A data visualization critique of Apple Sports app's team stats display, which uses a zero-sum bar chart layout to show basketball statistics that are not actually zero-sum. The author explains why the design is confusing: percentage-based and absolute measures are mixed together in a format that implies each row represents a shared total between teams. Two alternative visualizations (side-by-side bars and dot plots) are proposed, but neither fully solves the core problem. The fundamental issue is an information design challenge — 15 distinct variables across 2 cases cannot be meaningfully unified into a single graph, and the data is better suited to a table than a chart.
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