This new era of analytics in some respects seems to have taken over sports, the way teams are almost measured at times in their commitment to formulas and mathematics. There’s no evidence yet it produces champions or even winners. And that’s back to Bill James’ findings in baseball. But it’s been adopted as something of a newly discovered method of success.
Except Harvey Pollack was doing it in basketball for some 40 or 50 years.
Pollack is the legendary NBA and Philadelphia statistician who died last week at age 93. Though it’s fairly low tech, Harvey’s annual statistical yearbook is probably the most enjoyable trivia read in basketball.