Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren travels to Italy to share player tracking techniques with soccer club Atalanta
While they might be very different sports, NBA basketball and association football rely on statistics to make important decisions often enough to have some important perspectives to share with one another. And if you happen to own teams that play both, one might find themselves in a position to do such a thing in ways that might prove more difficult otherwise.
To that end, Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, who recently purchased Italian soccer club Atalanta, reportedly picked a familiar face to Celtics fans to get his soccer club up to speed on how Boston tracks player data according to a recent article by the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach. That face is assistant general manager Mike Zarren, who recently traveled to Bergamo, Italy, to do exactly that.
“Steve just thought it would be good for me to meet with them and see if there’s any advice to give,” Zarren said. “I’m a soccer fan, but not a soccer expert.”
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“The thing is, so many of the challenges of running a sports team are the same across the board,” he added.
“The actual numbers you’re looking at might be different, but how you set up the infrastructure and think about which things to analyze with the front office and coaching staff, that stuff is all very common.”
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