadan. Finally,
each individual was investigated for conclusive evidence of their participation in fasting during

Ramadan.
After this filtering process only three candidates remained, all of whom were basketball
players in the NBA. While it would have been preferable to examine trends across every sport

in order to identify any anomalies, having a group of players who not only played the same
sport, but also in the same league allows for more direct comparisons between each individual.
If given a choice of one sport to focus the study on, baseball would have been the first option

given the individual nature of the sport and the advanced individual statistics that are tracked for
all athletes. However, there has only been one known Muslim MLB player, and his career barely
lasted two seasons. While baseball would have been ideal, focusing instead on basketball does

not compromise this research. Currently basketball has the second most advanced individual

2
statistics of the professional sports, right behind baseball. Also, the distribution of statistical

events in basketball is spread more evenly across all positions than in any other sport.
Along with the final group of four, a group of four non-Muslim athletes was chosen as the
control for the experiment. Each Muslim athlete was paired with a non-Muslim athlete who

had a similar playing style, a similar career length, overlapping years of activity, and a similar
number of games played during Ramadan.

2.2 Methods

Game logs for each Muslim athlete were compiled over their entire career. Then the data was
normalised to remove the effects of ageing. For Olajuwan this was done by uniformly adjusting

all performances that occurred after his name change. For each of the other players (including
the control group), it was assumed that their peak age would be 25 years old. Then, each game
of their careers was adjusted according to their age at the time of that game. For example, a

game played at age 26 would have a very small adjustment for ageing, while a game played at
age 36 would have a much larger adjustment to account for this effect.
Next, their average performance in each statistical category during the Ramadan fast was

calculated as a percentage change relative to their averages outside of Ramadan. These calcu-
lations were performed on all counting and rate statistics available for each player, but only the
statistics most relevant to their particular position were used for the final analysis.

The same process was then repeated for the control group of non-Muslim athletes. Their
performances provide a baseline by which to compare athletes who fast during Ramadan with

those who do not. Theoretically, an athlete who does not observe Ramadan should see no
statistically meaningful difference between their performances during and outside of Ramadan.
For this study, the threshold for any data to have statistical meaning was established as

5.0%. This is due to the fact that NBA players have a small sample size with only 82 regular

3
season games, and up to 21 playoff games. Any change with a magnitude of less that 5% could

be the result of luck or a number of other factors that do not represent real statistical trends.

3 Results
3.1 Hakeem Olajuwan

The first Muslim athlete to be analysed was Hakeem Olajuwan. Olajuwan was a center in the
NBA from 1984 thru 2002. He received many personal accolades throughout his career, won

two league championships, and an Olympic gold medal. After retiring, he was inducted into
both the NBA and the FIBA Hall of Fame, and was named one of the 50 greatest players in
NBA history (1).

The analysis of Olajuwans career was slightly complicated by the fact that although he
grew up as a Muslim, he did not observe Ramadan during the first half of his career. On 9
March 1991 he changed his name from Akeem Abdul Olajuwon to Hakeem Olajuwan. The

change was symbolic of his decision to refocus on his faith and to strictly observe the practice
of fasting during Ramadan (2).
Using this information about his life, we can separate each game of his 1,384 game career

into four categories. This will allow us to isolate and identify the effects of Ramadan on his
performances. The categories are as follows, with the number of games and the percentage of
his career in parentheses:

1. Non-Ramadan Games Prior to the Name Change (493 games, 35.6%)

2. Ramadan Games Prior to the Name Change (56 games, 4.0%)

3. Non-Ramadan Games After to the Name Change (716 games, 51.7%)
4. Ramadan Games After to the Name Change (119 games, 8.6%)

Rather than seeing fasting as a burden, Olajuwan believed that his performances during

4
Ramadan were enhanced. He believed that he was in better physical and mental condition when

fasting (3). Many media outlets have even supported the idea that Olajuwan played better during
Ramadan, with most pointing to his NBA Player of the Month award in February 1995 award
as proof (4) of this.

