Basketball - Is That a Good Way to Lose?

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There's a feeling that if you bully your way down under the basket and slam dunk on someone, you've achieved more than if you've just lofted a shot from 35 feet away. Well, and also let's admit that there is an almost a macho component, right? You know, a lot of people in analyzing the sport were ex players themselves. And it's absolutely true that like I always talk about this. There are ways that fans and coaches and GMs are comfortable with losing and there are ways that they're uncomfortable with losing.

You might think that human beings, exhausted by competing for resources and rewards in the real world, would take it easy and stick to cooperation in their spare time. But no; we are fascinated by competition, and invent games and sports to create artificial competition just for fun. These competitions turn out to be wonderful laboratories for exploring concepts like optimization, resource allocation, strategy, and human psychology. Today’s guest, Daryl Morey, is a world leader in thinking analytically about sports, as well as the relationship between impersonal data and the vagaries of human behavior. He’s currently an executive in charge of the Philadelphia 76ers, but I promise you don’t need to be a fan of the Sixers or of basketball or of sports in general to enjoy this wide-ranging conversation.

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Daryl Morey received a bachelor’s in computer science from Northwestern University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He served as general manager for the Houston Rockets from 2007 to 2020, and since November 2020 has been the President for Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers. He is founder and co-chair of the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. He was voted NBA Executive of the Year in 2018.

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