As a kid, Channel 4’s decision in 1995 to start showing the NBA led me to fall in love with the sport of basketball. The Bulls of Jordan’s second stint were the dominant team with Shaq led Orlando Magic also a particular favourite. Its only in recent years that I have rekindled a keen interest in the sport and got properly interested again after getting to watch Team USA play live at the Rio Olympics. This season Sky Sports have bought the rights to show NBA games in Ireland so I finally have regular access to games again (and highlight shows at more Irish timezone friendly hours).
All of which means I kinda missed the rise of the Golden State Warriors – all of a sudden they were not just a new Championship contender, but a contender for the best team of all time. I was really excited to read Betaball and figure out just how this happened.
Betaball is a very enjoyable read. It’s a detailed retelling of the rise of the Warriors under its current ownership and the key personnel decisions that led to the creation of an elite team. It’s also a pretty detailed blow-by-blow account of the key matches of the 14/15 and 15/16 seasons.
The book however promised more with its subheading of ‘How Silicon Valley and Science Built One of the Greatest Basketball Teams in History’. The book talks about the use of analytics, the reliance placed on unconventional hires and the importance of a harmonious working environment it. While there is a lot of talk about collecting and using data there really isn’t much insight into how or why their use analytics helped them win. There are suggestions that the Warriors were better at focusing at rest and conditioning than other teams may have been but the thread isn’t fully drawn out in the book.
In many ways the story feels quite conventional – a new owner arrives and makes some really good personnel decisions, the unrealised potential of an existing player (Steph Curry) is finally realised, some really good draft picks (including a bit of luck in Green turning out better than anyone expected) are made and free agency is used wisely to secure the final missing pieces.
The book does give some interesting insights into the managerial and organisational culture introduced by the new owners. In particular it was interesting how the new owners waited a full season before making radical changes. It’s rare to see a sports team owner show such patience and not immediately try to remodel the team in their own image. The process for decision making seems to have been very collegiate with everyone seemingly willing to listen to all viewpoints before making key decisions.
I don’t mean to be overly negative. If the book was subtitled differently this would be a more positive review about how interesting the book was, the keen insight it gives into Steve Kerr in particular, and the interesting ways in which small changes can have a big impact on an team’s performance.
Overall, Betaball is a very interesting look at the rise of the Warriors, but not quite the book its subtitle promises it would be.
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