In order to validate these claims, we first analysed his performance during February of 1995.
Olajuwan played the position of center, so the statistics used for his analysis were Points Scored
(PTS), True Shooting Percentage (TS%), Total Rebound Percentage (TRB%), Block Percentage

(BLK%), Offensive Rating (ORtg), Defensive Rating (DRtg), and Game Score (GmSc) (see
section 5 for the glossary of terms). We compared his performance in these categories during
February to his performance during the rest of the year and found that in all seven categories,

the change in his performance was within the margin of error. This means that statistically, his
performance that season did not increase during the month of February.
When we then compared his 1994-95 season to the rest of his career, we found that he was

up 30.87% in PTS, 8.01% in BLK%, and 21.73% in GmSc. The difference in his TS%, DRtg,
and ORtg were within the margin of error, and his TRB% was down 8.95%. We can conclude
that because his performance during February of 1995 was on par with his entire season that

year, Ramadan did not cause any significant changes in his performance.
It is likely that Olajuwan did not receive the NBA Player of the Month award for February
of 1995 based solely on his performances that month. For one, we have already mentioned that

the 1995-96 season was one of the best of his career, so he was likely a front-runner for the
award during the entire season. But a number of events in February put the spotlight on the
Houston Rockets, and Olajuwan in particular:

1. 02 February 1995: Houston Rockets ended Utahs 15-game road winning streak, stopping
them one game short of tying the NBA record. (5)

2. 12 February 1995: Olajuwan started for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star

5
 Game, and posted a double-double with 11 rebounds and 13 points.

3. 14 February 1995: Houston acquired Clyde Drexler from the Portland Trail Blazers
4. 19 February 1995: Olajuwan reached 10,000 rebounds.

It is important to note that while all of these events and achievements had the combined
effect of Olajuwan being named the NBA Player of the Month, none of them are directly related
to his individual performance that month.

After debunking his supposedly Ramadan-boosted performance of February 1995, we ex-

amined the rest of his performances during Ramadan throughout his career. First we compared
all of his Ramadan games to all of his non-Ramadan games, including games before and after

his name change. We found that his performances were marginally better, with PTS up 5.44%,
GmSc up 7.41%, and BLK% up 11.12%, while the change in his TS%, TRB%, ORtg, and DRtg
were all within the margin of error.

These results seemed to suggest that Olajuwan performed slightly better during Ramadan,
but when we removed the games that he played prior to his name change and only examined
games where he was actually observing the fast of Ramadan, we found that his BLK% was only

up 8.68% and the rest of the changes were within the margin of error. These results can be seen
in Figure 1.
In order to explain the discrepancies between his Ramadan performances before and after

the name change, we then compared his Ramadan Games Prior to the Name Change to the rest
of his career. We found that he performed significantly better in 5 of the 7 categories during
these games: +26.08% PTS, +9.69% TRB%, +14.49% BLK%, +6.01% ORtg, +31.26% GmSc.

His TS% and DRtg were both within the margin of error.
We can conclude that, contrary to his personal statements, Olajuwan did not perform better
during Ramadan when he was observing the fast. Fasting during Ramadan had no meaningful

impact on his statistical performances.

6
 Patrick Ewing was chosen as the control group counterpart to Olajuwan. Both athletes

played the center position, had similar body types (Olajuwan 70 255 lbs, Ewing 70 240 lbs),
overlapping careers (Olajuwan 18 seasons 1984-2002, Ewing 17 seasons 1985-2002), similar
calibre (both #1 overall draft picks, both inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2008), and they

have an 81.7 career similarity score (6).

In Figure 2, we see that Ewing saw no statistically meaningful change in any of the 7 cat-
egories during Ramadan. This was the expected result, since he was not fasting during these

games.

