How Bad Players Get in the NBA
By Shane CrawfordYou’ve heard their names and seen them play. Guys like Paul Pierce, Ricky Davis, Tracy McGrady, Dirk Nowitzki, and Steve Nash – all of whom amaze spectators with their pure basketball talent every night. For them it must seem easy to just waltz into that exclusive club that we call the National Basketball Association.
So how does a slow, short, untalented guy who got dominated in college pickup games by people named Brian Gilmore or Arnold Binas make his way into the NBA? It’s easy. Don’t play basketball.
Technology is increasingly changing the way NBA teams operate and carry out tasks in every aspect of the game and the business. Today, it plays a role in ticket sales, scouting, handling information, and even how the game is played on the court. That’s how guys like me, a Texas A&M class of 2005 Computer Science major from the Dallas area, can have a contributing role with the Boston Celtics.
Until I graduated in May, I was just a huge basketball fan that knew computers, electronics, and how to take a nerd joke. Since then I’ve been able to discover the fit between my tech knowledge and the behind-the-scenes operations in the NBA. Through CelTech Sideline, as the season progresses, I’d like to share the technical behind-the-scenes part of the NBA that techy-type basketball fans always wonder about, and may even find a little interesting.
What does it take to get that job whose commute requires that your destination be courtside at TD Banknorth Garden? As an introduction to this series, I’ll run down each person or group of people who sit courtside at the scorer’s table and what their game night responsibilities are. It may seem like there’s plenty of space, but somehow we are always in a scramble on game day to find any extra space.
On a typical night, these are the groups of people you'll find at the scorer's table.
Baseline tables are generally filled with print media and courtside season ticket holders. The away team’s public relations manager has a spot on the baseline adjacent to their teams’ bench. This person’s job is to coordinate media appearances with their team before and after games, distribute box scores at timeouts and quarter breaks, and essentially just make sure information gets to places it needs to be throughout the night.
The main scorer’s table, from the right (using the common center-court view of the floor), starts with the visiting team’s radio. Radio personnel tends to vary, but usually includes on-air talent (play-by-play and analyst), a statistician who keeps and passes along interesting statistics, and a producer who makes sure the advertisements get read, commercials get played, and the show goes smoothly.
To the left of them is where the visiting television production takes place. Much like radio, they typically have on-air personalities, along with a statistician and producer. Radio and TV are both equipped with statistics monitors coming from the official stats computers updated instantly when something happens. Television people also have video of the game to watch replays.
The next spot is for a printer.
I know what you’re thinking: “How do we let a printer occupy one of the best places to view the game in the arena?” Calm down. This happens to be a very important and beloved printer. Every box score delivered to every member of each coaching staff and every member of the media in the building throughout the entire game comes from this printer.
Every timeout, about 12 box scores are printed and handed out to PR people who distribute them to coaches and media. At the end of quarters, we print somewhere around 25 box scores: one to check the book against computer stats, the 12 for media, about seven for both the home and away benches, then two current-quarter box scores and play-by-play sheets which go to the press room and have many copies made of them.
Closer to midcourt is the official stats crew. This is where you’ll find me for most Celtics games. Three laptop computers provided by the NBA and one regular basketball scoresheet are used to keep stats. The computer closest to the printer, affectionately referred to as “The PR Machine,” is where all of the box scores are printed. The next two are used to input statistics. For a normal NBA game, one person will input stats as they happen, one person will call plays out loud as they happen, one person serves as somewhat of an overseer for the process, and the last keeps “the book,” a handwritten account of points, fouls, timeouts, and other vital information.
Next to the stats crew are a few people responsible for in-game entertainment. The Game Operations Manager is the person deciding what music you hear and videos you see during the course of the game. They are also responsible for coordinating timeout entertainment. This area also houses the official instant replay monitor that the referees will use when a shot is made at the end of the quarter. If you have seen any of the first several games of this the season, you know that this monitor is becoming a popular gathering place for officials at the end of games. Directly at center court, is the Public Address announcer: the voice of the Celtics.
Sitting next to him are those who run the scoreboard and information boards seen in the arena during the game. Separate people control score, time on the game clock, and time on the shot clock. The NBA also uses devices allowing the officials to start and stop the clock with their whistles, but that’s cool enough that it could be its own feature.
As you look to their left, you’ll see the general area from which all Tommy Points are awarded in the Garden. Fox Sports New England runs their broadcast from here, and has pretty much the same setup as the visiting team’s broadcast. They, too, get stats monitors. Just like the other end, radio takes up the space from there to the end of the table.
Tables adjacent to the left baseline are similar to the ones at the other end of the court. The Celtics Public Relations representative sits in the corner near the bench. The Fox Sports New England sideline reporter, Greg Dickerson, also has a seat at this table. Much of the rest of the space along this baseline is more print media including newspapers and magazines. If you combined each word produced here over the course of a Celtics game, at the end of the night you’d have a really long, and hard to pronounce word. I wish I had more official word count statistics than that to pass along, but we just don’t keep track of such things.
How many of these people sitting courtside each night have serious basketball ability? It’s possible that a couple of Hall of Fame broadcasters can take on some players today, but the majority of us that sit courtside just aren’t that good. The complete lack of workouts and the great view leads me to believe that to work your way into the NBA, this is definitely the way to go.
