Warriors statistician’s legacy lives on in future stat stars
Bo Chapman would regularly hobble out of Oracle Arena — sometimes at 1 or 2 a.m. — during the Warriors’ dynastic run of NBA Finals trips, plod through the 30-plus-minute drive to his home in Martinez, and, somehow, zip back to Berkeley with happy eyes and an active brain for a Cal game six hours later.
As one of the best broadcast statisticians in the world and among the few trying to do it as a full-time job, Chapman tirelessly bounced from venue to venue, sport to sport. He knew the exact time to tell Warriors radio voice Tim Roye how many New Hampshire players made it to the NBA, or mention to fast-rising broadcaster Kate Scott the specifics of Cal’s batting average with runners in scoring position, while understanding every pop-culture reference in between.
He was “one part passion, one part genius,” Roye said.
Chapman died in a car crash in February 2019. He was 35. The police report is vague about his intended trip to a Cal basketball game, as to whether a brain aneurysm killed him before he took a hard left and went over the median, or whether the ensuing impact took his life.
Either way, his family, which had recently moved
from Dublin to Austin, didn’t allow hospital visitors. Within a week, they agreed with the doctors that there was no coming back from such an accident and took Chapman off medical life support.
That triggered an inspiring outpouring of emotions from a notable group of broadcasters who worked with Chapman all over the country.
“He was a joy to work with, such a life force,” Roye said. “I know when I’m reading off a stupid number that I haven’t even written down, something that just came to me, I know that’s Bo inspiring me to do so.”
Memphis Grizzlies play-byplay announcer Pete Pranica said: “He knew what both teams were trying to accomplish, their character and their identity. … You can have anyone you like, and I always chose Bo.”
After Bo Chapman died, the Warriors and Chapman family teamed up to develop the “Bo Chapman Statistician Training School.” The idea is to develop the next generation of statisticians and keep “Bo’s fire burning.” There have been two such training classes thus far, helping three students launch careers in the field and giving others the tools to become live sports statisticians.
A broadcast statistician is basically the voiceless voice of a broadcaster, consistently providing the “talent” with background, notes and stats that aren’t readily available. Chapman knew most of it and researched more before he ever showed up to sports venues smiling.
Chapman had a way of keeping things light during a blowout. Scott said, “Sometimes I would just ball a note up and chuck it at Bo’s face midway during the second quarter, because I knew he was just trying to f— with me.” But he took the sports broadcast industry seriously. He would show up to games with notes dispersed through a laptop, tablet and phone, chargers for his equipment as well as the broadcasters’, binoculars, notecards, and Post-Its.
His family says that he really had no choice but to become a sports fan as his father, Jeff, was a journalist and the family had courtside tickets at Warriors games. When Bo Chapman turned 10, then-Golden State head coach Don Nelson hosted his birthday party.
The gift? Nelson flew Chapman to Los Angeles to be a ballboy. By 17, Chapman was doing stats for Warriors radio and thinking about making it a full-time career — even if that meant $150 per night on 41 NBA games, 30 Pac-12 games, 25 NHL games, and any odd contests he could find along the way.
Chapman knew that he couldn’t turn his athleticism into a full-time sports job, but he could use his brain and work ethic. He talked about that for hours with R.C. Davis during road trips to golf tournaments.
“There was nothing going on that he didn’t know,” said Davis, the senior broadcast producer for Warriors audio. “Even the best statisticians, tied to Mike Breen or Gus Johnson, are insurance salesman or personal trainers or something else. They all have a 9-to-5 job, but Bo was trying to do it without that.”
He did it.
He established himself as the behind-the-scenes voice of broadcasters, never leaving them in a lurch. He never allowed them to rely on a stat monitor. He was always providing seamless information that listeners, and even the broadcasters, didn’t already know.
Roye said that Chapman could have broken down to Bill King and Hank Greenwald effective field-goal percentage, a complicated basketball stat that adjusts field-goal percentage to account for the fact that 3-point field goals count for three points, while regular field goals only count for two points.
It makes sense that Chapman had a handle on all of these things that are outside the typical realm. His father has been doing it forever.
Jeff Chapman was a Warriors’ beat writer for the Oakland Tribune when Greg Papa asked him to keep stats during game coverage in Dallas. Jeff Chapman dominated that role and turned that first $50 payday into a 35-year career that’s still going.
Eventually, as the lead statistician for Fox’s Gus Johnson, Jeff Chapman started statfactor.com, which does game prep for about 150 broadcasters nationwide.
“You’ll never get rich doing this,” Jeff Chapman said. “Don’t have any illusions about that. Most broadcasters don’t, either. But if you’re looking for something that is fulfilling, exciting and fun, this is it.”
That was Bo Chapman’s idea.
He thought that he could “work” enough games that he never had to have a “real job.” He did so much prep for those games that 75% of his stuff would never make the broadcast.
“Where some people treat this job like they’re working at Burger King, and they’re only going to do what’s asked, he did the extra stuff,” Davis said. “There was no one else doing it like him, because there was no one like that. There was no one who cared that much, in that position. The sad part is: There still isn’t that person, and hence, the school (tutorial).
“When they list people after a game, you rarely see statistician or spotter . ... When that happens, that’ll be Bo’s legacy.”