3.2 Shareef Abdur-Rahim

The second Muslim athlete to be analysed was Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Abdur-Rahim was a
forward and center in the NBA from 1996 thru 2008. After being picked #3 overall in the 1996
NBA draft, he was selected to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. He won a gold medal with the

USA Olympic Team in 2000, and was named an NBA All-Star during the 2001-02 season.
Abdur-Rahim claimed that fasting during Ramadan had no effect on his performance (7).

He said that because he had been observing the fast for many years, he had grown accustomed
to it and it was not a hardship for him. If these claims are true, there should be no statistical
difference between his performances that took place during Ramadan, and those that did not.

During his career, Abdur-Rahim played in 837 games, with 111 of those (13.3%) taking
place during Ramadan. Since he primarily played the forward position and sometimes cen-
ter, we chose to focus on the following statistical categories for his analysis: Steal Percentage

(STL%), Usage Percentage (USG%), Game Score (GmSc), Total Rebounds (TRB), Block Per-
centage (BLK%), and Points (PTS).
The results of this analysis can be found in Figure 3. Surprisingly we found that Abdur-

Rahim performed significantly better in each of the 6 statistical categories that we examined:

7
+9.4% STL%, +5.38% USG%, +16.88% GmSc, +12.87% TRB, +27.45% BLK%, and +14.9%

PTS. Furthermore, when we expanded our analysis to check the data for any inconsistencies
that we might have missed, we found that he performed better or within the margin of error in
every single category.

Clifford Robinson was chosen as the control group counterpart to Abdur-Rahim. Both
athletes played the forward and center positions, had similar body types (Abdur-Rahim 69
255 lbs, Robinson 610 225 lbs), overlapping careers (Abdur-Rahim 13 seasons 1996-2008,

Robinson 19 seasons 1989-2007), played in a similar number of games during Ramadan (Abdur-
Rahim 111 games, Robinson 201 games), and they have an 93.2 career similarity score (6).
In Figure 4, we see that Robinson performed better in half of the categories (+11.44%

USG%, +10.43% GmSc, and +14.92% PTS), and within the margin of error for the other half.
These results were also surprising. Robinson played over 200 games that took place during
Ramadan, and they were spread across most of his career with the earliest in 1990 and the latest

in 2005. We would expect the large number of games and their even distribution to filter out
any small-scale trends, and his performances during these games to be more consistent with his
career averages. However, because this was not the case, it suggests that perhaps the sample

size was still not quite large enough.

3.3 Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf

The third Muslim athlete to be analysed was Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Abdul-Rauf was a point
guard in the NBA from 1990 thru 2001. After being picked #3 overall in the 1990 NBA draft,

he spent most of his career with the Denver Nuggets. He was known for his accurate shooting,
and is still regarded as the best free throw shooter of all time (8). But his career was cut short
when he was blacklisted for his controversial religious views (9).

Abdul-Rauf was often criticised for fasting during the season, but he claimed that he felt

8
more energetic during Ramadan (10). Over his 601 game career, Abdul-Rauf played in 98

Ramadan games, which was 16.3% of his career. Although his career was short, this sample
size should be large enough to detect any significant trends in the data.
Because of his position and style of play, we examined his performances in the follow-

ing statistical categories: Defensive Rating (DRtg), Offensive Rating (ORtg), Points (PTS),
True Shooting Percentage (TS%), Field Goal Percentage (FG%), 3-Point Field Goal Percent-
age (3P%), and Free Throw Percentage (FT%).

As seen in Figure 5, we found that Abdul-Rauf performed marginally better in FT% (+5.04%)
and TS% (+7.89%), within the margin of error for DRtg, and worse in ORtg (-10.22%), PTS
(-5.58%), FG% (-6.17%), and 3P% (-25.64%). These results show that although fasting did not

negatively impact all aspects of his performance, he did see a significant drop in several areas.
Eric Murdock was chosen as the control group counterpart to Abdul-Rauf. Both athletes
played the point guard position, had similar body types (Abdul-Rauf 61 162 lbs, Murdock

61 190 lbs), overlapping careers (Abdul-Rauf 9 seasons 1990-2000, Murdock 11 seasons

1991-2000), played in a similar number of games during Ramadan (Abdul-Rauf 98 games,
Murdock 91 games), and they have an 83.4 career similarity score (6).

