The Nerd Who Knew Too Much

Summary

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Pablo Torre Finds Out

Episode: The Nerd Who Knew Too Much

Date: August 21, 2025
Host: Pablo Torre
Guests/Reporters: Nick Altshuler and Rich Levine

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Overview

In this deeply reported “talkumentary” edition, Pablo Torre follows the life and tragic end of Martin Manley, a nearly forgotten pioneer of basketball analytics whose ideas quietly changed the course of the sport but whose name is almost never mentioned in today’s discourse. Through the on-the-ground work of journalists Nick Altshuler and Rich Levine (creators of the 30 for 30 audio series Chasing Basketball Heaven), the episode examines Manley’s legacy, personal quirks, mathematical worldview, and puzzling suicide—asking why the man who mathematically revolutionized basketball vanishes from history, and what it means to chase efficiency at any human cost.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ignorance of a Pioneer: Martin Manley, the Forgotten Name

• [03:45] Pablo and guests recount their visit to the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, where almost no one in the world of sports data has even heard of Martin Manley.
  • Memorable Quote:

    "He was the first person to write in a book, the NBA should shoot more three pointers." – Nick [04:50]

  • Despite revolutionizing basketball statistics, even icons like Daryl Morey (“the guy who thought he knew everything about the world of sports nerds”) are unfamiliar with Manley.

2. Genesis: Life in Kansas and Early Obsession with Efficiency

• [11:24] Manley’s isolated upbringing in rural Kansas shapes his analytical mind and social distance.
  • “He would apply math to basketball... but he applied it to everything. Efficiency in basketball and then efficiency in what he had for lunch.” – Rich [05:31]
• The proximity with Bill James, the godfather of sports analytics, is accidental but crucial.
• Synesthesia and a genius IQ (“What threes were yellow... what a beautiful way to go through life.” – [16:06]).

3. The Book: Basketball Heaven and the Creation of EFF Stat

• [20:17] Manley’s self-published 1987 book, Basketball Heaven, is the first to advocate for more three-point shots and introduces “EFF,” a player efficiency rating.
  • “It’s good things minus bad things divided by number.” – Nick [21:31]
• He receives blurbs from both Bill James and, briefly, NBA commissioner David Stern.
  • Quote:

    “Basketball Heaven is thorough, fresh, and occasionally brilliant... unlike anything I’ve ever seen about the sport.” – Bill James (blurb) [24:40]

• Despite national TV exposure at the 1989 NBA All-Star Game, Manley struggles to translate his written charisma to broadcast (“He became this boring shell of a man... didn't say efficiency once...” [27:43–28:03]).

4. Alienation, Obsession, and Withdrawal

• [29:53] When sales disappoint and further editions flop, Manley abruptly stops his analytics work, unable to reconcile love of ideas with commercial failure.
• He becomes more reclusive after personal setbacks:
  • “He just, like, shut down...” – Nick [11:37]
  • Divorce and loss turn his forensic eye inward.

5. The Most Efficient Goodbye: Manley’s Calculated Suicide

• [32:20] Discussion of Manley’s suicide in 2013, which he meticulously planned and documented in a sprawling website.
  • The site is a mix of detailed personal memoirs, fun facts, riddles, suicide rationale, movie rankings, color synesthesia charts, and even invented cat litter boxes.
  • Quote:

    “It’s essentially a suicide letter. And half of it, you’re like, why would you put that in a suicide letter?” – Nick [34:15]

• His fixation on efficiency and control pervades even his end:
  • “He broke down the best way to commit suicide... I want professionals there, so I can donate organs... I don’t want to hurt anyone else.” – Nick [39:05]
• His final note to family is practical and unemotional:
  • “Today is my 60th birthday. The last day of my life... Please set aside your shock long enough to read this.” – Barbie (reading Martin’s note) [40:22]

6. Why Was He Forgotten?

• Manley influenced what would become standard analytics but never received credit—perhaps because he lacked the knack for self-promotion and connection.
  • Quote:

    “He was not looking for outside input... Not only want to be unlike everyone else, I don’t want to be like anyone else. I am Martin Manley alone. Watch me.” – Rich [22:17, 29:22]

7. Reflections: Bill James and the River of Life

• [43:04] Posthumous reflections, with Bill James likening Manley’s fate to a kayak capsized in a river—an accident more than an inevitability.
  • Quote:

    “We’re all in the river together... and occasionally the river kills you, but it moves on whether you’re swimming in it or pissing in it.” – Bill James (via Nick & Rich) [45:41]

8. Legacy: Toast to Martin Manley

• [47:00] The hosts and reporters toast Manley with his beverage of choice (Pepsi), celebrating his impact and self-belief as well as his tragic solitude.
  • “A proud forefather of sports analytics. Perhaps unfairly unrecognized, but I hope to bring him back into the limelight.” – Nick [47:28]
  • “A man who believed in himself, who took some chances, for better or worse, wasn’t comfortable being average.” – Rich [47:38]
  • “To the life and occasional brilliance of Martin Manley.” – Pablo [47:46]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I marveled at the man who is most addicted to Diet Mountain Dew... chugging it with his feet kicked up watching James Harden highlights.” – Pablo [02:38]
• “He was the first to write: the NBA should shoot more three pointers.” – Nick [04:55]
• “War is over. The nerds have gone from being stuffed in lockers to owning the entire building.” – Pablo [07:54]
• “Martin’s personal synesthesia chart: which numbers relate to which colors. 3 is yellow, 6 is green...” – Pablo [34:15]
• “Mother-in-law equals 'Woman Hitler'... I don’t stand by that, by the way.” – Pablo [36:00]
• “I'm not like all the other people that commit suicide when they're depressed. I'm thrilled.” – Barbie, reading Martin’s note [41:26]
• “Occasionally the river kills you, but it moves on whether you’re swimming in it or pissing in it. You might as well swim.” – Bill James [45:41]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:45] – Why No One Has Heard of Martin Manley (Sloan Analytics Conference Anecdote)
• [11:24] – Formation: Kansas Childhood and Bill James Connection
• [20:17] – Creation & Explanation of the EFF Stat
• [24:40] – Bill James’s Endorsement and Blurbs
• [27:43] – Manley’s National TV Appearance and Missed Opportunity
• [32:20] – Discovery of Manley’s Suicide and Website
• [39:05] – Meticulous Planning of His Death
• [40:22] – Sister Barbie Reads His Final Letter
• [43:04] – Reflection with Bill James (“Kayak in the River” analogy)
• [47:00] – Toast to Martin Manley and the Episode’s Closing Thoughts

