Salt City Hoops Podcast: Kirk Goldsberry

Dr. Kirk Goldsberry

Listen to this episode at 1320kfan.com.

This week on the podcast from the 1320 KFAN studios I was joined by Kirk Goldsberry to talk about his work with statistical visualization and his presentation at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston last month. Kirk is a visiting scholar at the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis and an assistant professor of geography at Michigan State.

You can follow Kirk on twitter at @kirkgoldsberry and follow his basketball work on his CourtVision site.

Here’s a description what we’ll be talking about, from his bio on the MIT SSAC site:

Kirk’s research focuses on spatial analysis and visual analytics; his investigations examine the abilities of scientific graphics to enhance analytical reasoning and to simplify the communication and understanding of complex spatial situations. He has recently found a way to blend his research expertise and his love of basketball; in 2010, Kirk developed CourtVision, a new ensemble of analytical techniques designed to quantify, visualize, and communicate spatial aspects of NBA performance with unprecedented precision and clarity.

You can watch Kirk’s presentation at the Sloan Conference below:

To read the entire paper, click here.

In our conversation we discuss the two charts below that show spatial behaviors related to Paul Millsap’s shooting. The size of the mark indicates frequency of shot attempts and the color indicates accuracy from that spot. In the second chart you can see a visualization of Millsap’s shot locations.

Thanks to Dr. Goldsberry for joining the podcast.

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