In sport, people should be No 1

Gregory Dole

• Last Updated: November 19. 2009 7:04PM UAE / November 19. 2009 3:04PM GMT

Some weeks back, I wrote about how quantitative analysis has taken over talent scouting in the National Basketball Association.

While some statisticians recognise that their stats go only as far as what the coaches ask them to analyse, the general trend in the modern world is to put great faith in numbers.

One of the most prominent members of the NBA’s old guard is Wayne Embry.

Firmly entrenched in the old school, Embry is now the Toronto Raptors’ senior basketball adviser.

Embry gave a passionate defence of the qualitative approach to evaluating talent when I spoke with him recently.

“People play the game,” he said. “Numbers don’t play the game.”

We were discussing the current fascination with statistics in the NBA.

I was curious to know how someone who is going into his sixth decade in the league feels about the changes that have taken place in recent years.

“It comes down to how you select and manage the people on your team,” he replied.

Embry knows of what he speaks. While he is most recognised for having broken down stereotypes as the first African-African general manager in the NBA, taking the reigns of the Milwaukee Bucks franchise in 1971, he has built many winning teams over the course of his career.

While with Milwaukee, Embry convinced his former teammate Oscar Robertson to sign with the Bucks, a roster that featured Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

In just their third year in the league, the Bucks won the 1971 NBA championship.

Embry later moved to Cleveland and built the Cavaliers into championship contenders. If it had not been for Michael Jordan’s uncanny ability to beat the Cavs in the play-offs, the team may have become the San Antonio Spurs of the early 1990s.

“I always believed in building teams from the centre out. You then get a point guard and then primary scorers. Having established that group, you make contingencies, finding players that fit,” said Embry about how he assembled his rosters.

“I was one of the first to start interviewing players who had entered the draft.”

Embry spent time researching a player’s background. He wanted his organisation to be filled with people who had character, a management approach he developed during his time owning and operating three McDonald’s franchises in Milwaukee.

“I adopted the management lessons I learned from Ray Kroc [McDonald’s founder].

“The ideas of quality, service and cleanliness have held true to everything I have seen in successful businesses.

“The lessons of how the drive-through window co-ordinates with the grill station and the milk-shake station apply to basic team concepts.”

It was always about people and team-building with Embry. “What I learned from playing for the [Boston] Celtics’ [coach] Red Auerbach was how important it was to recognise everyone on the team.

“Red would make me feel as important as [five-time NBA MVP] Bill Russell. The 10th, 11th and 12th guys on your bench need to feel as much a part of the team as the star players. That is a team.”

In the rush to quantify every-thing, people can be forgotten, but in sport , as in life, there is good evidence that people should come first.

This year’s NBA field features at least five teams with a legitimate chance at winning.

Figuring out which is the best team probably comes down to which group of people complement one another best, on and off the court.



gdole@thenational.ae