The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was, appropriately, held in an archaic city's sterile Convention Center. While the historic Massachusetts State House, built in 1798 on the heels of the American Revolution, loomed within walking distance, Sloan attendees -- sports obsessives and mathematical eggheads -- were exclusively concerned with the future. Modern buildings crop up alongside historic ones, new ideas replace obsolete ones.
Sloan was exactly what you might expect from a group of MIT geniuses who are both passionate about the subject and uber-motivated to get their foot in the industry's door. The day began early and it ran late. It was, from start to finish, ruthlessly efficient, pioneeringly techy, overwhelmingly substantive, and low on aesthetic frills, a laboratory for ideas about how to make sports teams and organizations better through the study of numbers.................
............It was here at Sloan that Portland Trail Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard looked as comfortable as I've ever seen him. Pritchard has had a tough year. Ironically, his year has been derailed by, more than anything else, the one thing that eludes even the most advanced thinking by the smartest minds in the basketball analytics community: injury.....................