In Figure 6 we see that Murdock only saw a statistically meaningful change in one of the
seven categories (-8.430% 3P%). This provides us with a good baseline to compare Abdul-
Raufs performance, and proves that there were no macro factors that affected players across

the league.

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4 Figures

The figures on pages 11 thru 13 show the changes in performance seen during Ramadan for
each of the athletes selected for this study. Each page compares one Muslim athlete to their

control group counterpart. The order is as follows:

Page 11: Hakeem Olajuwan vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabar

Page 12: Shareef Abdur-Rahim vs. Patrick Ewing
Page 13: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf vs. Clifford Robinson

The names of each statistical category are abbreviated along the x-axis. The full names and
definitions of these categories can be found in the Glossary in Section 6 of this document. Note

that the categories are different for each pair of athletes.

The percentage change in performance is found along the y-axis. There are indicator lines
for 20% and 40% changes. Because the margin of error for this study was defined as 5.0%,

all values less than or equal to +5.0% and greater than or equal to -5.0% are coloured grey, indi-
cating no change in performance during Ramadan. All values greater than +5.0% are coloured
green to indicate a positive change in performance during Ramadan. Likewise, all values less

than -5.0% are coloured red to indicate a negative change in performance during Ramadan.

10
Figure 1: Hakeem Olajuwan

Figure 2: Patrick Ewing

11
Figure 3: Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Figure 4: Clifford Robinson

12
Figure 5: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf

Figure 6: Eric Murdock

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5 Discussion
5.1 Issues

The most persistent problem encountered during this study was the lack of data available. Some
sports, such as futbol, do not collect enough data on individual performance (11). This caused
many Muslim athletes to be eliminated from the pool of candidates for this study. Even for

basketball, players from older generations were disqualified simply because most individual
statistics were not tracked prior to the 1973-74 season (12), and the 3-point shot was not even
implemented until the 1979-80 season. For example, Muslim NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabar

played half of his career before the invention of the 3-point line, and he played a quarter of his
career before blocks and steals were tracked.
Another major reason for disqualification was a lack of games played during Ramadan. For

sports such as American football that only hold games once per week, athletes only play in 2 or
3 games during Ramadan that year. Other athletes did not have long enough careers to play in
more than a few Ramadan games. Even though Ramadan occurs at a different time every year,

some players only participated in a handful of Ramadan games over their entire career.
The final precluding factor was a lack of evidence proving an athletes participation in Ra-
madan. Most athletes from Turkey, Iran, and other Muslim majority countries are not publicly

questioned about their religion, and therefore never explicitly discuss religious issues such as
Ramadan. In contrast, in countries like the United States, where the general attitude towards
Islam ranges from fetishising (13) to curiosity (14) to hatred (15), Muslim athletes are far more

likely to be questioned about their religious practises. Still, most athletes never discuss their
participation in Ramadan. Two Muslim NBA players, Kenneth Faried and Larry Johnson, were
contacted for comment for this study, but neither responded to our request.

14
5.2 Improvements

In any future iterations of this study, the easiest way to make improvements would be to increase

the sample size. There are a couple ways to achieve this. The first solution would be to increase
the number of Muslim athletes in sports that track detailed individual statistics. Baseball is
unquestionably at the vanguard of sports statistics, especially with the recent deployment of the

radar-based tracking system, StatCast, by the MLB (16). This would be an ideal solution, but
we do not suggest it is probable or even feasible.
Another possible solution would be to improve the tracking of individual statistics in sports

that already have a large number of Muslim athletes. Futbol is an obvious candidate with its
popularity in Muslim-majority countries around the world, but the sport has been slow to adapt
more advanced statistics (17). The only issue with this solution is that unless statistics were

retroactively collected for previous games, it would take years to accumulate enough data to
draw any real conclusions.
Improvements could also be made to this study in the future by accounting for any Muslim

athletes who choose to use the travelling exemption (18) to delay their fast. Short of contacting
all of the athletes to question them about their use of this exemption, one might choose to
assume that players invoked it for all away games. This method is not perfect, but it might

provide new insight.

