Daryl Morey

Daryl Morey (born September 14, 1972) is an American basketball executive who is the president of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

His basketball philosophy, heavily reliant on analytics, favors three-point field goals and layups over mid-range jumpers.

This style has been dubbed "Moreyball", as a nod towards Michael Lewis's Moneyball.

Morey also co-established the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

Morey was born on September 14, 1972, in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

Morey began his career in 1992 with STATS, Inc., a pioneer sports data firm where Bill James also worked.

During his time there he was the first to adapt James' Pythagorean expectation to professional basketball.

He found that using 13.91 for the exponents provided an acceptable model for predicting won-lost percentages:

Morey's "Modified Pythagorean Theorem" was first published in STATS Basketball Scoreboard, 1993–94.

He graduated from Highland High School near Medina, Ohio before receiving a bachelor's degree in computer science with an emphasis on statistics from Northwestern University in 1996, as well as an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

In 2000, Morey worked at EY-Parthenon, a leading strategy consulting firm, as a principal consultant with an emphasis on sports.

Morey is the co-chairperson for the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

He is also an avid Esports supporter, has attended MLG (Major League Gaming) events, and was part owner of Clutch Gaming, the Houston, Texas-based League of Legends Championship Series eSports team.

Morey is also passionate about musical theater.

In 2002 Morey left EY-Parthenon to become senior vice president of operations for the Boston Celtics, with responsibility for setting ticket prices and developing analytical methods and technology to enhance basketball decisions related to the draft, trades, free agency, and advance scouting of opponents for the coaching staff.

Whereas Moneyball highlighted the plight and success of Billy Beane as GM of the Oakland Athletics in 2003, The Undoing Project reveals Daryl Morey as the underdog king of basketball, making use of a similar analytical method to acquire undervalued talent as Beane did with the A's to produce a forceful team.

Lewis uses Morey as a real-world example of one who has exemplified ideas introduced by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, two Israeli psychologists whose work pioneered the field of behavioral economics.

The psychologist duo defined a simple, two-part distinction of the way the brain makes decisions: System 1 and System 2.

A more intuitive, subjective, fast, and efficient process, System 1 represents the brain's capacity to make split-second choices, often using personal experience to guide decision-making.

System 2, however, characterizes a slower, more analytical process of reasoning to reach a conclusion.

Michael Lewis points out in The Undoing Project how Daryl Morey observed basketball experts of the time making awfully subjective assessments in looking at basketball players.

Then-Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander named Morey the team's assistant general manager on April 3, 2006.

During his tenure as general manager for the Houston Rockets from 2007 to 2020, the team posted the second-most wins in the NBA—behind only the San Antonio Spurs.

Following the trade that brought James Harden to the Rockets, the team posted the third-best record, behind only the Spurs and the Golden State Warriors during Harden's tenure on the team.

Morey succeeded Carroll Dawson as general manager on May 10, 2007, following the Moreyball trend of integrating advanced statistical analysis with traditional qualitative scouting and basic statistics.

Although several teams had previously hired executives with non-traditional basketball backgrounds, the Rockets were the first NBA team to hire such a general manager.

Morey's resignation made Donnie Nelson of the Dallas Mavericks the longest-tenured general manager in the NBA, as Presti was hired in June 2007, a month after Morey became the Rockets' GM.

In the fall of 2012, he and the Rockets acquired now-All-Star and 2017-18 league MVP James Harden via trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

During Morey's tenure, the Rockets did not have a losing record and advanced to the playoffs 9 times, including to the Western Conference Finals in 2015 and 2018.

Author of Moneyball, Michael Lewis, chose Daryl Morey as the new nerd-hero at the center of his 2016 book, The Undoing Project.

Morey was named NBA Executive of the Year for the 2017–18 NBA season.

He commissioned and produced the basketball themed musical Small Ball, which opened in April 2018 at the Catastrophic Theater in Houston, Texas.

He was also named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2018.

In 2019, Morey's Twitter post in support of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests resulted in suspension/termination of all mainland Chinese sponsors of the NBA and criticism of the NBA's handling of the controversy.

He resigned from the Rockets and joined the 76ers in 2020.

On October 15, 2020, the Rockets announced that Morey would step down as general manager on November 1, 2020.

He confirmed his departure in a full-page ad in the Houston Chronicle on October 18, 2020.

After Morey's departure, the Rockets would embark on a rebuild by trading away Russell Westbrook and James Harden.

On November 2, 2020, the Philadelphia 76ers named Morey as president of basketball operations.

On March 22, 2021, Morey said "3-pointers should be worth 2.5 points" and the court should be widened to make corner 3-pointers longer.