According to ‘The Athletic’, Clearlake Capital, the group that owns Chelsea, will soon bring in a signing from the NBA. This is Sachin Gupta, one of those responsible for the advanced use of statistics in basketball after his role as an executive with the Houston Rockets and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Statistics have been a fundamental part of basketball for decades, and for several years now, they have been installed in the world of football. Not only on the pitch, but also in the office. Now, Chelsea are fully embracing this philosophy after reaching an agreement to bring in Sachin Gupta, an NBA executive renowned for his role in the transformation of the American league. So says journalist Jon Krawczynski in ‘The Athletic’.
Until now, the 42-year-old was executive vice president of basketball operations at the Minnesota Timberwolves. There, he had spent five seasons working on analyzing opponents and scouting players, always relying on advanced data. “He’s more than just a numbers guy. He has made regular scouting trips and has helped in recording and video sessions with coaches and players,” said Gersson Rosas, former head of the Minneapolis franchise.
Gupta holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Passionate about sports, as soon as he finished his education he wanted to apply it to this branch in his working life. He began collaborating with ‘ESPN’, where he created the ‘NBA Trade Machine’ for its website, a section where users could simulate transfers using an extensive salary database under the complex financial regulations of the championship.
It was 2006 when he designed this tool and began working as assistant to Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, a position he held until 2013, introducing for the first time the ‘Moneyball’ applied to basketball. Between 2014 and 2016 he worked with the Philadelphia 76ers and in 2018 and early 2019 he was with the Detroit Pistons. As of May he joined the Minnesota Timberwolves.
After 17 years in the NBA’s front office, Sachin Gupta is swapping the parquet for the turf. For the Boston-born son of Indian parents, this will be the biggest challenge of his career. He will now have to work in data analytics applied to football, a radically different sport, with new variables and different needs.
