How the Thunder almost drafted Brook Lopez instead of Russell Westbrook

Ben Alamar is a professor of sports management at Menlo College in California and was formerly an analytics consultant for the Thunder.

He’s never been permitted to openly speak about his role with the Thunder because, well, it’s the Thunder. But now that he’s no longer affiliated with the organization, he’s gone public.

At last week’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference at MIT, Alamar spoke with Grantland’s Zach Lowe about his role with the Thunder and how analytics pushed OKC in drafting Russell Westbrook and not Brook Lopez.

Incredibly interesting stuff. Praise be to analytics.

Also, Alamar has a book out with a lot of Thunder stuff in it. You can pick that up here.