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Tone & Language

• Warm, informal, sometimes irreverent but deeply empathetic—balancing nerdy sports banter with genuine human inquiry.
• Frequent asides, jokes, and tangents. (“That moon landing ass call was Chris Ford hitting the first three... [10:19]”)
• Touches of melancholy and introspection, especially in discussing Manley’s self-erasure and suicide.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a powerful investigative narrative about an unsung genius, the cost of devotion to efficiency, and the impermanence of digital and personal legacies. Torre and his correspondents seamlessly blend humor, history, analysis, and pathos to render Martin Manley—a “nerd who knew too much”—visible, and unforgettable, once again.

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For more on Manley’s life and impact, listen to Altshuler & Levine’s series [Chasing Basketball Heaven] or visit Martin’s still-online website (as discussed at [33:16–34:29]).

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Transcript

[A]

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre. And today we're gonna find out what this sound is.

[B]

Barbie and Phil, he addressed it to both of us. I hope this is the first you are hearing of it. Today is my 60th birthday, the last day of my life.

[A]

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[C]

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[A]

Look, we have two Pepsi.

[C]

When's the last time you had Pepsi out of a two liter bottle?

[D]

God, sixth grade.

[C]

Yeah, I was gonna say a birthday party at Pizza Hut or something pre.

[A]

Pre pubescent. I might even venture we kept Mountain.

[C]

Dew in the fridge at home. In high school, you used to drink.

[D]

A lot of Mountain Dew.

[C]

I did, yeah. Then diet and then I was just. Then I was done. It was my twenties. Long time.

[A]

Mountain Dew is so diet Mountain Dew. Total side note is the juice that so much of the sports nerd world runs on.

[C]

I was addicted to.

[A]

Oh, interesting.

[D]

He showed up at the office every day with a diet Mountain Dew and.

[C]

I would walk home from work not being able to wait to get inside and open a cold one from my fridge. I understood what it's like to be addicted to a beverage.

[A]

So the reason why I marvel at that as we get into this now, completely, of course, spontaneously, is that the man who is most addicted to diet Mountain Dew, who I have interviewed while he has been Chugging diet Mountain Dew with his feet kicked up on a table in a conference room, watching at the time, Houston Rockets James Harden highlights. And thank you both for being here, by the way.

[D]

Thanks for having us, Rich.

[A]

And Nick is. Was. Remains. Daryl Morey. I am the guy who thought he knew everything about the world of sports nerds and the Daryl Morey cinematic universe. He's a friend of the show. He's been on here a bunch of times. But it turns out that when I was at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference presented by MIT in Boston this past spring, yesterday, you guys were there, too.

[C]

We looked for you.

[A]

We did not meet up. No, because you guys were on a parallel but very different path, and you guys had a question for the people I thought I knew everything about. What was the question that you were there to ask?

[C]

Do you know the name Martin Manley? Have you ever heard the name Martin Manley?

[D]

No. Have you heard the name Martin Manley?

[C]

Have you ever heard the name Martin Manley? Martin Manley? No.

[A]

Martin Manley.

[C]

It was a very consistent response.

[D]

We should say, have you ever heard of Martin Manley?

[A]

I have not.

[D]

That's the right answer, by the way.

[A]

I should say I had no idea who Martin Manley is, by the way.

[C]

Daryl Morey.

[D]

No idea.

[C]

No idea. Martin Manley.

[A]

Manley.

[C]

I'm actually struggling to even find Martin Manley when I look on the Internet.

[A]

Sorry, did I ruin the podcast already? And that's embarrassing.

[C]

For who?

[A]

Well, for me, for Daryl, for most everybody who, it turns out, owes something of. I don't know if the word is debt. I don't know if the word is courtesy, but just some recognition.

[C]

I think it's fair to say this. He was the first person to write in a book, the NBA should shoot more three pointers. Like, I think I feel very comfortable making that argument. He was the first to have a book to say that.

[D]

Yeah, the first one to point out three is more than two. And why aren't professional shooters shooting these?

[A]

In other words, the thing that Daryl Morey, the proprietor of the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, has made his entire career on is actually first established by this guy. He did not know about the hint.

[C]

For this guy, the math was so simple, but no one else wanted to listen.

[A]

His legacy, his identity, has been buried like a tepid Pepsi bottle in someone's closet for decades.

[D]

He would apply math to basketball, as he did, but he applied it to everything. He came obsessed with efficiency in everything. Efficiency in basketball and then efficiency in, like, what he had for lunch. He just had to watch every local news channel every day to get the weather report from each one and see which like forecaster was the most accurate and would just keep data on that. He had to log and keep data on the efficiency of life.

