Compare
DunkAPI vs scraping Basketball Reference
Basketball Reference has no public API and its terms bar scraping. DunkAPI gives you NBA, WNBA and college data over REST and MCP, with no scraper to maintain.
Basketball Reference is the best-known site for historical basketball statistics, but it does not offer a public API: the data is on HTML pages, and its data-use terms restrict automated collection. If you need basketball data in code, scraping it is both a maintenance burden and, going by those terms, not something to build a product on. DunkAPI serves play-by-play with shot locations, box scores, standings, lines and ratings over REST and MCP.
For reading a player's career or looking something up by hand, the site is still the right place. DunkAPI is for when the lookup has to run in code.
Side by side
| DunkAPI | scraping Basketball Reference | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | 500 free credits, no card, then paid plans | Free to read; paid options for some data |
| Access | REST API and MCP server | HTML pages; no public API |
| Automated use | Intended and keyed | Restricted by their data-use terms |
| History | NBA games since 2004; WNBA since 2006 | Covers the full history of the leagues |
| Shot locations | x/y for every field goal attempt, with expected points | Shot charts on the site; not offered as data |
| Sportsbook lines | 4 to 12 books per regular-season game, 2013-14 to 2023-24 (10 to 12 from 2020-21) | Not a focus of the site |
| Upkeep | Ours | Yours, whenever the pages change |
Use scraping Basketball Reference instead if
- You need seasons before 2004: DunkAPI starts there for the NBA.
- You are looking something up by hand, or reading career pages: the site is made for that.
- You want its historical advanced stats and award pages, which we do not carry.
Questions
Does Basketball Reference have an API?
Not a public one. Its pages are meant to be read in a browser, and its data-use terms limit automated access.
Can I get Basketball Reference data as a CSV?
The site offers some table exports by hand. For programmatic access to similar box score data, DunkAPI returns JSON per request.
Sources
Checked October 7, 2026.
See the data
Try it with 500 free credits
No card. REST or MCP.