hey clutchfans, I’m here to see if any of y’all have experience in this field. I’ve always loved the game of basketball and would love to work for NBA team. It’s always been a dream of mine to contribute to a team someday, even if it wasn’t on a basketball court lol. I’m very knowledgeable of the game but I’m looking for advice on how I could start to become relevant to an employer or what should I do or who to talk to about learning basketball analytics in depth? My finances are good now, so I have an opportunity to take care of my family and also work towards my goal. I know this is a process and won’t happen overnight but the sooner I can go in the right direction the better. So any advice out there or anyone willing to take me under there wing, I can learn from?
I’m not asking for someone to put me on and get me a job. Lol I’m just looking for someone who has the same interest and had experience in the analytics field. I would like to learn as much as I can. It’s something that I find very interesting.
I'm not qualified to give anyone any advice. But, here it is anyway. (Also, I have no idea what your background or current knowledge base is, so I will just assume it's closer to beginner than savant. I could be wrong though and you could be far ahead of where I'm at.) I would suggest that rather than learning basketball analytics you try to learn (/ learn more about) statistics and data science. I suggest you learn at least these 3 programming languages: Python, R, and SQL. Python is a good starting language and is the most widely used language in data science. R has been curated by statisticians over decades so it is excellent for that. SQL is good to know for pulling data from and managing databases. Python and R are open-source and free. Maybe start a Tableau Public account too and play around with that. Get a github and start doing some projects posted there just so you can get some reps in. Find/follow Python and R users/pros on twitter (and unfollow everyone else!!). Often people will make something cool and share their code for everyone to use. Starting a personal website where you post your work would be a good idea too. Once you get good with these programming languages and comfortable with statistical concepts, you can apply the basketball knowledge that you've built up over a lifetime. A good place to start is Coursera. Cheap, short classes that can be helpful. For the coursera course I'm signed up for right now (while I'm taking a short break from grad school) it was only $49, but there was an option to do it for free (I should have done it for free... I don't know why I chose to pay.) At the very least, coursera classes can give you some basic background knowledge and let you know if you really want to go down this path. That's all I have. I suspect there are many on CF in a better position to give advice, so I hope they chime in.
I'm not sure you'll find the answers you're looking for here but I would think following a similar path as other sports journalists that are considered stat heads would lead you in the right direction. Someone like Hollinger is probably a fair idea of how you want to get in the business and show you have valuable analytics that could be beneficial for a team. Would think you would want to build up your own website, make frequent stat junkie posts that are useful and accurate for the everyday fan to a potential paid employer that reads your material. I mean you never really know who's reading your material, but if it's good and you get enough clicks to read it, then you're building your own brand and perhaps it helps get your foot in the door from an employer. Would also maybe research what it takes to become an NBA scout. If going this route, would personally recommend doing this as a project outside of your existing employment until your content is popular enough to generate revenue and open doors to the industry you want to work for. My $.02. Or suck it up and take whatever wages an internship may yield you, if any, and see if it's enough to not only get your foot in the door, but keep ya there. https://www.teamworkonline.com/basketball-jobs/nbateamjobs/houston-rockets Would also think you would need to be proficient in math and even computer science, especially if going data analytics route. Set up your own machine learning local server that extrapolates data from NBA games and create your own patented steveng125 algorithm that shows up stat junkies like Morey and makes him humbly resign and award you the GM position. Dream big.
Yup you'll want to work on the academic background to start. And while you're getting your degree, do some strong and innovative projects in sports analytics. In general, I'm very leery of the sports analytics business. Sportradar has a huge presence where I live and they completely lowball everyone on salary because they know everyone is so passionate about getting into sports analytics. Other firms do the same. If you're taking the time to get a masters or a doctorate in statistics/data science, you can make a lot of money. But you won't if you get into the sports analytics business. Alternatively, if you have a computer science/software background, you can get in that way as well. They hire plenty of software developers as well. But again, your salaries will end up being below market as well.
Statistics Computer science (as it relates to data mining, and statistics) ... seems kind of obvious?? Not trying to be offensive. If you want to go less "true math" approach, things like a law degree, business degree could get you in. If you want to know what qualifications you might need, the Spurs lay it out pretty clearly in a currently open analytics based position: https://www.teamworkonline.com/bask...rch-development-basketball-operations-1947915
Lol yes, first thing I did. They have a class with dan Oliver that I may try out depending on the class schedule.
See the thing is I already have a great career that supports me and my family financially, so it would be hard for me to leave it to go back to school. I have an associates degree in computer networking and I had an interview in the past with the brooklyn nets. They said they would train me on how to do analytics with there system. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that job because they called at a really bad time for the interview and I kind of rushed threw it. I was honestly surprised I even got a call lol
Everybody has already mentioned it—-stats. Murray didn’t goto some crazy basketball analytics program, he went to one of the most prestigious institutions and got his degree in stats (I’m assuming). Keep in mind, this isn’t a hobby thing...it’s a full on commitment.
Since someone mentioned MIT, have you at least looked at the Sloan Conference? http://www.sloansportsconference.com/ That's your target list of people and information. And if I was young and could go back to school, I would be loading up on statistics and predictive analytics courses along with as much I could get on cloud and information storage. I'd also set my targets at the level below pro sports... colleges are investing heavily on sports analytics. I tried to convince my daughter to get into the field and she thought I was just pushing her back into sports (she played basketball through school) so she went safe into accounting. A industry analyst I know is friends with Megan Morgan, who went from doing comms for Titlist and the Pro V1 golf ball to being a consultant in sports analytics. She also started a Sports Analytics Group: https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2017/03/03/ASAP.aspx
Then just give up that other dream. You're not willing to do that, so...just keep doing what you're doing and forget about the rest.
Visibility and Credibility. The first: Get a foot in the door somehow even it's as a janitor, create a sports analytic school, or have web site. You need to be visible. you need to be on the inside. Once your visible, it's not just doing the work in a job description, but going outside the box, letting them know what's in it for them. How are you going to make them money. Solve their specific problem. Be strategic. Market yourself. The second: You need something or someone to back you. Giving credibility to what you're doing.
I've worked with IT folks on basketball teams. I'll repeat it again. The pay stinks. They know you're working there because you like basketball. The pay structure is basically geared to support sales teams. Everyone else can expect to get paid way below market value in exchange for the privilege of working for a sports team. It isn't worth it. Keep supporting your family. Working for sports teams is great when you're single and passionate about sports. But once pay becomes more important, people leave. The same goes for the analytics side of the teams. A data scientist in the corporate world can make close to double what some of these basketball teams are paying. I've hired developers from two NBA teams. The pay structures are awful. Every basketball team can walk onto an undergraduate campus and get hordes of data science and CS graduates to practically beg to join them. There's no incentive to pay anyone what they are actually worth. Stay away from that if you want to support your family.
Thanks for the input Thanks for your advice! I’ve worked hard to get where I’m at and i don’t hate my job Lol...but I just didn’t wanna have the regret of never doing what I really wanted to do. I’ll attempt to do analytics as a hobby and maybe generate a small side income. I have no interest in getting a data analytics degree to work for an industry other than the sports industry. I even had a chance to talk to D.Morey about this and he advised me to go to MIT and get a business degree. I mean getting a business degree online is doable for me but my schedule is so crazy, I couldn’t attend classes on an actual campus. I’m gonna look more into it but for now I may attend the Dan Oliver class online and see how that goes..he’s seems very respectable around the league.