[A]

And so the question then at the top here is why? Why has nobody heard of him?

[C]

You know, he's always doing the numbers and he made a calculation that's like, oh wait, I think I can figure out how to have the most efficient death. And our story kind of goes behind the scenes of how he actually did look. Every football game is a grind, and if you're like Dan and the crew, you know there's no such thing as one size fits all. Your sleep should be just as custom as Coach's game plan. That's where Sleep Number comes in. You get to call your own plays. Softer, firmer, cooler, warmer. Your side, your comfort. Change it whenever you want. No more feeling stuck like a busted play. And for all the late night fights over the thermostat, climate series cools up 20 times faster than the competition. True temp bedding kicks heat and humidity to the sidelines so you can actually stay chill all night long. Bottom line, Sleep Number is like having a sleep coach in your corner, adjusting to you all night because your best game starts with the right rest. Why choose a Sleep Number Smart Bed so you can sleep just the way that you like. The only bed that lets you make each side firmer or softer whenever you like. Your Sleep Number Setting Sleep Number's biggest sale of the year is here. All beds on sale up to 50% off the limited edition Smart Bed Limited time exclusively at a Sleep Number store near you. Sleep Number Official Sleep and Wellness partner of the NFL. See store or sleepnumber.com for details.

[A]

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[D]

Thank you, Rich Levine.

[A]

Those are the two voices that in audio, if you're not watching on YouTube, you'll be tracking. So, Nick, say hello again.

[D]

Hello.

[A]

And Rich, say hello again.

[C]

Hey there.

[A]

Rich and Nick are two journalists, two friends, and lifelong NBA obsessives who spent months reporting the strange lost story of Martin Manley. And they titled the results of their full investigation Chasing Basketball Heaven, which now lives as a multi part audio series brought to you by 30 for 30 podcasts and Meadowlark Media, which I highly encourage you to check out. By the way, there's a link in the show notes, because the thing about history in all of its fogginess, is that it does tend to be written by the victors, and Martin Manley wasn't a victor. And also, both writing and history these days are hard sells at the point where I just don't know if the kids out there even know, like when the three point line showed up in the NBA.

[C]

I think a lot of adults probably don't even know that because it wasn't.

[A]

I mean, for us, I guess it wasn't that long ago. For the kids. It's impossible to imagine a game that didn't have.

[C]

It's like World War II to us when we were growing up. It's like the same difference in time.

[A]

That's right. Let me tell you a little bit about a Boston Celtic named Chris Ford.

[C]

Yeah. Ooh, good pull.

[A]

Well, it's one of the great calls.

[C]

Back over to Archibald. Archibald takes one, holds it up top.

[A]

To Ford, a step back, pop into it. It's a three point play. Chris Ford, a three point play. That moon landing ass call was Chris Ford hitting the first three in the history of the NBA after the three point line got inserted in 1979. And if you follow that trajectory, it turns out you don't just get to Steph Curry and Daryl Morey and modern basketball. You also get to Kansas and the uniquely efficient trajectory of Martin Manley.

[C]

He'd grown up in Topeka, which was Sort of like a, you know, like a Pleasantville kind of upbringing a bit. And then when he was 11 or 12 years old, his dad took a job and they moved like, three hours outside of Topeka. Like, we drove out there, and it's. It's not.

[D]

This is a field. A field in a granary. And I don't think he ever recovered. Like, he went from, yeah, kids next door for as far as the eye can see. Even that wouldn't be next door. Kids down the street to Moose to. Yeah, just the middle of nowhere. And I don't think he. He just, like, shut down at that point. And I don't think he ever, like, really had much of a social life beyond, like, two, three friends. Man, the Kansas you're picturing.

[A]

Yes, yes.

[D]

Castaway, Kansas.

[A]

Yeah. There's a house on top of a pair of red slippers. You know, there's. What else. What else happens in Kansas? Bill James happened in Kansas.

[C]

I mean, talk about luck. I mean, like, it was the middle of nowhere, but it was like a couple hours away from the guy that you want to live near if you want to have a future in analytics.

[A]

A couple fun facts about Bill James. Number one, Bill James blocked me on Twitter.

[D]

Oh, I can see that.

[C]

I. I believe it.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

That's most people who know this world.

[C]

Having nothing to do with you, by the way.

[A]

I don't know.

[C]

I. Nick has your block.

[A]

I am. I. I immediately was horrified because his name is, like, on the lecture hall at Sloan. Oh, yeah, the Bill James lecture room is what they rename it at the Boston Convention Center. And then I'm asking around, I'm like, why Bill James blocking me? And they're like, that's. That makes total sense. Like, okay.

[C]

That's a podcast, by the way.

[A]

Yeah, my investigation on that front continues.

[C]

Exactly.

[A]

But for those not initiated into the cult of Bill James, please explain.

[D]

Bill James was a night watchman at a baked beans factory.

[C]

Great lead in. We're going to do a Sklar Brothers thing. I'm going to finish your sentences.

[D]

Big baseball fan, English major, but somehow awesome at math as well. And he dug into the numbers to see how. What actually goes into winning beyond the stats that were provided at the time.

[A]

By the way, Bill James is the guy, you know, if you're a sports nerd with any credibility, like, that's the guy who you credit as. This is the forefather of.

[D]

In any sport.

[A]

Like, of exactly. Of sports. Advanced statistics in any vague sense.

[D]

Football, Hockey, Aussie rules football. Who's the. Who's the big guy. It's Bill James.

