By January 5, the Portland Trail Blazers’ Matisse Thybulle had blocked 19 non-paint shots. That season total was more than the entire New York Knicks and Charlotte Hornets teams — combined!
If that paragraph makes your eyes glaze over — or the first sentence sends you scurrying to Google Translate, to figure out its meaning in English — then you are not an NBA fanatic.
But there are enough of those folks around to provide work for Tom Haberstroh.
The 2004 Staples High School graduate (and former Wrecker basketball star) is a leader in the sports analytics world. Last fall, he parlayed his passion and background — which included Jen Giudice’s AP Statistics course, and the strong influence of math teacher Rich Rollins — into a job as “analytics insider” for the Trail Blazers’ broadcast team.
And now — less than a year after signing on — he parlayed that into an Emmy Award.
Tom Haberstroh’s Emmy.
The Blazers’ broadcasters won for Best Live Sporting Event in the Pacific Northwest. It was based on their coverage of a game against Dallas last December.
Haberstroh augments the work of play-by-play announcer Kevin Calabro, analyst Lamar Hurd and sideline reporter Brooke Olzendam, (“They’re second to none,” he praises).
He appeared before, during and after 81 of the squad’s 82 games (he missed one with the flu). Haberstroh served up a steady diet of important, arcane, overlooked, over-hyped and odd individual and team statistics — and then broke them down.
In an entertainingly informative way, he tells viewers not only what is going on, statistically speaking, but why. And why it matters.
Or doesn’t. (Click here, to see or a sample of Haberstroh’s work.)
Trail Blazer fans, coaches and front office are appreciative. So, obviously, were the Emmy judges.
But here’s a surprising stat: Haberstroh did it all from a studio in his Charlotte, North Carolina home.
(Except, of course, for when the Trail Blazers played at the Hornets’ Spectrum Center. He was courtside then.)
Tom Haberstroh, when the Trail Blazers played in Charlotte.
Covering a Pacific Northwest team from the East Coast makes for some very long nights.
But that’s not Haberstroh’s only gig.
He’s a national writer for Yahoo! Sports. He also also operates a Substack (TomTheFinder.com).
He’s got quite a following. The other day, Shaquille O’Neal called him Mr. Statistician Face Man.
Earlier in his career, Haberstroh was a national NBA insider for NBC Sports Regional Networks. He spent 8 years writing for ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Insider, and ESPN.com, while making television appearances as an NBA analytics expert.
He joined Bleacher Report in 2017, where he won an Associated Press Sports Editors Award for feature writing.
Now — statistically speaking — he is at the top of his game.
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Does this mean I qualify as an NBA fanatic because my eyes didn’t glaze over and I didn’t go to Google Translate after reading that first paragraph?
In any case, kudos to Tom. He has certainly built up an excellent reputation in the world of pro basketball.
Congratulations Tom, well deserved and earned! I hope some day the NBA brings back the “traveling call” as the game as it was designed at the highest level, has been compromised.
Best to continued success!
Go Tommy! Congratulations!
Portland resident and massive Blazers fan here and I absolutely LOVE Tom’s “Haberstats” and contributions to every broadcast. Now I want to rewatch that full Dallas game! Also, I appreciate that y’all used this particular Matisse stat as your intro. We are very very very blessed to have him on our team and I pray he stays with us!! Hopefully our FO realizes what a gem we have and doesn’t let him go like the Boomers did. (I’m still not over it. But I’m rooting for Duop and the boys!) Bravo & Congrats to the best NBA broadcasting team!