Why former President Barack Obama is speaking at Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

Sam Amick | USA TODAY

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BOSTON – Daryl Morey has been geeked about guests before.

Landing Phil Jackson as a Sloan Sports Conference speaker was a big deal for the Houston Rockets general manager in 2014, when the Zen Master emerged from his retirement hole to discuss basketball analytics at the event that was once dubbed “Dork-a-palooza,” by Bill Simmons. Longtime Indianapolis Colts president and current ESPN analyst Bill Polian has been a speaker several times and remains a Morey favorite. Future Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash, who will speak at the event which was co-founded by Morey in 2006 and tips off again here on Friday, fits that bill too.

But former President Barack Obama is scheduled to share an hour of his time with the Sloan masses on Friday, and Morey is the first to admit that this high-profile booking trumps all the rest.

“Yeah, I mean, for us it’s historic,” Morey told USA TODAY Sports recently. “It’s obviously the most prominent speaker who has come to the event.

“We’ve been very fortunate with people who are interested (in the event), and the topic of how to run teams better and how to use data to do that. But obviously, he’s a whole different level and we’re very honored and pleased that he decided to come.”

Despite the high-profile nature of his talk and a crush of media interest, Sloan Conference officials announced to guests on Thursday that Obama's panel is completely off the record. Per the release, attendees are prohibited from sharing the conversation or its content on social media or news platforms. Given his reputation, there's sure to be plenty of hoops discussion in the panel.

Obama had been a basketball fanatic long before he was ever in the public eye.

He grew up learning the game on the playgrounds of Honolulu, where he lived with his grandparents, then became an avid Chicago Bulls fan in the mid-1980s when he was a community organizer and a young lawyer in the Windy City. Obama’s affinity for hoops was on full display during his eight years in office, too.

He replaced the White House tennis courts with a full-court basketball setup for routine pick-up games. He celebrated his 49th birthday at Fort McNair in 2010 by balling against some of the best – Magic Johnson, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and many others (with an injured Kobe Bryant watching on the sidelines) playing in front of wounded veterans and participants in a White House mentoring program.

His longtime personal aide was Reggie Love, a member of Duke’s 2001 championship team. His brother-in-law is Craig Robinson, the former Princeton player and Oregon State coach who joined the New York Knicks as an executive last August where he’s vice president of player development and G League operations.

The connections run deep, in other words, and the natural question that could be answered on Friday is whether this appearance might be a precursor to his next basketball endeavor: Becoming an owner.

Obama’s interest on this front has been acknowledged before, as his then-press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters in June of 2016 that the idea of being part of an ownership group had been “discussed…potentially…under the right circumstances.” Fast forward 20 months, and here he is making a rare public appearance at the most influential event for basketball power brokers on the NBA calendar.

Coincidence? It’s classified.

“I think obviously the reason he chose to come, only he would know,” Morey said when asked if he knew Obama’s motivations. “But we’ve spent several years – just like any prominent conference – hoping he would have interest in coming. He is, as far as I understand, someone who…worries about making the best possible decisions and has used data to help enhance his decisions in the past. He’s also a sports fan, also an NBA fan, which our conference obviously has significant coverage of. So I think all of these things factored into him obviously being interested.”

Obama is hardly the only high-profile voice that will be heard.

Among the participants: MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, Brooklyn Nets point guard Jeremy Lin, WNBA star Sue Bird, former NBA star Chris Bosh, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, Boston Celtics CEO and co-owner Wyc Grousbeck, former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin, former Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie.

While most time slots in the two-day event feature several panel options in separate conference rooms for the participants, the schedule has been cleared for the event that’s deemed, “A Conversation with Barack Obama.” Obama and Morey will be joined by fellow Sloan Conference co-founder Jessica Gelman, the Kraft Analytics Group CEO who has spent 15 years as a pivotal part of the New England Patriots on the business side.

The chosen topics, much like Obama’s motivation for taking part, are top secret as well.

“Yeah, I think I can’t go too much into (the preparation for their panel),” Morey said. “But I think it’ll be a really enlightening conversation. I think he has so many interesting stories and relevant things that can help many people in many areas. We didn’t want to constrain (him) at all. Obviously, he’s in charge of the discussion, and we’re excited with what he may come (with), and what interesting wisdom he may be able to help our audience with.”

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