MacPhail '04 Enjoys His Role With NBA Championship Organization By Bob Williams Editor
As the Director of Basketball Research for the Spurs, MacPhail says he has opportunity to work at all levels of the organization. His main responsibilities include answering any statistical/analytics-based questions the coaching staff may have, helping to maintain and monitor the current information system that houses all scouting, medical, contract, and statistical information for the San Antonio Spurs, and providing statistical and advanced data modeling support for the Spurs’ front office.
With a grandfather and great-grandfather in the Baseball Hall of Fame and an uncle who coached the Minnesota Twins to a historic 1991 “worst to first” championship over the Atlanta Braves, Logan MacPhail 2004 seemed destined for a career in Major League Baseball. MacPhail, who played baseball at Asheville School and Dickinson College, initially started along the familiar family career path that produced the only father-son combo in Cooperstown. After graduating from Dickinson, he landed a job with Major League Baseball as a salary arbitration analyst and then spent two years with the New York Mets as a baseball analyst. But following a brief stint with Bloomberg Sports, MacPhail chose to go outside the family comfort zone and focus on an entirely different professional sport – basketball. “Yes…you might say I’m a bit of a black sheep in the family now,” MacPhail says with a chuckle. “My grandfather and greatgrandfather are in the Baseball Hall of Fame; my uncle Andy was with the Cubs and the General Manager of the Twins; and my cousin Lee MacPhail scouts for the (Seattle) Mariners. There’s nobody from my family working in basketball but me.” In 2014, MacPhail went to work for the San Antonio Spurs, a team who in 2013 lost the NBA championship to the Miami Heat.
Logan MacPhail 2004, the Director of Basketball Research for the San Antonio Spurs, holds up the NBA Championship Trophy from 2014.
But judging by the confetti that fell after his first season as a basketball analyst for the San Antonio Spurs, MacPhail says he couldn’t have dreamed up a better transition from the world of batting averages and home runs to analyzing free-throw percentages, three-point attempts, and double doubles. “It was surreal,” MacPhail says, describing the Spurs’ 2014 championship season. “As the season went along, they won so often, it just got to be the routine. When we were in game 5, it was unbelievable being on the court as the confetti rained down and watching the commissioner hand Pop (head coach Gregg Popovich) the trophy. I was literally a row away from him.” MacPhail, who watches every Spurs game in person, described the 2014 team as one of the most talented teams to play the game. “They were like the old guys at the YMCA who play the game so fundamentally sound,” he says. “It was a beautiful thing to watch.”
“We serve as a tool to help the coaches make decisions,” MacPhail says. “I think they are very appreciative of what we do for them. Some teams maybe go too far with analytics, and use it as the only tool to make decisions. I wouldn’t advocate for that at all. Our role is to give the coaches an objective answer.” In thinking back to his days at Asheville School, MacPhail says the experience certainly helped prepare him for his daily work. “I received a very good mathematical background from Ms. Gillum and Ms. Reid,” he says. “Asheville School helped me a lot with growing up in general. Two of the people who helped me grow up the most were Dale Earnhardt and Professor Lambert. I was at that impressionable teen age and they set my perspective straight.” Although he’s been back to campus a few times since graduating, MacPhail says he hopes to have the chance to show his wife where he attended boarding school in the near future. “I think that small community feel was one thing that I didn’t appreciate until I left. It definitely prepared me for the real world.” Achievement • Spring 2015 17