Dwyane Wade in 2022

This past weekend, I covered the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference for ESPN. Among other things, I co-wrote a piece with Philadunkia writer Tom Sunnengren on ESPN’s TrueHoop Blog.

Here’s the first paragraph:

Dwyane Wade knew he would be removed from the game before the computers did.

Before the three-millimeter silicon sticker that sat unobtrusively on the inside of his bottom lip gleaned from his saliva that his 1.020 hydration level was flirting with the bottom register of acceptability, that his glucose had dipped, that his basal catecholamine excretions had decreased, and that their aggregate effect suggested nine, 12, and five percent expected dips in his straight line speed, vertical leap, and visual reaction time, while raising CRP, fibrinogen, and white blood cell count to levels that increased his probability of sustaining a tendon strain by 0.04; before all this information was recorded, transmitted to the screens Rick from quality control stared at each night, and routed down to Coach Battier — its arrival announced by a ‘bing’ of the iPad he wore around his wrist — Wade sensed it.

So when he was taken out, he was neither surprised nor angry. It just happened.

And here’s the rest.

Check it out, if you like good things.