[C]

If anyone owns the, like the. Still, the. The Moneyball, the actual book, Moneyball on your phone, go to the index or just search Bill James and see how many times he is referenced.

[A]

Don't look up. Don't look up. You know, Mark Mulder. Not a lot in the index.

[C]

No, but Bill James chapters.

[A]

So Martin Manley, though, as he's growing up in Kansas, and Bill James some somehow lives geographically as close as he could have dreamed. Realistically, what was Martin Manley like in high school?

[D]

Growing up, his friend Charlie told us they were in church one Sunday and they both had girlfriends. And Martin's trying to come up with a way because they're good boys and they're in church, they don't want to have premarital sex. He's trying to figure out, like, how far he can go without having sex and still be, like, a good Christian. So he was like, I think if I, like. If we neck this way and like, she does, like, one button on her blouse like that. That's because he tried to figure out, like, an efficiency model for a teenage, like, making out. And Charlie's telling us this. And then the next Sunday, he says, Martin sits down and he goes, well, that's not going to work.

[A]

I love the idea of. Yeah, like vorp.

[D]

Yes, exactly.

[A]

Value over replacement. You know, fill in the blank.

[D]

Exactly, as it were. So even back then, he was applying his math, his own brain to everything.

[A]

So his intelligence.

[C]

Yes, there you go.

[A]

How do you. How does one measure that?

[C]

Well, Martin measured it by taking an IQ test in the back of a science fiction magazine.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

And this was like, he was kind of lost. He dropped out of college. I think he was mid-20s. He dropped out. He was just driving around the country. He was reading his book on the back. He sees the IQ test like the silly. The world's hardest IQ test is how he remembered it, filled it out, sent it in six weeks later. I think it was 150, 156, I believe. And for him, that was the catalyst to think that he could.

[D]

Oh, I am smart. So from that point on or before then, he just, like, I'm the smartest.

[A]

Like how he saw colors.

[D]

Oh, yes. His synesthesia.

[C]

Is that how we said? We had to work really hard on pronouncing that word.

[A]

I've been obsessed with synesthesia.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

I kind of want it, but I.

[A]

I think I want it, too. Just because I can't wrap my mind around how one who has synesthesia actually, like, does perceive everything around him.

[D]

Well, for Martin, what threes were yellow.

[C]

I'm saying, like, this is like. Like a. I feel like numbers.

[D]

You have synesthesia now.

[C]

Like, the wallet numbers look like this. Like, I'm like, what a beautiful way to go through life.

[D]

You should taste the song I'm listening to.

[A]

Right? It does. It's a. It's a condition. Affliction, I guess, is a term that he has sort of, like, turned over.

[D]

But to speak to how closed off he was from other people, because I think he was just wired that way. He didn't really realize other people didn't have that for, like, decades, decades. You know, he had that classic, we've all had it. I don't even have to ask you if you had it, that dream or, like, you're back in college and, oh, you forgot you signed up for, like, this economics class the first day, but you never showed up. And you have the exam made a terrible, terrible. I have it once a month. He had still. Oh, easily, easily.

[C]

Have you talked to your therapist about that?

[D]

I feel like this point that it's a cliche and I want to bring it up. I got to be interesting for my therapist. Yeah, but he had that dream once and, like, had and Googled it and was like, oh, I guess everyone else. He had no idea.

[A]

Other people had not. Not everybody sees the number three as yellow.

[D]

Yes.

[A]

What did he do for work then, this guy? What was his day job?

[D]

He was like a. A couple credits away from his business degree after he had gone back to college. And then his friend Millionaire Joe founded a satellite TV business, and he went to work for Joe. So this was early 80s. So satellite TV was like a booming business. And it did boom for a while.

[C]

And by the way, one of the benefits of working for satellite TV business was that Martin got his own dish. And when he was up late at night not spending time with his wife, he watched NBA games from across the country. So this is where he kind of. He'd always been a college hoops fan. Like, he was a KU guy like most people in Kansas. But this. With this dish up late, he's getting games from all over the country. He was like the first league pass owner. Among the first.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And he's like, oh, wait, I kind of love this game. And he. But again, starts noticing these inefficiencies. And he's also reading Bill James, seeing what's happening to Bill James. He's like, this is a market that needs to be fixed.

[D]

He sees Bill James finally break through in 85, get famous. Start making some money.

[C]

Finally, he says, the satellite business, I think HBO started scrambling in like January of 86 or something, tanked the business. He's got this new passion for basketball. So he goes to his friend Joe and says, here we go. Bill James is doing this.

[D]

Yeah. There's a market efficiency in this.

[C]

No one's doing this for basketball. I can do it.

[A]

Which is to say that when Martin Manley is writing this book in the 80s, this would be seminal text to shape the future of sports analytics and sports itself self as a result. Yeah, he calls it basketball heaven.

[C]

Martin hand wrote the entire basketball heaven. Of course, he did this book, the first book that. That says shoot more threes. And he puts out an ad for a software developer who can help him crunch some of these numbers. And this guy Todd, who would go on to become one of his best friends and poker buddy for years and years, walks in to meet Martin for the first time to interview for this situation. We're sitting there discussing probably details of what he wanted. And he's sitting there eating with a letter opener, you know, like a silver letter opener, these brownies and cutting them.

[A]

Off and eating it. And then all of a sudden he.

[C]

Does this where he. Which is what? He scratches the back of his butt, you know, butt crack or whatever, and.

[A]

Then continues to eat with it. And I look at him kind of.

[C]

Funny and he just kind of looks.

[A]

At me like, what?

[C]

But that was Martin.

