Zarren has taken a leadership role in the advanced statistics movement within Boston's front office.
Boston Celtics NBA basketball coach Doc Rivers, left, and Celtics Basketball Operations President Danny Ainge, right, face reporters at the teams practice facility during a news conference, in Waltham, Mass., Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Boston Celtics assistant general manager Mike Zarren will interview for the Philadelphia 76ers' general manager vacancy this week, according to John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Zarren has taken a leadership role in the advanced statistics movement within Boston's front office, and he's said to be the team's "salary cap and collective bargaining agreement expert" -- impressive especially given Boston's reputation for using creative means to add talented players (see: the team's sign-and-trade for Courtney Lee).
According to a 2008 New York Times feature, Zarren controls a video system that helps the Celtics keep track of advanced statistical information. "With just a few mouse clicks, he can call up every clip in which LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers has touched the ball at the top of the key and see whether he went left or right, was double-teamed or not, passed or shot - and, if the latter, whether he missed, scored or was fouled," the Times reported.
Zarren, who has been a panelist at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, has a sterling reputation within the NBA which shouldn't come as a surprise given his level of intelligence. He's a graduate of Harvard Law School and has doubled as the Celtics' legal counsel. He has been a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and a management consultant who worked with Fortune 500 firms.
Kevin Garnett calls Zarren "Numbers" and Paul Pierce calls him "M.I.T." though he never attended school there. Danny Ainge told the Times in 2008 that Zarren provides top-notch information before any move the Celtics make.
"Mike is a much smarter guy than I am," Ainge said. "I’m open to smarter people than me."