Basketball Operations Analytics Jobs at the NBA!!!

[mark kieffer]

Ok, well you guys motivated me a little bit. I am going to try to work really hard and see what happens... Maybe start up a blog?

After all that - I'm probably the last guy to answer someone on how to land an NBA gig. My one time emailing a team - Mark Cuban told me he already had an analytics guy (Roland Beech - I think he was active here at one time) and that he didn't follow college basketball and had no interest. I was just looking for "foot in the door probably would work for crap pay if I could talk the wife into it" position, and expected my email to be forwarded to the appropriate department. That was my one very feable attempt to reach out to a team.

That was your door to say something ballsy to get his attention...

[leerichardson]

I think the coolest example of someone getting an NBA job was Hollinger. I remember his last year at ESPN he started doing projections of literally every single player in the league, and making comments on things like what he would do if he was the GM [at the 76ers expense, he hated the Nick Young move ]. He used ESPN as a platform to display his knowledge about the NBA, the same way Zach Lowe is brilliantly doing right now for Grantland. It would be interesting to see if Lowe would take a job with an NBA team. Although it's not the same platform as ESPN or Grantland, it seems the best way to break into an NBA team is to make a website and start putting your research out there. I don't know that much about the inner workings of front offices and teams, but it seems like it's more meritocracy now that its ever been!!

[repole]

I've been trying to break into one of these types of jobs for a while now, it's absolutely as tough as everyone makes it out to be.

If you want to get into a front office right now, the four things they seem to care about most are:
-Databases (SQL).
-Applying relatively advanced statistical concepts (look into how adjusted plus minus is calculated for example). Stuff like PER and individual oRtg are relatively simple by comparison.
-Coding in general.
-A mind for the game.

Then, you have to hope you get lucky enough to get a response on one of your resumes (or have a few connections that might get you past that first step). These spots have thousands upon thousands of applicants, you can be a near perfect fit and not even make it past that first round of screening.

There was a thread posted here a few days ago about volunteering to track some games, if you're someone who's serious about trying to turn this into a profession, that's the type of thing you need to consider getting involved with. Not a bad way to network and meet a few people who may have some connections, and not a bad way to produce something basketball related that has tangible value.

[EvanZ]

There was a thread posted here a few days ago about volunteering to track some games, if you're someone who's serious about trying to turn this into a profession, that's the type of thing you need to consider getting involved with. Not a bad way to network and meet a few people who may have some connections, and not a bad way to produce something basketball related that has tangible value.

My advice to people is to do whatever you're going to do with your life *first*, do basketball stuff as a *serious hobby* after that. And if you're good enough, people will come knocking on your door.

In my case, for example, the reason I became fairly productive in this area is that I had basically spent a lifetime crunching numbers in one way or another. It's not like I could've done all this without my particular background, and if my original goal as a child was to be an NBA analyst, I never would have done all the things I did.

So do those things first. Be a smart person who knows a lot of technical stuff and can analyze numbers well. That will pay off regardless of field. And if you stick with the basketball stuff long enough and do it well enough *as a hobby*, eventually people will notice you.

[J.E.]

I've been trying to break into one of these types of jobs for a while now, it's absolutely as tough as everyone makes it out to be.

If you want to get into a front office right now, the four things they seem to care about most are:
-Databases (SQL).
-Applying relatively advanced statistical concepts (look into how adjusted plus minus is calculated for example). Stuff like PER and individual oRtg are relatively simple by comparison.
-Coding in general.
-A mind for the game.

If you're a decent coder you should be able to learn sufficient SQL in 5 days max.

Regarding Adjusted Plus Minus, I think they just want to be sure that you know your way around regression techniques. While not the be-all end-all, regression can be useful for a lot of things, not just APM

It's definitely a good thing to learn the basics - take a coding and/or machine learning class if you can - and then maybe start a blog where you research/post about stuff that interests you, optimally applying some of the stuff you learned in machine learning class

[repole]

If you're a decent coder you should be able to learn sufficient SQL in 5 days max.

Regarding Adjusted Plus Minus, I think they just want to be sure that you know your way around regression techniques. While not the be-all end-all, regression can be useful for a lot of things, not just APM

It's definitely a good thing to learn the basics - take a coding and/or machine learning class if you can - and then maybe start a blog where you research/post about stuff that interests you, optimally applying some of the stuff you learned in machine learning class

Agreed on being able to learn SQL basics quickly, though actually having an understanding of how to design a database efficiently and interact with it efficiently isn't an overnight thing for most. I've seen some really, really bad database design and some really, really poorly thought out SQL queries in my time. For any entry level spot, 5 days of studying up on SQL is probably good enough to get through an interview process though, just be prepared to keep expanding on that knowledge.

My advice to people is to do whatever you're going to do with your life *first*, do basketball stuff as a *serious hobby* after that. And if you're good enough, people will come knocking on your door.

Absolutely, 100% agree.