[D]

He's the friend that you have that you always kind of apologize for or like you bring. You bring your friend to a party and you're like, just give him. Just give him an hour. Like you're. You're not going to like him at.

[C]

First three or four times.

[A]

He means.

[D]

Well, yes, exactly.

[A]

The insights in the book. Right. Which he decides to write at age 34, 1987, inspired by Bill James, fellow Kansan. The statistic that he comes up with.

[C]

Is called what efficiency rating. So EFF is the shorthand how Martin was hoping that it would catch up. And he took this into consideration. He's like, what is going to actually catch on with other folks? Like, what? How can I make this the easiest for the NBA fan? He wanted. It's like the iPhone. He wanted every NBA fan that. To have this in their pocket to understand who actually was the most effective player in any given game beyond just who scored the most points.

[A]

Right. So the statistic, the formula EFF equals bracket, open parentheses, points plus rebounds plus assists plus blocks plus steals, close parentheses minus open parentheses Missed field goals plus missed free throws plus turnovers. Close parentheses, close bracket. All that divided by games played.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

So actually kind of intuitive in that regard, but also in the name, not dissimilar from, you know, what per player efficiency rating, as it's like, I have heard about. Attempted to do as well, which was made by John Hollinger, who is also a zillion times more famous than Martin Manley.

[C]

Yes. And I think the thing is that if you Then. If you now read the equation for per, it would probably take about 20.

[D]

Times as long as I can do Martin's math. And I was an English major and I'm very bad at math.

[A]

Yes. It's. It's good things minus bad things divided by number.

[D]

If you asked me to do, like, Hollinger stuff, I would dissolve into a puddle.

[A]

Oh, there are. It's. It's. You know, there's a lowercase U. I.

[D]

Don'T know what that signifies.

[C]

Probably an upside down letter.

[A]

I imagine on it is an unadjusted version. And then there's. Yeah, there's so many more parentheses in brackets and LGFT and lgpf. And yeah. Nobody actually understands how to.

[C]

And there's like decimals. Decimals. Difference between like someone's eff.

[D]

So he would show his top 10 lists. Like, oh, according to my ranking, Barkley is seventh most efficient. According to this one, Barclays eighth most efficient. Like, it's. What's the big difference?

[A]

But Martin over here. Yeah. Again, did not know that there was a competitor at the time.

[D]

No, he was a close the office door and just do it. I think is right kind of guy. Like, he was not looking for outside input.

[A]

I want to bring the book in.

[C]

Sweet.

[A]

So we can look at it.

[C]

It's the first edition.

[D]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[D]

It's a classic, man.

[A]

The. The artifact. This is a genuine artifact. A museum piece that I'm holding in my hand to describe it for those who cannot see.

[D]

Don't smudge it. That's mine.

[C]

By the way, how much are you going to sell this for? Once this.

[A]

Once this hits, we can get this authenticated. It is. Is that. That's not him.

[D]

That is him.

[C]

That is Martin.

[D]

See, he's a stud, dude.

[A]

So this red cover, but inset photo.

[D]

Portrait, he's in cotton candy heaven.

[C]

He.

[A]

He's sitting in a cloud. A lazy boy in a cloud. There is a Pepsi bottle, dude. Right. On a small side table. He's wearing a Magic Johnson. Pretty snugly fitting Magic Johnson Lakers jersey holding USA Today's sports section on his lap.

[C]

Can we talk about the T shirt tan that he's got like, underneath that?

[A]

Incredible, incredible. The thing underneath his T shirt has not seen the sun ever. It's been cloudy as well in that regard. And he has just a gooseneck snapping wrist with a tiny basketball that he is.

[D]

There's no way that went in, by the way.

[C]

Shooting into a mini hoop to put yourself on the COVID of what, dude? Like, Like, I don't know if I imagine maybe you can get the rights to like a Jordan or any basketball.

[D]

Player that the first thing on top, it says it's Basketball Heaven. But it's Martin Manley's Basketball.

[C]

Right?

[A]

Martin Manley's Basketball Heaven. 1987. 88. And the stash, the bangs, dark hair, utter self confidence.

[C]

That's a. That's the word for Martin. Just like. Like, I am jealous of the self confidence that this guy had.

[A]

The back cover, the inset photo is the Basketball hall of Fame.

[D]

Yep. All in all, it's brutalist black and white glory. Absolutely.

[C]

But why not put that in the.

[A]

COVID The text above it kind of explains the question that you have, because it says, finally, exclamation point. The ultimate book for the ultimate fan. And the blurbs, these are legit.

[D]

They're big time blurbs. Can you.

[A]

Can you please pass this around and read the blurbs?

[C]

He knew how to hockey a book. Again, shameless.

[D]

Basketball Heaven is thorough, fresh, and occasionally brilliant. Manley's systematic analysis of basketball from the time of George Mikin to the present is unlike anything I've ever seen about the sport. His research is massive, his writing lucid, and his approach novel. And that is from Mr. Bill James.

[A]

How does one get a blurb from the guy who blocked me on Twitter?

[C]

Love them. When he started doing Basketball Heaven, he wrote to me and I said, sure, come on out and see me. And we went to a couple baseball games together. Oh, wow. So do you remember those games? What do you remember about Martin? Very bright young man. I thought his book would succeed to an extent that it did not. I thought his book would catch on. This guy ignited right there. I mean, you can say whatever you want about Martin. We've kind of been making some jokes about him. Bill James never said either of us is smart. Young man, if Bill James says you're.

[D]

Good at sports analytics, you're probably pretty good at it.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

One thing, though, I will say is that. So second edition, we got a blurb from David Stern, the commissioner of The NBA himself, the third edition, it is no longer there.

