Zion Williamson has a well-established affinity for food. His Raising Cane’s orders are the stuff of legend, and his ability to down gumbo is nothing short of extraordinary. As a result, I was curious to see if there was any relationship between his on-the-field performance and the quality of milkshakes in a given city.

Data Collection:

• Scraped box score numbers from ESPN for each away game that Zion started during his career. I then calculated the game score, which provides a rough measure of a player’s 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.) . The full formula is outlined here.
• Calculated a milkshake rating for the metropolitan area nearest to each NBA stadium using available Yelp reviews (scale from 1-5).

Visualizations:

Milkshake Ratings by City

Average Game Score vs. Yelp Rating Grouped by City

Regression Output:

Regressing Game Score on Milkshake Ratings with Time Fixed Effects

Conclusion:

There is a statistically significant positive relationship between Yelp rating and game score at the 1% level. A 1% increase in milkshake rating results in approximately a 4% increase in game score. Contrary to popular belief, Zion takes his game to another level after consuming a high-quality shake. I believe I may have uncovered the secret to fully unlocking his potential and strongly recommend taking out a second mortgage the next time Zion steps foot in the Bay Area.