Lastly, an additional area to investigate would be the performance of athletes who fast for
reasons other than Ramadan. This might reveal the psychological effects of fasting for a reli-

gious purpose as opposed to a medical or other purpose. It would also be interesting to compare
the effects of fasting over different periods of time, or of abstaining from different foods.

15
5.3 Conclusion

The study shows that there is no evidence that fasting during Ramadan has a uniform effect

on Muslim professional athletes. Some athletes performed better during Ramadan, some per-
formed worse, and some saw no change in their performance at all. While athletes often claim
to perform better during Ramadan, and spectators and managers blame fasting for athletes

poor performances, this study proves broad generalisations in both extremes about the effects
of fasting during Ramadan are scientifically unfounded. However, it is possible to find trends
among individual athletes. We found that the positive effects that many athletes claimed to feel

did not translate into an improvement in their performance. Managers and coaches should be
aware of the possibility of an imagined effect, and respond accordingly. Each athlete has a
unique body type, training regimen, diet, and physical and mental limits, so they each respond

to fasting differently. Athletes and their trainers should use the examples set forth in this study
to identify their personal response to fasting, and to cater their preparation to help optimise their
performance.

6 Glossary

All terms and definitions were are given as defined by the Basketball Reference Glossary (19).

6.1 Counting Statistics

1. G Season Game
2. Age Age of Player at the start of February 1st of that season.
3. Tm Team

4. Opp Opponent
5. GS Games Started
6. MP Minutes Played

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 7. FG Field Goals

8. FGA Field Goal Attempts

9. FG% Field Goal Percentage
10. 3P 3-Point Field Goals

11. 3PA 3-Point Field Goal Attempts

12. 3P% 3-Point Field Goal Percentage
13. FT Free Throws

14. FTA Free Throw Attempts

15. FT% Free Throw Percentage
16. ORB Offensive Rebounds

17. DRB Defensive Rebounds

18. TRB Total Rebounds
19. AST Assists

20. STL Steals

21. BLK Blocks
22. TOV Turnovers

23. PF Personal Fouls

24. PTS Points
25. +/- Plus/Minus

6.2 Rate Statistics

1. TS% True Shooting Percentage: A measure of shooting efficiency that takes into ac-
count 2-point field goals, 3-point field goals, and free throws.
2. eFG% Effective Field Goal Percentage: This statistic adjusts for the fact that a 3-point

field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal.

17
 3. ORB% Offensive Rebound Percentage: An estimate of the percentage of available

offensive rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor.

4. DRB% Defensive Rebound Percentage: An estimate of the percentage of available
defensive rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor.

5. TRB% Total Rebound Percentage: An estimate of the percentage of available rebounds

a player grabbed while he was on the floor.
6. AST% Assist Percentage: An estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a

player assisted while he was on the floor.

7. STL% Steal Percentage: An estimate of the percentage of opponent possessions that
end with a steal by the player while he was on the floor.

8. BLK% Block Percentage: An estimate of the percentage of opponent two-point field

goal attempts blocked by the player while he was on the floor.
9. TOV% Turnover Percentage: An estimate of turnovers committed per 100 plays.

10. USG% Usage Percentage: An estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player
while he was on the floor.
11. ORtg Offensive Rating: An estimate of points produced (players) or scored (teams) per

100 possessions
12. DRtg Defensive Rating: An estimate of points allowed per 100 possessions
13. GmSc Game Score: the formula is PTS + 0.4 * FG - 0.7 * FGA - 0.4*(FTA - FT) + 0.7

* ORB + 0.3 * DRB + STL + 0.7 * AST + 0.7 * BLK - 0.4 * PF - TOV. Game Score was
created by John Hollinger to give a rough measure of a players productivity for a single
game. The scale is similar to that of points scored, (40 is an outstanding performance, 10

is an average performance, etc.).

