“And so over a three year period, it went from one team having an analytics department to every team in the league. All 30 have an analytics department, and they’re definitely staffed at minimum two-to-five people. So I saw an industry be created in real-time.”
Anwar McQueen
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Welcome to The Edge – our weekly podcast where we dive deep into the world of basketball and talk with the best, brightest and most creative minds across the NBA, college hoops and more.
On this episode, we talk with Anwar McQueen, who is known in basketball circles as the godfather of analytics. Anwar talked about growing up in the DC area, playing basketball at Cal alongside Jason Kidd and Shareef Abdur-Rahim, getting a start with video and analytics in basketball, and what he is working on now with TEAM Inc.
For more on Anwar, check out this profile by The Athletic.
Where to Listen
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or on your favorite podcast platform. Full show transcript available here.
On this Episode
On the rise of analytics in the NBA:
“And so over a three year period, it went from one team having an analytics department to every team in the league. All 30 have an analytics department, and they’re definitely staffed at minimum two-to-five people. So I saw an industry be created in real-time, and we had a big part to do with that, but it was just, we happened to be on the front end of like having a set of users using our platform.”
On NBA G League, its new Select Team, and commissioner (and former teammate) Shareef Abdur-Rahim:
“I think they have the right person at the right time to lead the G League. And just this new team they formed to compete, if you want to call it that, with the NCAA… I think it’s great timing to have this real opportunity for some of the young talent coming up. Without having a game played, there’s been a lot of thought going into this, so they’re not just thrown into this league.”