San Francisco Chronicle Senior Sports Enterprise Reporter Ron Kroichick won a first-place award this month from the Associated Press Sports Editors contest, which honors the best sports journalism from the previous year.
Kroichick’s story revealed how AI has infused the sports landscape. He detailed how the Golden State Warriors used a proprietary machine-learning model that blends player stats with the team’s on-court tactics to target a trade for forward Jimmy Butler, who the model predicted would bring a big jump in wins.
Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy landed Butler, and the scenario played out just as predicted, with the team going 22-5 in games when Butler, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green all played.
“If you look at our roster construction, AI or a subset of AI had a huge part in that thinking,” said Pabail Sidhu, Golden State’s senior vice president for basketball analytics.
Kroichick also documented how AI is impacting minor league, college and youth sports. The Mustang Soccer League in Danville uses AI tools to generate highlight reels for players, and wearable technology to track performance (and sometimes address parents who question the basis for benching their kids).
The Oakland Ballers have let AI make strategic calls during a game, using a custom app tailored to the baseball team’s specific opponent.
“With AI becoming an increasing presence in our everyday lives, we were curious to learn how it was being used in sports in a meaningful way,” Deputy Sports Editor Jon Schultz said. “What Ron’s comprehensive reporting revealed was surprising. Not only was AI being experimented with at all levels in the Bay Area, it helped influence a franchise-altering trade with the Warriors’ acquisition of Jimmy Butler. His ability to distill a complex and nuanced topic was key to helping readers understand an otherwise obscure aspect of the sports they know and love.”
The APSE Explanatory category recognizes stories that uncover the “hows and whys of trends, issues and original ideas. They shed new light on issues and personalities in the news. They explain something through clear writing and thorough reporting.”
During preliminary judging, judges select the top 10 stories in each category, then rank the finalists from 1 to 10. The stories then go to a second judging group, and the combined rankings determine the winners.
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