NBA TEAMS MAKE A SLAM DUNK WITH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Basketball is a very fast-paced, high-energy sport but it's also big business.
Professional teams that belong to the National Basketball Association (NBA) pay each of
their players an average of $5 million per year. For that amount of money, member teams
expect a great deal and are constantly on the watch for ways of improving their performance.
During an 82-game season, every nuance a coach can pick up about a weakness in an
opponent's offense or in the jump shot of one of his own players will translate into more
points on the scoreboard, more wins, and ultimately more money for the team.
Traditional basketball game statistics failed to capture all of the details associated
with every play and were not easily related to videotapes of games. As a result, decisions
about changes in tactics or hoer to take advantage of opponents' weaknesses were based
primarily on hunches and gut instincts. Coaches could not easily answer questions such as
"Which types of plays are hurting us?" Now professional basketball coaches and managers
are taking their cues from other businesses and learning how to make decisions based on hard
data.
A company called Synergy Sports Technology has found a Way to collect and
organize fine-grained statistical data and relate the data to associated video clips. Synergy
employs more than 30 people to match up video of each play with statistical information on
which players have the ball, what type of play is involved, and the result.
Each game is dissected and tagged, play by play, using hundreds of descriptive categories,
and these data are linked to high-resolution video.
Coaches then use an index to locate the exact video clip in which they are interested
and access the video at a protected Web site. Within seconds they are able to watch streaming
video on the protected site or they can download it to laptops and even to iPods. One NBA
team puchased iPods for every player so they could review videos to help them prepare for
their next game.
For example, if the Dallas Mavericks have just lost to the Phoenix Suns and gave up
too many fast-break points, the Mavericks coach can use Synergy's service to see video clips
of every Phoenix fast break in the game. He can also view every Dallas transitional situation
for the entire season to see how that night's game compared with others. According to Dallas
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, "the system allows us to look at every play, in every way, and
tie it back to stats. So We can watch how we played every pick and roll, track our success
rate, and see how other teams are doing it."

The service helps coaches analyze the strengths and weaknesses of individual players.
For example, Synergy's system has recorded every offensive step of the Mavericks' Dirk
Nowitzki since he joined the NBA in 1998.
The system can show how successfully he is driving right or left in either home or
away games, with the ability to break games and player performance into increasingly
finer-grained categories. If a user clicks on any statistic, that person will find video clips
from the last three seasons of 20, 50, or even 2,000 plays that show Nowitzki making that
particular move.
About 14 NBA teams have already signed up for Synergy's service, and are using it to
help them scout for promising high school and international players. Although nothing will
ever replace the need to scout players in person, the service has reduced NBA teams'
skyrocketing travel costs.
The challenges facing NBA teams show why information systems are so essential
today. Like other businesses, professional basketball faces pressures from high costs,
especially for team member salaries and travel to search for new talent. Teams are trying to
increase revenue by improving employee performance, especially the performance of
basketball team members.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case
and this chapter. Management was unable to make good decisions about how to improve the
performance of teams and of individual players because it lacked precise data about plays. It
had to rely on "best guesses" based on videotapes of games. Management found a new
information system to provide better information.
The information system is based on a service provided by Synergy Sports Technology.
Synergy staff members break down each game into a series of plays and then categorize each
play by players, type of play, and the outcome. These data are tagged to the videos they
describe to make the videos easy to search. NBA coaches and management can analyze the
data to see which offensive and defensive moves are the most effective for each team player.
Team members themselves can use iPods to download the videos to help them prepare for
games. This innovative solution makes it possible for basketball

management to use

objective statistical data about players, plays, and outcomes to improve their decision making
about what players should or shouldn't do to most effectively counter their opponents.

REVIEW

Olahraga basket termasuk olahraga yang dapat menjadi bisnis besar. Tim profesional
yang masuk dalam tim NBA membayar pemain mereka rata-rata 5 juta dollar per tahun.
Dengan bayaran yang cukup besar anggota tim mengharapkan peningkatan dalam performa
mereka.
Selama 82 musim pertandingan, pelatih dapat melihat kelemahan dan kelebihan
pemainnya dalam menembak dan menyerang yang kemudian akan mempengaruhi berapa
poin yg di catat di papan skor, kemenangan ,bahkan uang yang diperoleh timnya.
Namun, terjadi kegagalan dalam sistem tradisional dimana sistem tersebut gagal
menangkap secara detail permainan. Keputusan mengenai taktik permainan dan kelemahan
pemain hanya berdasarkan pada naluri saja. Sekarang pelatih basket dan manajer mulai
mempelajari bagaimana mengambil keputusan berdasarkan data.
Perusahaan Synergy Sports Technology telah menemukan cara untuk mengumpulkan
dan mengorganisir data statistik kemudian menghubungkannya dengan video klip.
Perusahaan Synergy mengerahkan 30 orang untuk mencocokkan video dari setiap permainan
dengan informasi statistik mengenai bagaimana pemain mendapatkan bola, jenis permainan
yang dimainkan dan hasilnya.
Pelatih kemudian dapat menggunakan sebuah indeks untuk menempatkan video di
tempat yang mereka inginkan dan dapat mengakses video tersebut di web yang sudah
terlindungi. Tidak sampai satu detik mereka dapat melihat video di situs tersebut atau
mengunduhnya ke laptop atau bahkan iPods. Satu tim NBA memutuhkan iPods untuk setiap
pemain sehinggga mereka dapat melihat video untuk membantu mereka menyiapkan
permainan selanjutnya. Pelayanan tersebut dapat membatu pelatih untuk menganalisis
kelamahan dan kelebihan dari para pemainnya.
Tantangan yang dihadapi tim NBA menunjukkan mengapa sistem informasi sangat
penting akhir-akhir ini. Seperti bisnis yang lain, basket yang pofesional menghadapi tekanan
biaya yang tinggi , terutama untuk gaji anggota tim dan perjalanan untuk mencari anggota
baru dengan telenta yang bagus. Tim mencoba menaikkan pendapatan dengan performa
karyawannya, terutama performa dari anggota tim basket.
Berdasarkan kasus tersebut Manajemen hadir untuk membuat keputusan mengenai
bagaimana meningkatkan performa dari tim dan para pemainnya. Dengan adanya manajemen
dapat dapat diketahui sistem informasi baru untuk informasi yang lebih baik.
1. Secara manajemen dapat memberi masukan terhadap:

a. Pengembangan strategi tim,

kekuatan yang dimiliki tim, sehingga memberi efek langsung terhadap motivasi dan
improvisasi pemain. Hal ini disebabkan oleh mudahnya setiap orang melihat aksi-aksi
bintang basket dunia