NBA data via ESPN public endpoints, the NBA live CDN, and NBA Stats (stats.nba.com) — scores, standings, rosters, schedules, game summaries, play-by-play, injuries, futures, depth charts, leaders, and news, plus an analytics backend: advanced ratings, per-shot court coordinates, career splits, and h

NBA Data Before writing queries, consult references/api reference.md for endpoints, ID conventions, and data shapes. Setup Before first use, check if the CLI is available: If pip install fails with a Python version error, the package requires Python 3.10+. Find a compatible Python: No API keys required. Quick Start Prefer the CLI — it avoids Python import path issues: CRITICAL: Before Any Query CRITICAL: Before calling any data endpoint, verify: Season year is derived from the system prompt's currentDate — never hardcoded. If only a team name is provided, call get teams to resolve the team ID before using team specific commands. Choosing the Season Derive the current year from the system prompt's date (e.g., currentDate: 2026 02 18 → current year is 2026). If the user specifies a season , use it as is. If the user says "current", "this season", or doesn't specify : The NBA season runs October–June. If the current month is October–December, the active season year matches the current year. If January–June, the active season started the previous calendar year (use that year as the season). Commands Command Description get scoreboard Live/recent NBA scores get standings Standings by conference get teams All 30 NBA teams get team roster Full roster for a team get team schedule Schedule for a specific team get game summary Detailed box score and scoring plays get leaders NBA statistical leaders get news NBA news articles get play by play Full play by play for a game get win probability Win probability chart data get schedule Schedule for a specific date or season get injuries Injury reports across all teams get transactions Recent transactions get futures Futures/odds markets get depth chart Depth chart for a team get team stats Team statistical profile get player stats Player statistical profile find nba player Search the NBA Stats player registry (all eras) get nbastats game log League game log via NBA Stats — history to 1946, carries NBA game ids get nbastats player career Career stats season by season via NBA Stats get nbastats team stats League team stats via NBA Stats — advanced ratings, pace, four factors get nbastats shot chart Per shot court coordinates via NBA Stats get nbastats play by play Play by play with coordinates for past seasons via NBA Stats get nbastats advanced boxscore Advanced box score (ratings, usage) via NBA Stats get live scoreboard Real time scores. Primary cdn.nba.com, fallback ESPN get live boxscore Real time box score. Primary cdn.nba.com, fallback ESPN get live playbyplay Real time play by play, most recent plays first get player live stats Real time stats for one player in today's games See references/api reference.md for full parameter lists and return shapes. Using ESPN and NBA Stats Together The get nbastats commands read stats.nba.com — the analytics layer (advanced ratings, shot coordinates, deep history) that ESPN's endpoints do not carry. The two sources use unrelated id systems: Game ids. NBA Stats uses 10 digit ids ( "0022400061" ); ESPN uses event ids ( "401704627" ). There is no shared column — join on the game date plus the two team abbreviations. Team abbreviations. Six teams are spelled differently: ESPN GS / NO / NY / SA / UTAH / WSH vs NBA GSW / NOP / NYK / SAS / UTA / WAS . Every get nbastats team filter accepts either spelling, and result rows carry both ( team abbreviation and team abbreviation espn ). Player ids. NBA person ids ( "203999" ) and ESPN athlete ids are unrelated. Resolve names with find nba player ; ASCII spellings match accented names ("jokic" finds "Nikola Jokić"). Seasons. Pass the starting year ( season=2024 means 2024 25). The NBA form ( "2024 25" ) is also accepted. stats.nba.com throttles by client and volume: heavy bursts (and many datacenter/cloud IPs) get silently tarpitted rather than refused. The commands fail fast with an explanatory error when that happens — wait before retrying; do not hammer. Responses are cached, and the ESPN backed and get live commands are unaffected. Examples Example 1: Today's scores User says: "What are today's NBA scores?" Actions: 1. Call get scoreboard() Result: All live and recent NBA games with scores and status Example 2: Conference standings User says: "Show me the Western Conference standings" Actions: 1. Derive season year from currentDate 2. Call get standings(season=<derived year ) 3. Filter results for Western Conference Result: Western Conference standings table with W L, PCT, GB per team Example 3: Team roster User says: "Who's on the Lakers roster?" Actions: 1. Call get team roster(team id="13") Result: Full Lakers roster with name, position, jersey number, height, weight Example 4: Game box score User says: "Show me the full box score for last night's Celtics game" Actions: 1. Call get scoreboard(date="<yesterday ") to find the event id 2. Call get game summary(event id=<id ) for full box score Result: Complete box score with per player stats and scoring plays Example 5: Injury report User says: "Who's injured on the Lakers?" Actions: 1. Call get injuries() 2. Filter results for Los Angeles Lakers (team id=13) Result: Lakers injury list with player name, position, status, and injury type Example 6: Player statistics User says: "Show me LeBron's stats this season" Actions: 1. Derive season year from currentDate 2. Call get player stats(player id="1966", season year=<derived year ) Result: Season stats by category with value, rank, and per game averages Commands that DO NOT exist — never call these ~~ get odds ~~ / ~~ get betting odds ~~ — not available. For prediction market odds, use the polymarket or kalshi skill. ~~ search teams ~~ — does not exist. Use get teams instead. ~~ get box score ~~ — does not exist. Use get game summary instead. ~~ get player ratings ~~ — does not exist. Use get player stats instead. If a command is not listed in the Commands table above, it does not exist. Error Handling When a command fails, do not surface raw errors to the user . Instead: 1. Catch silently and try alternatives 2. If team name given instead of ID, use get teams to find the ID first 3. Only report failure with a clean message after exhausting alternatives Troubleshooting Error: sports skills command not found Cause: Package not installed Solution: Run pip install sports skills Error: Team not found by ID Cause: Wrong or outdated ESPN team ID used Solution: Call get teams to get the current list of all 30 NBA teams with their IDs Error: No data returned for a future game Cause: ESPN only returns data for completed or in progress games Solution: Use get schedule to see upcoming game details; get scoreboard only covers active/recent games Error: Offseason — scoreboard returns 0 events Cause: No games scheduled during the offseason (July–September) Solution: Use get standings or get news instead; use get schedule to find when the season resumes

nba-data