Sports and Entrepreneurship 

St. Mark’s graduates speak on how data is changing the game of basketball

Ed Chao introduced himself to Highland Park students in the Moody Advanced Professional Studies Program as a “bootstrap entrepreneur.” 

“I fail at a lot of things,” Chao said, before walking students through the twists and turns that led him to co-found Cerebro Sports, a startup backed by billionaire Mark Cuban that aims to take the guesswork out of evaluating basketball talent. 

Cerebro, Chao explained, exists to fill a gap in basketball data. Measuring a basketball player’s skill is more complex than looking at baseball statistics. It involves tracking metrics such as points, assists, rebounds, steals, turnovers, minutes played, and substitutions. Filtering out the best athletes also requires comparing players in different positions and different leagues. 

There’s no good way to piece together a “basketball transcript” for players in the United States. So many data points are missing when it comes to evaluating talent that Chao compared judging a potential basketball recruit to trying to rank college applicants based on one test score from their geometry class and a single grade on a history paper. 

“How are they supposed to evaluate whether or not you’re a good fit, and someone worth admitting to their program?” he asked. 

Cerebro boils player performances in thousands of events down to clear metrics that compare individual athletes to their global competitors. A player’s “C-RAM” gives a rating of their overall performance, and distinguishes gold performers, or superstars, from above-average bronze and silver players. 

Cerebro also evaluates players on five individual skill metrics, which provide insight into which athletes are the most lethal shooters and the strongest defensive players. There are additional options for viewing and filtering data, as well. 

Chao, who is Cerebro’s vice president of operations, hopes the tool will eventually be used everywhere. 

“We want to get to the point where if you play in a meaningful, competitive basketball game, and it’s not in Cerebro, did it really happen, did it really matter,” Chao said. 

Before Chao spoke, students heard from his fellow St. Mark’s School of Texas alum Taylor Jenkins, who is an investor in Cerebro and was then head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. 

Basketball analytics was in its infancy when he began working in the NBA 12 years ago, Jenkins said, but the use of sports science has since gone “through the roof.” Cerebro Sports was one of Jenkins’ first technology-based investments. 

“I thought this is a great opportunity to be on the cusp of something that I think is going to be innovative,” he said. “Your service not just provides valuable information for the guy who’s at collegiate level and pro level, but also for parents and coaches at the grassroots levels. You’re serving basically the entire network of basketball.” 

Jenkins encouraged students to pursue their passions when choosing careers. 

“You’re getting this great foundation, this great education, but what you’re passionate about … that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day,” he said. 

HPHS junior Tripp Mattison said that Jenkins stood out, even among the superstar-packed slate of speakers who have visited the MAPS program. 

“He’s probably my favorite speaker this year, definitely a very high-level guy,” Mattison said.