A Retirement Journal: The Boston Celtics are a tech organization-no really!

I set my feet at the edge of the paint as I prepared for the “reliable” bank shot I used in games of HORSE in backyard basketball. I had not launched a basketball in over 20 years. Moreover, I was only ever passable in HORSE. My ball though it had an arc neither had the height to reach the bottom of the net or the distance to make it to the backboard- embarrassing! This was not a backyard basketball court a few weeks ago when I took that shot. It was in the Auerbach Center, the state-of-the-art practice facility of the NBA Boston Celtics. I didn’t rue the atrophying of my physical skills too much. After all, my tennis game, one I’ve been devoted to most of my life, has suffered a similar fate. My serve, which is the equivalent of a basketball shot, though never a weapon, was serviceable in an otherwise good game. I did manage to disguise my lack of serve velocity with enough spin and direction for it to be effective. Today my tennis serve is laughable. I merely loop it over the net. There is no spring in my legs or pop from my shoulders. My own past athletic glories real and imagined aside, I was wowed by several things during my visit with a college reunion group to the Celtics facility at the Auerbach Center.

There was obviously the nostalgia for a sports fan to visit the new home of famed legends like Red Auerbach, the team’s legendary coach and GM, and Danny Ainge, a star player and till recently President of Basketball Operations. The practice and rehab facilities were out of this world. What struck me the most however was the tech embedded into the operations. From the cameras that capture and immediately break down an individual Celtic player’s patterns, to team movements and positioning, to the tech and data science used in drafting and scouting, tech is everywhere within the operation. In fact, it would not be too farfetched to call the Celtics a tech organization with a basketball arm. The same can be said today of all professional sports teams and most D1 collegiate teams. Tech is making already skilled world class basketball players even better.

The parallel to what I observed with the Celtics is happening in other trades with other skilled workers. I have been struck by a recent series of tv commercials that Meta is running. Realizing its bet on an alternate universe Metaverse might be too far out in every sense for customers and investors, the company is now running ads that show Virtual and Augmented Reality as here today. VR is not some utopian or dystopian future state. The commercials show a master welder who was trained with VR. In another spot,  an ophthalmic surgeon is shown honing her skills with AI and VR/AR technology so that her surgeries are better. Similarly, British soccer star Marcus Rashford is shown rehabbing his physical soccer skills even before his injured body can take to the physical soccer field. Technology is making all types of already skilled trade professionals true masters of their craft.

We are reading a lot these days about generative AI and the ensuing disruption and displacement of white-collar job. These concerns are real just as the concerns were real when the industrial economy disrupted the agrarian economy and then the knowledge economy disrupted the industrial economy. Now the knowledge economy is on the edge of disruption. Where will the future take us? I am fascinated to find out as a retiree (not fair!).  We are starting to see many new types of use cases.  AI and technology taking skilled workers to an even higher level is one such use case. I recall Dr. Mary Lloyd, the Palo Alto eye surgeon who did my cataracts several years ago aided greatly by technology. I am glad an already skilled professional was even better.

What do you think about the future of technology and jobs? Specifically, what do you think about the use case described here where technology is making better welders, musicians, athletes, and surgeons?

Jake