Who is Sean MacLean, the NBA outsider joining the Knicks front office?

The New York Knicks made another interesting move, hiring an NBA outsider to join their revamped front office.

Sean MacLean announced on Monday that he is joining the Knicks as the team’s basketball strategy lead, posting on LinkedIn:

“I love Capital One and am sad to leave, but I was afforded the opportunity to pursue a dream. Today I started a new role with the New York Knicks Front Office. This is a dream come true. From my time at Krossover through my time earning my MBA, I feel like it has all led me to this point. I am excited to get started and GO KNICKS!”

The rookie front office executive previously served as Capital One’s Treasury Management Go-To-Market Strategy Lead. While his last job is not connected to basketball, MacLean certainly knows a different side of the game. He worked for four years at Krossover, a sports analytics software company, which was acquired by Stack Sports in 2017. MacLean studied at Ohio State University before earning his MBA degree at the Wharton School.

Several top NBA League insiders have confirmed MacLean’s news. NBA agent Anthony Raia, who worked with MacLean at Krossover, lauded the hiring.

“They (Knicks) are getting someone who is incredibly smart with insanely high work ethic. He’s always been trying to find ways to use data to improve drafting in sports,” Raia told Off The Glass.

Raia mentioned MacLean’s passion for sports. At Krossover, MacLean once created a formula to project if a pass rusher would be good in the NFL off their combine data.

“It was fairly accurate,” Raia said.

Stack Sports general manager and chief operating officer John Mathew also believes MacLean is a great hire for the Knicks. Matthew told OTG that MacLean is “an all-around great guy and a great colleague to have on your team.”

“He reported to me at Krossover,” Matthew said. “During our time together, he was great in quite a few areas: developing and presenting compelling product strategy, using his analytics skills to refine sales strategy and tactics, leveraging his tech skills to help build a unified data warehouse to ensure we had 360-degree access to relevant KPI’s. I think these skills in addition to his passion for sports will be extremely relevant and valuable for the Knicks.”

MacLean will work under the Knicks’ new vice president of basketball and strategic planning Brock Aller, one of the finest capologists in the league. Both men are from Independence, Ohio.

According to Mathew, it was former Krossover CEO Vasu Kulkarni who introduced MacLean to Aller. Kulkarni is a founding partner of Courtside Ventures, a leading venture capital fund that has invested in over 30 companies across the gaming industry and sports digital media, including The Athletic. Courtside Ventures is backed by a group of investors headlined by Cleveland Cavaliers owner (and Aller’s former boss) Dan Gilbert.

MacLean’s sports analytics background was primarily shaped at Krossover where he first served as director of growth strategy and analytics from 2014 to 2017 before moving up to become the VP of strategy and operational excellence for one year during the Stack Sports takeover. Krossover built an online platform that breaks down and analyzes game films for high school, college, and professional teams. Along with Gilbert, former San Antonio Spurs star David Robinson is an investor.

New Knicks president Leon Rose continues to amass a brilliant new-look front office in New York. He has a few more high-level positions to fill, including the head coach. Expect a decision there later this month; OTG will keep you posted.

Follow this writer on Twitter: @alderalmo