[D]

But the NBA did adopt his stat as an official stat.

[A]

Well, I was going to say so these endorsements, these blurbs happen. This book is a thing. As much as we didn't remember it, it was a thing. What did they do for Martin Manley?

[D]

The sales figures were not what he wanted, but they did give him opportunity that perhaps he didn't capitalize on fully. Like he was invited to the NBA All Star Game in 89 in Houston.

[C]

The Astrodome in Houston, Texas, the site of the 39th annual All Star Game. And there you see the immense crowd here. The record attendance was in Indianapolis four years ago. 43,146. And we could approach that or surpass it this afternoon.

[A]

I mean, this is the bad boy pistons 88, 89. It's Magic Johnson of the jersey and.

[C]

The tan Kareem Abdul Jabbar on his farewell tour.

[A]

Michael Jordan is the scoring leader. And what does Martin Manley get get to do?

[C]

He's on national TV at the NBA All Star Game being introduced by Fred Hickman to a national TV audience as the Bill James of basketball. Joining me now is a legend in his own time and he's got a book to prove it. This is the book Basketball Heaven. It is penned by Martin Manley. Martin Manley is a statistician extraordinaire. He has done for basketball what Bill James has done for baseball. So he sits down for for a 10 minute segment just like breaking down the league.

[D]

That's a big invite.

[A]

Oh, I didn't know they invited a stats nerd on Inside the NBA at any point.

[C]

It was the crack. It was the moment that analytics. I think that was the first crack.

[A]

Oh, 8889. Look, this is before I thought any of this happened. And in terms of how that appearance goes as a television concern, what was the scouting report like and how Martin did on TV be?

[D]

Martin Manley was a singular human being who unlike many other people, he had his own distinct personality. And after he was set up by Fred, he kind of just became this like boring shell of a man instead of the man he. He is in his books where he.

[A]

Is on this cover.

[C]

Yeah, he didn't say the word efficiency once in the entire tire appearance. Surprises on the Eastern Conference. Cleveland because they're so good. Indiana because they're so bad.

[A]

Well, definitely those two are true. Along with those naturally Milwaukee and Philadelphia both overachieved this year somewhat. Aren't too many other teams other than Indiana that have done that much worse than anybody bought. But then there aren't that many more losses yet to be given out besides what Indiana's accomplished. So it's jarring to see this kind of COVID the personality, the utter self confidence, and then hear something quite different.

[C]

What about the Chicago Bulls, Michael and the rest of the guys? What are they ever going to be able to do to give this a good, cohesive team type of look?

[A]

It's difficult to say, obviously, when you've got a player like a Michael Jordan, it's extremely difficult to think what kind of pieces do you put with them to make it work out perfectly with Magic or with Bert, for some reason or another, they had that ability to make all those other players fit into a cohesive unit. But Jordan, they're trying to fit the pieces in rather than fitting in naturally.

[C]

Okay, Martin, that takes care of the Eastern Conference, but we've got the Western Conference to talk about here as well. Didn't mention the name of his book.

[A]

Which is like, by the way, that's where it's like, Martin, come on, man. Like, he had one job.

[D]

A point of pride for him was, I not only want to be unlike everyone else, I don't want to be like anyone else. I am Martin Manley alone. Watch me. And then on tv, he fades away.

[A]

What is the result?

[C]

Well, he never appeared on TV again, that's for sure. And I think he finished up. He was already writing his next book and that was it. Like Basketball World never, never heard of from him again.

[D]

The third edition didn't sell very well. Doubleday, I think, bought out the rest of the contract. And as a businessman, as a person looking to make profit, he was like, well, this is just not worth my time any. This is an inefficient use of my time. So he stopped cold.

[A]

And the stopping cold, one must imagine that this is. Is felt that temperature change is felt in other parts of this guy's life.

[C]

So twice divorced, he wasn't happy with the second divorce. I think that he. That that was the woman that he really would have been happy to spend the rest of his life with. I don't think he acted in a way that was deserving of that. But he's like, what am I gonna do? He got to the point, as he's approaching his late 50s, you know, he learns that, you know, his ex wife is now dating someone else. And so he kind of can cross that off a little bit. And he's just like looking at himself. He's like, yep, I'm able right now to give a lot to society. I still think I can be a positive asset in this world. And then he's like, as he's looking ahead, he's like, but it's not going to be long before I'm inefficient, before I become a negative drag on this world. And that's where the math just kind of again took over a little bit. And really he took all that efficiency that he was pushing outwards to all different things in his life and really turned it on himself and start figuring out how to have the most efficient goodbye. Gatorade is the number one proven electrolyte.

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[D]

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[A]

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[D]

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[A]

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[D]

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[A]

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[D]

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[A]

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[C]

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[A]

The first time you heard the name Martin Manley, Rich, do you remember it?

[C]

Oh, I do, yeah. Yeah, it was August 2013. So I was covering the Celtics at the time. But a few months before that, they blew up the entire team. This is when they traded Pierce and Garnett on draft night. Doc Rivers leaves. They hired Brad Stevens. So I'm like, I'm irrelevant in my field of work for the next couple years was not feeling great. The Boston Marathon bombing was a couple months before that. And I see a headline on Twitter, I think it was a dead spin article about Martin Manley.

[A]

What was the headline?

[C]

The headline was sports writer commit suicide. And here I am, a sports writer feeling horrible about myself in general and just again, the world around me and I see it comes across just doom scrolling. And I see sportswriter commit suicide leaves website was the headline.