18
References and Notes

1. 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. National Basketball Association. 29 Oct 1996.

http://www.nba.com/history/players/50greatest.html .

2. Hakeem Olajuwon A Ramadan Interview. Beliefnet. Dec 2000.

http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/islam/2000/12/hakeem-olajuwon-a-ramadan-
interview.aspx .

3. Athletes Fasting Puts a Spotlight on Islam. Associated Press. 17 Feb 1996.

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-17/local/me-37049 1 fasting-requirements .

4. Ramadan or not, Hakeem Olajuwon was a dominant force in NBA. The National. 4

Aug 2013. http://www.thenational.ae/sport/north-american-sport/ramadan-or-not-hakeem-

olajuwon-a-dominant-force-in-nba .

5. This Date In the NBA: February. NBA Media Ventures. 17 Jul 2015.
http://www.nba.com/history/this-date-feb/ .

6. Similarity Scores. Sports Reference LLC. 2016. http://www.basketball-

reference.com/about/similar.html .

7. Abdur-Rahim: Ramadan Fast Wont Affect Me. San Francisco Gate. 25 Jan 1996.
http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Abdur-Rahim-Ramadan-Fast-Won-t-Affect-Me-
2996799.php .

8. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf: Here, gone and quickly forgotten. SB Nation. 25 Mar 2014.

http://www.sbnation.com/2014/3/25/5544920/mahmoud-abdul-rauf-nuggets-national-
anthem .

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 9. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf: Sometimes you have to sit to make a stand. SB Nation: Denver

Stiffs. 03 Sep 2013. http://www.denverstiffs.com/2013/9/3/4682642/mahmoud-abdul-rauf-

sometimes-you-have-to-sit-to-make-a-stand .

10. For Abdul-Rauf, Getting It Right Isnt That Simple. The Washington Post. 23 Mar
1994. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1994/03/23/for-abdul-rauf-getting-

it-right-isnt-that-simple/d34e50d8-0313-45bc-bfc0-ecbe0d02a57d/ .

11. When It Comes to Stats, Soccer Seldom Counts. The New York Times. 8 Jul 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/sports/soccer/09soccerstats.htmll .

12. How Do You Measure Hustle in the NBA? Theres a Stat for That. Grantland. 23
Jul 2015. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/how-do-you-measure-hustle-in-the-nba-theres-

a-stat-for-that/ .

13. The Miami porn star getting death threats from Lebanon. The Washington Post. 6
Jan 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/01/06/the-miami-
porn-star-getting-death-threats-from-lebanon/ .

14. Conversion To Islam One Result Of Post-9/11 Curiosity. The Huffington Post. 24 Aug 2011.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/24/post-911-islam-converts n 935572.html .

15. A shame on America: Hate attacks on U.S. Muslims are

spiking and wheres the outrage?. Salon. 18 Dec 2015.

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/17/a shame on america hate attacks on u s muslims are -

spiking and wheres the outrage/ .

16. Here are the new stats MLB is measuring from each play with StatCast real-time tracking
technology. Geek Wire. 21 Apr 2015. http://www.geekwire.com/2015/here-are-the-new-

stats-mlb-is-measuring-from-each-play-with-statcast-real-time-tracking-technology/ .

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17. The Most Important New Advanced Soccer Statistics and Why They Matter. Bleacher

Report. 9 Apr 2013. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1597790-the-most-important-new-

advanced-soccer-statistics-and-why-they-matter .

18. Travel that permits a person to refrain from fasting in Ramadan. Islam Today. Unknown.
http://en.islamtoday.net/quesshow-57-1785.htm .

19. Glossary. Basketball Reference. 2016. http://www.basketball-

reference.com/about/glossary.html .

21