The Stan Van Gundy Show
"First, I'd like to thank David Stern for allowing Stan [Van Gundy] to be here today."
-- John Buccigross, ESPN sportscaster
"In coaching, you're trying to create a style of play and a culture. Every time you make an exception, you're breaking that down."
-- Stan Van Gundy, former head coach of the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat
“In Miami, all the TV analysts -- I won’t say any names -- killed us because we didn’t have a midrange game. I felt like saying, ‘Thank God.’”
-- Van Gundy
“The goal is to win, and we’re not playing video games here.”
-- Van Gundy
“There’s no number out there that’ll solve all the problems.”
-- Van Gundy
"Just like there's a need for physical rest, there's a need for mental rest."
-- Van Gundy
In response to Van Gundy apologizing for talking too much:
“Is this the first time you’ve talked a lot?”
-- R.C. Buford, San Antonio Spurs president
Snarky remarks
On drafting Royce White:
"You were going to draft the same guy we did."
-- Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets general manager
"Yeah, but we would have dealt with it differently."
-- Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner
In response to Michael Lewis' naming him as one of the inspirations of "The Blind Side"
“Never got an invite to the Oscars.”
-- Paraag Marathe, San Francisco 49ers COO
On setting a path to success:
“Be a nuisance until they hire you.”
-- Morey, on his path to success
“Please don’t take that as a suggestion.”
-- Cuban
On dealing with the front-office friction with the analytics movement:
“You own a team; it’s a lot easier.”
-- Morey to Cuban
On the "count the ringzzz" theory:
“The more z’s, the lower the IQ”
-- Tom Haberstroh, ESPN NBA writer
"In reality, bookmaking is easy. Some of the dumbest people I know are bookmakers."
-- Haralabos Voulgaris, professional gambler
"In sports, there's a lot of correlation between stats and performance. In politics, a lot of it is bulls---."
-- Nate Silver, statistician, sabermetrician, psephologist, and FiveThirtyEight.com author
Walked into the wrong place?
"If you're looking at statistics alone and saying 'we're drafting this guy,' good luck. I hope you're in my division."
-- Brian Burke, former Toronto Maple Leafs senior adviser
"When you're losing, the sports page only has value if you own a puppy or a parakeet."
-- Burke
"If I overpay a player, it's not because there's a revolver to my head, it's because I'm an idiot."
-- Burke.
"The worst thing that ever happened in sports was sports radio, and the internet is sports radio on steroids with lower IQs.”
-- Burke.
"Statistics are like a lamppost to a drunk: useful for support but not for illumination.”
-- Burke
Analytical analysis
"It [analytics] has become mainstream because it works."
-- Morey
“The way we had been talking about the game was inaccurate.”
-- Haberstroh
"Are the league's best rebounders conceding shots to get in better rebounding positions? For some, yes."
-- Kirk Goldsberry, Harvard University visiting scholar
"Ten years from now, we're going to look back and laugh at this study, but we have to start somewhere.”
-- Goldsberry
"It's hard to be a decision-maker and be removed.”
-- Cuban
“The models weren't built on a dataset like him [Jeremy Lin]."
-- Morey
On choosing between Greg Oden and Kevin Durant as the 2007 first overall draft pick in retrospect:
"Almost everyone would have taken Oden."
-- Morey
"The No. 1 job for an NBA GM is not to win championships, but to keep their job.”
-- Cuban
On if he were a sports owner:
“If I bought an NBA team, the first day I’d trade for LeBron [James]. Then, the second day I’d trade for Kobe [Bryant]. And the third day, I’d do one of those Harlem Shuffle [Shake] videos.”
-- John Skipper, ESPN president
Kicking a man when he’s down
On the Los Angeles Lakers being the only team without a representative at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference:
“From the Celtics' perspective, it’s not a bad thing the Lakers aren’t here.”
– Mike Zarren, Boston Celtics assistant general manager
“If we can keep the Lakers out, that’s fine with us.”
-- Buford
On Brian Burke recanting the difficulty of being a general manager and firing a coach:
"Believe me, it's always a lot harder on the guy getting fired."
-- Stan Van Gundy
Business of sports
"When a company has a good year, you don't throw a parade. When a sports team wins, the whole city celebrates.”
-- Cuban
"Sports front-office jobs are still more who you know than what you know."
-- Marathe
"If sports leagues don't want government involved, they should stop putting their hand out."
-- Andrew Zimbalist, Smith College professor
"If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."
-- Deepak Malhotra, Harvard Business School professor
"There are teams that 'go for it' under this new CBA that make you wonder if they've read it."
-- Cuban
A safer future
"When you receive a concussion, if you get a concussion again, even if it's a tiny one -- it can have a severe impact."
-- John Brenkus, BASE Productions co-Founder
"Surgery is a very good tool, but you don't treat the underlying disease process."
-- Dr. Peter Wehling, M.D., Ph.D., orthopedic and spine surgeon
"We are doing whatever we can to capture data. We lock in medical staff to longer-term deals than players.”
-- Cuban
Sloan Conference 2023
On how far people have delved into the potential of analytics:
"We are nowhere yet."
-- Morey
"There is a human element in sports that is not quantifiable. These players bleed for you, give you everything they have, and there's a bond there."
-- Bill Polian, ESPN NFL analyst
"When visualizing data, it's not about how much can I put in but how much can I take out."
-- Joe Ward, The New York Times sports graphics editor
“If you are not becoming a digital CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), you are becoming extinct.”
-- Tim McDermott, Philadelphia Eagles CMO
“Even if God came down and said this model is correct there is still randomness, and you can be wrong.”
-- Phil Birnbaum, By The Numbers editor