[A]

And I just gotta say that Martin's website, which Rich and Nick immediately proceeded to visit, is what hooked me on this entire story too. You can still go and visit that site right now. It's still up and it's sparse. Just basic HTML but also immensely ornate. You can read Martin's ranking of his favorite movies of all time. Number one, Little Shop of Horrors. Number 18, Moneyball. And he also lays out his personal synesthesia chart in which he lists which numbers relate to which colors. So beyond yellow being 3, you can learn that green is 6. But I should warn you that the reason he was doing all of this, which relates to the reason that nobody really remembers Martin, is jarring.

[D]

It's essentially a suicide letter. And you read it, and half of it, you're like, why would you put that in a suicide letter? Why would you put your.

[A]

Your.

[D]

Your invention for, like, a cat litter box in there?

[B]

Right.

[A]

The text of this Martin Manley across the top colon, my life and death. And it's a bunch of hyperlinks, like a table of contents, and it's text and occasional images and some tables and subsections and fun facts.

[C]

Dude, there are bolded fun facts, riddles, poems.

[A]

Yeah, there's something called. I mean, a section called mom and Dad. A section called the Heavens. Two marriages, first, two loves.

[D]

There's a. There's a link for other suicides, just in case you were wondering if anyone else did. He has, like, a list of famous suicides.

[A]

There's a page devoted to 2x files.

[C]

Yeah, that's about a UFO sighting he had on an airplane once. Yeah.

[D]

Softball league.

[A]

Kevin Johnson.

[C]

Part of me thinks is that he knew that once this website was done, he was done. So it's almost like you don't want to hang up the phone. He's just trying to figure out things to talk about to keep this thing going. Because when he's done, he's done a digital legacy. Yeah.

[A]

By the way, it's hard not to see this itself as a map, as a series of clues. Maybe it's because I'm indulging Martin's brain, which is essentially this thing uploaded onto a website. But, you know, the anagrams section.

[C]

I mean, did you. The mother in law. Did you get that?

[A]

Mother in law equals. And this is again anagram. So letters, you know, on both sides are exactly the letters on the other. Mother in law equals woman Hitler.

[D]

I don't stand by that, by the way.

[A]

I don't stand by that on the record. I absolutely do not stand by that.

[C]

Debit card. Isn't that.

[A]

Debit card equals bad credit.

[C]

That one's kind of by the way.

[A]

Christians, Muslims and the Jews equals. Jerusalem stands within schism. And that is followed by by the way, maybe the key to all of this, A skeleton key to all of this. Martin Allen Manley, mentally linear man so the subsection titled My Religion, he writes, quote, even though there are many reasons why I might not have committed suicide, the reasons to do it were superior. Having said that, the single biggest reason by a mile in parentheses, not to do it is because suicide is considered a mortal sin by many religions. And I can't fault the logic followed by, you know, a treatise on how he knows that God exists. And the answer is, I know because I know.

[D]

So he said he has a section, why suicide? And he gives reasons. But you still have questions. And one thing you learn about Martin is like, he's always keeping a little something to himself. You're never getting the full answer. Perhaps you're getting a answer, but he's not giving you all of them. So like his parents, when they passed away, they had dementia and his sister and Martin had to clean it up. And there was. They didn't. It sort of gave him nightmares, really. Just like, I don't want to be like that.

[C]

This is what happens when you age.

[A]

Yes.

[D]

He was afraid. He was afraid of aging ungracefully.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

He picked the date.

[C]

Yes. Birthday.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Born 8, 1553. Died 8, 15, 13, comma, age 60. What was that day like?

[C]

One thing we're quite sure of is that he did not go to sleep the night before. He didn't sleep much anyways. But I can't imagine, like, setting an alarm for the next morning knowing, like, what you're going to wake up and do. He had a personal blog called Sports and Review that had a fair number of readers. Yeah. He had people that read him and had a post there saying, at 7 o' clock tonight, I'll be posting my most important post of all time. He went on. He had this investor's message board that he spent a lot. He was like a moderator on there. He was that guy, right. Just finding every little wrong post and deleting it and getting into fights with all the other people about deleting their posts, that sort of thing. But posted on there and said, just so you know, on my blog, Sportsman Review, I'll be posting something. It was a pleasure to know all y'. All. He changes his outgoing voicemail.

[A]

Hi, it's 4:30am August 15th. Thank you for being my friend. This is the last time you'll hear from me. I wish you great happiness.

[B]

At the tone, please record your message.

[C]

Drives about 10 minutes from his duplex to the Overland park police station. Goes to the back, back parking lot. Right in front of a basketball court, by the way, an outdoor basketball court. Under a tree calls 911 I would like to report a suicide. And hung up. And that was about. About a little before 5:00am Again, another.

[D]

Thing, he would break down. He broke down the best way to commit suicide. And he finally arrived at the conclusion that, like, I want professionals there immediately so I can donate organs and things and I don't want to hurt anyone else or affect anyone else that's not used to this kind of thing. So he did it at the police station, right?

[C]

Like there are drugs you can get, but I have to get them from Mexico. And you don't know if they don't work until it's too late. I could run my car in the garage, but I live in a duplex. What if it seeps into my neighbor's house and does something to them? I could kill myself in my apartment. But then my landlord is going to have to clean it up. Someone's going to have to find me. So he crossed off every box to figure out this is the neatest, most organized. And he'd liquid. He had liquidated his life to. I think he'd been sleeping on the floor the last couple nights of his life.

[D]

Everything was gone. Even like one room. Like his lease on his apartment was about to expire. His registration on his car was about to expire. Everything was like closing, right? His life insurance was about to expire. It was just. He was gone and like any trace of him was gone. We talked to Barbie, his sister. I don't think she has cried yet. I don't think she ever cried about it.

