Two-part digital series to showcase Kings’ analytical draft experiment

Grantland will debut the first of a two-part documentary series called “Draft 3.0” on Tuesday, June 24, capturing the inner workings of the Sacramento Kings’ 2014 NBA draft and the unique approach utilizing the analytics community as consultants and crowd-sourced data in their selection process.  The series will feature Sacramento Kings general manager, Pete D’Alessandro, head coach, Mike Malone, and NBA hall of famer and advisor to the chairman, Chris Mullin, as they contemplate how to use the eighth pick in the draft.  
“We said yes to this idea in about three seconds,” said Bill Simmons, Grantland’s editor in chief. “Not only are we NBA Draft junkies obviously, but Jon Hock is an exceptional talent who made a few of Grantland’s signature video pieces already, including the ones with Steve Nash and Royce White. We’re delighted that Sacramento is letting us behind the scenes with such an interesting idea, I give the Kings a lot of credit here.”

Directed by Jon Hock of Hock Films, part one will focus on D’Alessandro and his staff as they strategize for the draft and review crowd-sourced data generated by the analytics community, while part two will be available shortly after Thursday’s draft and give an inside look of their war room the night before and on draft day throughout the selection process.  The documentary series can be viewed on www.grantland.com.

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Media Contacts:

Joyce Wang     ESPN Communications, 213-405-4403, [email protected]
Danny Chi        ESPN Communications, 213-405-4400, [email protected]