David Sparks
@dsparks
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Director of Basketball Analytics for the @celtics. Formerly of @DukePoliSci and @isDotR. https://t.co/Ha9EKXz5d8
Joined April 2007
☝️ The map will likely be the more useful resource, but here is the text version: https://t.co/rXiklzkDgY And below 👇, an abbreviated Twitter thread version
dsparks.wordpress.com
Whenever I get the opportunity travel, I attempt to discern the best dining options and look for promising places to run jog. I have my own preferences and process for each search, but I realized t…
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NEW FEATURE: Summer League head coach Matt Reynolds is a lifelong Celtics fan. In Vegas, he's fostered an atmosphere of joy. I sat down with him for an in-depth conversation about his journey to the head coach seat. The best part? “It’s getting to coach for the Celtics." ⬇️
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The world is not ready for these Celtics Summer League polos. @AndyMannix is a modern-day Elsa Schiaparelli.
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At least, that's how I've felt when riding in Chicago and New York. But I guess it's easy for me to say, since I don't have to put up with the noise etc.
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I moved here way too late to experience these in-person, and I'm sure the current layout is an improvement, but I'm a little sad we don't still have these elevated trains -- they bring a great sense of verticality to a city, and are a cool way to see the sights.
Lechmere elevated Green Line trolley via Boston Garden and North Station, 1990s.
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The head of analytics for the LA Dodgers is a political science PhD. The head of analytics for the Boston Celtics is a political science PhD. How many NFL teams have political scientists running their analytics team?
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People often ask me how to get into sports analytics. I always point them to the Big Data Bowl 👇 And this year looks even more open-ended than some previous competitions; should be very interesting.
NFL plays are only a few seconds, but the moments leading up to the play -- new personnel, formations, shifts, and motion -- combine strategy and deception In the 2025 Big Data Bowl, it's your turn to tell us what that pre-snap data means https://t.co/E1nLEGOUpu
#BigDataBowl
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We are pleased to announce the 2025 Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium (CSAS) Data Challenge. Participants will focus on using new data on bat speed and swing length to analyze some aspect of the pitcher/batter interaction in Major League Baseball. https://t.co/Vy3Httb7dT 🧵
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Just set up this nice Gorilla hose reel ↙️, but spent 5+ minutes trying to tighten a single bolt. Feeling stupid, I searched online for solutions, and I discovered this line in the FAQ ↘️ 💀Feels like this should have been in bold letters on the side of the box!
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This would be easy to do with the data @Yelp already has -- just treat each consecutive pair of reviews for an individual reviewer as a pairwise comparison. I have a half-dozen ideas for things to do with Yelp's existing data... don't be a stranger @YelpEngineering
I would love an ELO-based restaurant ranking system Yelp reviews aren’t very useful. Everything is 3.5 - 4.5 stars. Tells me nothing. Same for Google Maps. The 0-5 scale just doesn’t get used properly because of social norms toward high ratings. What would work much better is…
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...and in a little @isDotR throwback, here is a gist with the code to make it. https://t.co/quXSJ4MrGc You can customize the start date, and all of the æsthetics. It's certainly nothing extraordinary, but it serves my purposes well, and maybe it will help you!
gist.github.com
A year on a page calendar. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.
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This requires no imagination on my part.
Because of the election and being in a swing state, I get inflation disinformation texted to me from campaigns and PACs. Imagine if random strangers were always emailing you fake information about literally your job
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This is a cool survey result, but... there's definitely some selection bias at work here! 😄
Well, I'm going to keep this one handy for approximately forever, thank you @theathletic
https://t.co/vm2Z0sJt37
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Woodruff Place was lovely. As a rule of thumb, if you see boulevards like this, especially several in parallel, it's probably a good neighborhood for a walk. (My theory is that these roads were probably laid before cars were the dominant mode, and that's a positive indicator.)
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