[C]

And his sister told us it was damn easy.

[B]

I opened up the email and I could read some of it to you. If you want the intro, I can read it to you.

[D]

Please.

[B]

Barbie. And Phil, he addressed it to both of us. I hope this is the first you are hearing of it. Today is my 60th birthday. The last day of my life. Assuming everything went according to plan, and I'm 100% sure it did, I have been dead for a few hours. Please set aside your shock long enough to read this. I'm sorry for any hurt this may cause and I understand if you are angry. Perhaps by the time you are done reading, you will feel less so, but perhaps not. Unfortunately, I couldn't make this decision based on anyone else's feelings. I'm the only one living in my shoes. Nevertheless, I hope you can consider my actions with an open mind and forgive me either way. And this is. Gosh, I don't even know. 10 pages. It's a lot you know, but he goes into great detail about all the planning he did and what it took and how organized he had to be. And I was so impressed. I mean, he did make it easy. He did make it easy. I don't think I ever stopped and cried because he was, you know, telling me how he felt and he was happy. And don't feel bad. I'm not like all the other people that commit suicide when they're depressed. I'm thrilled. He said he's been thinking about. It's somewhere in there. He's been thinking about it most of his life.

[A]

Yeah. I'm struggling to see the reasoning. Although on another level, he laid out the logic.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

But the. The idea of like, do I want to blurb this website? It is also occasionally brilliant, but the rest of it, man, I'm like, what the.

[C]

He made. He made us say what the.

[D]

Every other. Every day.

[C]

Oh. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Checking off the boxes on your to do list is a great feeling. And when it comes to checking off coverage, a State Farm agent can help you choose an option that's right for you. Whether you prefer talking in person on the phone or using the award winning app, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Popeyes new wings now come in spicy.

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[A]

Tax extra. At the end of the podcast, the way you guys conclude your series, you return to Bill James. You do what I cannot you access.

[D]

You want me to call him? I mean, I can ask him.

[A]

Bill, if you're listening, we're in a group chat. God, of course you are.

[C]

What did Bill James just left?

[A]

What did the. The godfather of sabermetrics and basketball analytics and everything else advanced and mathematical and sports tell you about the death of the man whose book he blurbed?

[D]

A Bill James was like surpassed any expectations we had Daryl Morey, when he would. He visits, I guess every year. He always refers to it as like climbing the mountain to meet the guru. And it does feel that way when you're in his house, which is very nice. You should check it out.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

But he kind of. He related a lot of good stories about Martin, but he also said, you know, he had just gone whitewater rafting or his wife did.

[C]

My wife and I were. We just took a vacation In New Mexico, and my wife went whitewater rafting, which I did not. I ain't doing that. And her kayak or canoe turned over, and she's in the water and hits rock. And, you know, it's. I think of what happened to Martin as being like, not that he went down the wrong river, but that his kayak turned over and he had set on a rock, and there was an end, but it wasn't an inevitable end. It was just something that happened.

[D]

He kind of equates Martin's choice, Martin's life to that. We're all in the river together. We're all in life together. And it just so happens that Martin's kayak capsized and he hit his head. And that's. That's the way things go sometimes. It's a thing that happened, as opposed to.

[C]

Again, because the way Martin would kind of say is that I was always kind of.

[D]

This was my choice. This was. I. I put this into existence.

[C]

He was big on control, as you might guess. Like, he'd like to feel like he was in control of everything. And that's. I think that's part of efficiency, right, Is controlling the circumstances so that it's as easy as possible.

[D]

One of the favorite lines from the show, we were talking to Bill James, and he's telling us about the river, the river being life and all. And, like, the life lesson I took, he sort of ends the anecdote just.

[C]

Being like you're part of the river, and occasionally the river kills you, but it moves on whether you're. Whether you're swimming in it or pissing.

[D]

In it, you know, so you might as well swim. You know, it might have been more of a pisser at the end.

[A]

Well, at the end here, it's hard not to. To follow this turbulent river towards yet another liquid. Because the part of this website, of course, in the food and drink section that we foreshadowed, and now must, I believe, open.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Is sitting on our table. Because Martin Manley writes, gosh, it probably wasn't until I was in my mid-20s that I started drinking soda. Sometime shortly after that, it became the only thing I drank. No milk, no juices, no tea, no coffee, no beer, no water, no nothing except pop. For many years, I drank Pepsi exclusively. And so I can really think of no better way to end this episode than for you guys to crack open one of these things.

[C]

All right, I'm gonna get right in the mic.

[A]

Yeah, let's get that. Oh.

[C]

Oh. That was.

[D]

That was professional.

[A]

That was.

[D]

Call our sound editor. That was good.

[C]

Yeah, they're gonna think they put that.

[A]

In posting, but that was ASMR sound.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

If you wouldn't mind topping me off as well.

[C]

Oh, sure.

[A]

And so as we hold these glasses in our hands, I just want to ask you guys, how should we remember Martin Manley? What do you want to say as we toast this man that I didn't know anything about but certainly will not be able to forget?

[D]

A proud forefather of sports analytics. Perhaps unfairly unrecognized, but I hope to to bring him back into the limelight.

[C]

And a man who believed in himself, who took some chances, for better or worse, wasn't comfortable with being average.

[A]

And so I just feel like it's appropriate to raise a glass to the life and occasional brilliance of Martin Manley.

[C]

Hey, Martin.

[A]

This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Meadowlark Media product production and I'll talk to you next time.