Muthu Alagappan (born
) was a medical resident who is known for his
professional basketball
In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...
analytics
Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...
. He was born in England and raised in Texas. During college at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, he began an internship at
big data
Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
startup company
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...
Ayasdi, where he leveraged their software on
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
statistics to determine 13 distinct
positions of play. After he spoke at the 2012
MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
The MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (SSAC) is an annual event that provides a forum for industry professionals (executives and leading researchers) and students to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry. The conferen ...
, several professional teams began to use the company's software. He was given the top prize at the conference, and ''
GQ'' called his work both "a new frontier for the NBA" and "Muthuball"—an allusion to
Moneyball
''Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'' is a book by Michael Lewis, published in 2003, about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team's analytical, evidence-based, sabermetric approa ...
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
statistical analysis
Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying distribution of probability.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers propertie ...
known for revolutionizing the sport.
''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' included him in their 2012 and 2013 "
30 Under 30" list of influential people in the sports industry. His work has received mention in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
, ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', ''
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
'', and ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
''.
Early life
Alagappan was born in
Crewe, England and raised in
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
.
He is of
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
heritage.
He graduated from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in 2012 with a degree in biomechanical engineering
and the
Stanford Medical School
Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...
in 2016. , he was an internal medicine resident at
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital (founded in 1916) and New England Deaconess Hospital (founded ...
.
Alagappan is a longtime
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...
fan.
Basketball analytics
Alagappan was hired as an
intern
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
with Ayasdi, a
big data
Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
startup
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...
in
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...
, through Stanford's
Mayfield Fellows Program The Mayfield Fellows Program is a university program that offers students in-depth training and experience in high-tech entrepreneurship.
The program, originally called the "Technology Ventures Co-op" was founded in 1996 at Stanford University and ...
, where he was hired to do sales.
He tested the company's software on basketball stats and called the output "the true positions of the
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
".
The
topological data analysis
In applied mathematics, topological based data analysis (TDA) is an approach to the analysis of datasets using techniques from topology. Extraction of information from datasets that are high-dimensional, incomplete and noisy is generally challengin ...
mapped similarities between NBA players and identified 13 distinct
positions of play, as opposed to the traditional five.
Those traditional positions, such as
power forward
The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers. When on Of ...
and
shooting guard
The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...
, have become ambiguous and outmoded as a result of the increased variety of player styles categorized by them.
Alagappan's method groups professional basketball players by statistical strengths and places them into the new positional model.
He started with a collection of seven basic statistics (
assists,
blocks,
fouls
Foul may refer to:
__NOTOC__ In sports
* Foul (sports), an unfair or illegal act during a sports competition, including:
** Foul (association football), in football (soccer)
** Professional foul, in football (soccer) or rugby
** Foul (basketball)
...
,
points,
rebounds
'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...
,
steals, and
turnovers) from
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. Bef ...
on every NBA player from the previous season and adjusted the stats for time in play.
The software grouped the players into color-coded nodes and connected them with lines that represented statistical similarities.
Alagappan had expected the software to create five groups of nodes by statistical advantages, which would each represent a position of play, but the software instead returned 13 node groups representing 13 mathematically described positions.
The assignments compare player statistics and not individual style.
Originally unconfident in his results, he explored the data on his own for a week before sharing his findings with his bosses and basketball statisticians including
Ken Pomeroy
Ken Pomeroy is the creator of the college basketball website and statistical archive KenPom. His website includes his College Basketball Ratings, statistics for every NCAA men's Division I basketball team, with archives dating back to the 2002 s ...
, who replied in encouragement.
He then applied and was accepted to speak at the 2012
MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
The MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (SSAC) is an annual event that provides a forum for industry professionals (executives and leading researchers) and students to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry. The conferen ...
.
By May 2012, at least four NBA teams and one
MLB
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
team had contacted Ayasdi about using their technology.
The method is intended to change existing basketball team composition paradigms to help NBA teams win championships.
Alagappan used
Devin Ebanks
Devin Ebanks (born October 28, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for Al-Ahli Jeddah (basketball), Al-Ahli of the Saudi Premier League (basketball), Saudi Premier League. The Forward (basketball), forward was selected 43rd overall ...
of the
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...
as an example, whom Alagappan considered promising for his classification as a "scoring rebounder" alongside
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Kyam Anthony (born May 29, 1984) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been named an NBA All-Star ten times and an All-NBA Team me ...
and
Dirk Nowitzki
Dirk Werner Nowitzki (, ; born June 19, 1978) is a German former professional basketball player who is a special advisor for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Listed at , he is widely regarded as one of the gr ...
despite a subpar season record.
''
GQ'' reported that Ebanks would come to fulfill the model's forecast in following games for six weeks when two other players sat out and Ebanks
started games.
While the model couldn't have predicted
Linsanity
Jeremy Shu-How Lin (born August 23, 1988) is a Taiwanese-American professional basketball player who last played for the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He unexpectedly led a winning turnaround with the N ...
, when given college basketball stats, it was able to determine three players most similar to Lin in college, of which two were already drafted in the NBA.
The forecasting is expected to improve with the growth of the data set.
His data-driven analysis has been well received. He won the top prize in the "Evolution of Sports" category at the 2012
MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
The MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (SSAC) is an annual event that provides a forum for industry professionals (executives and leading researchers) and students to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry. The conferen ...
.
''GQ'' called his work "a new frontier for the NBA" and "Muthuball", an allusion to
Billy Beane
William Lamar Beane III (born March 29, 1962) is an American former professional baseball player and current front office executive. He is the executive vice president of baseball operations and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics of Majo ...
's "
Moneyball
''Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'' is a book by Michael Lewis, published in 2003, about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team's analytical, evidence-based, sabermetric approa ...
"
sabermetrics
Sabermetrics, or originally SABRmetrics, is the empirical analysis of baseball, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. Sabermetricians collect and summarize the relevant data from this in-game activity to answer specific ques ...
(
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
statistical analysis
Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying distribution of probability.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers propertie ...
known for revolutionizing the sport).
''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' included him in their 2012 and 2013 "30 Under 30" lists of influential people in the sports industry.
His work has received mention in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
, ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', ''
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
'', and ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
''.
Rob Mahoney of ''The New York Times'' called the model "a novel execution of a productive thought", but cited the "one-of-a-kind" catch-all position and the substantial number of players categorized within it as weak points.
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
TrueHoop's Jim Calvan criticized Alagappan's Sloan conference presentation for its lack of data showing how team reconfiguration to cover the 13 positions results in more wins.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alagappan, Muthu
Stanford University School of Engineering alumni
Basketball statistics
American people of Indian descent
Living people
People from Crewe
Stanford University School of Medicine alumni
Year of birth uncertain
Year of birth missing (living people)