The Boston Celtics and GE announced Wednesday a three-year partnership in which the digital industrial company will become the team’s exclusive Data and Analytics Partner and help on the court with technology and innovation.
The Celtics will tap into GE’s expertise in order to optimize player performance and focus on injury prevention. GE’s technology will be integrated into the team’s basketball facilities including the Auerbach Center practice facility, which is scheduled to open in 2018. That includes data science, medical equipment and lighting solutions.
GE Healthcare already has a collaboration with the NBA to promote orthopedic and sports medicine research for the benefit of NBA players and the public, and for the Celtics, medical equipment will help players return to the court.
With GE’s assistance, the Celtics hope to become a smarter organization overall. And there is plenty of data to analyze that comes from cameras on the court alone. Now GE will offer its team to help the Celtics, which previously had a handful of staffers doing the work along with outside consultants to look for patterns that could help the team play better and stay healthier.
“One season of tracking data is about four billion items of xy data,” Celtics assistant general manager Michael Zarren said. “It takes people who are used to dealing with really big data sets.”
GE, which will offer the Celtics its analytics platforms, is “quite comfortable” sifting through terabytes of digital information and coming up with insights, according to chief marketing officer Linda Boff.
“The Celtics will become another key ally in GE’s mission to help make Boston an epicenter of tech innovation,” she added in a statement.
GE moved its global headquarters to Boston last year and as part of the deal becomes the first company to have its logo featured on a patch on Celtics game jerseys beginning next season.
“Their leadership in innovation, analytics, and technology will help us to be as competitive as we can be in everything from optimizing our facilities and equipment to player performance,” Celtics president Rich Gotham said in a statement. “Simply put, GE will make us a better and smarter basketball team and organization.”
