Former Grizzlies statistician says he inflated game stats
It can still be hard to be a Vancouver Grizzlies fan.
Former Grizzlies scorekeeper Alex Rucker said on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast posted on Tuesday that he was inflating stats. He talked about going to a seminar run by the NBA. According to Rucker, participants were shown a highlight of John Stockton feeding fellow Utah Jazz star Karl Malone a pass, which was followed by Malone dribbling a couple of times, pump faking twice and then sinking a shot. Rucker didn’t think it was an assist but says he was told: “Oh no, that’s definitely an assist. That’s John Stockton.'”
“I left there clearly understanding that yes, we are supposed to create the most accurate representation we can, but the NBA is also an entertainment business, and it’s up to us, in a very small part as statisticians, to support or reinforce stars and excitement and fun. And that message was definitely reinforced internally within the Grizzlies,” he told Pablo Torre Finds Out.
It’s juicy stuff, but it’s not the first time that Rucker has spoken out, it seems. Deadspin did a 2009 piece entitled “The Confessions of an NBA Scorekeeper,” where it talked to a former Grizzlies scorekeeper named Alex. While they refused to use Alex’s last name, they did offer up plenty of identifying ideals, stating that Alex was part of the Grizzlies stats crew from 1995-98.
That story quoted Alex as saying that “I wanted the numbers to be meaningful and accurate, and I knew they weren’t. I was good at making them inaccurate.” He told Deadspin that certain players “got a lot of help,” and it was pointed out how much better Shareef Abdur-rahim’s stats were at home in his time with Vancouver.
The piece also referred to a game where Houston Rockets star Hakeem Olajuwon was one block shy of a triple-double late in the game in Vancouver and a Grizzlies executive came to Alex and told him to go out of his way to find that extra block if need be. Alex didn’t say who the executive was. Olajuwon, by the way, finished with 15 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocks.
“When you get a tripledouble, that dramatically increases the potential of our game being shown on ESPN. ‘Here are some highlights of Olajuwon, and oh, by the way, they happen to be in Vancouver.’ A team like ours was getting zero national media coverage. There’s some value in that, even if someone is lighting us up, for marketing and long-term growth,” Alex told Deadspin.
According to his Linkedin Page, Rucker was an aviator in the U.S. navy from 2001-12 and then worked in analytics and analysis for Basketball Canada and the Toronto Raptors before moving to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he worked his way up to executive vice-president of basketball operations for nearly three years. He’s been the CEO of a Boys and Girls Club in Gainesville, Texas, for nearly three years.
He maintained to Pablo Torre Finds Out that he’s matured greatly since his time with the Grizzlies.
“I handled things in a way I wouldn’t today,” said Rucker told Pablo Finds Out. “With all due respect, you put a 19 or 20-year-old in charge of anything and you’re playing with fire.”