NFL
By: Jordan Hom
On September 22, 2021, the Minnesota Timberwolves announced the promotion of Sachin Gupta as the new interim President of Basketball Operations. This announcement was made shortly after the firing of Gersson Rojas, who held the position for two years.
As a historic first, Gupta will be the first high-ranking NBA executive to be of Indian descent. He joins the likes of Rich Cho (former GM of the Charlotte Hornets) and Kim Ng (current GM of the Miami Marlins) as one of the few Asian Americans with a high executive position in a major league front office. Additionally, Gupta will be one of the youngest to hold the position at only 35. Gupta is best known for creating the ESPN NBA Trade Machine, an online tool most used by fans and other personnel to create mock trades among different NBA teams.
With humble roots in Boston, Gupta obtained his degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he majored in electrical engineering and computer science. He also received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business following his enrollment at MIT.
Through his status as a student at MIT, Gupta was able to connect with the then Houston Rockets General Manager (and current Sixers President of Basketball Operations) Daryl Morey in which he was able to parlay his expertise with computer science and analytics into a position under Morey. As a special advisor to Daryl Morey, Gupta was in charge of creating reports that analyzed the team, opponents, draft prospects, and possible trade opportunities for the Rockets. After building up his portfolio, he was given a louder voice in the organization in which he was able to actively participate in roster and trade decisions. His most significant trade involvement was in 2012, where he played a strong role in the acquisition of James Harden to the Rockets.
In addition to working under Morey, Gupta also had the opportunity to work alongside other NBA executives Sam Hinkie and Gersson Rojas. Through his experiences and connections that he gained as a member of the Rockets front office, he was hired in 2014 as the number two man under Sam Hinkie in Philadelphia following his departure from Houston and his subsequent master’s degree from Stanford.
Hinkie is the man most noted for coining the phrase “The Process” as a nod to the years that the Sixers spent drastically rebuilding the franchise from 2014-18. Although “The Process” has yet to net the Sixers franchise a championship (yet), Gupta played a significant role in the acquisition of the draft capital that the team obtained, including multiple top-five draft picks and a superstar in Joel Embiid.
From then, Gupta bounced around back to the Rockets, then to the Detroit Pistons, and finally to the Minnesota Timberwolves where he got to work under Rojas again in 2019 as the Executive Vice President.
Now as the number one executive in Minnesota, Gupta will have his work cut out for him as he looks to rebuild the team back up from the ashes. However, with his experiences working under top NBA minds like Daryl Morey and Sam Hinkie, there is no doubt that Sachin Gupta is immensely qualified to lead the team back into prominence. They have strong building blocks with Karl Anthony-Towns, D’Angelo Russell and former number one pick Anthony Edwards leading the way and under Gupta’s direction, the team should be back in contention within a few years. This will be something new and exciting that we all should watch with a lot of interest, I know I will.
