Why psychologists should be involved in coach and player recruitment

From Toronto to Tottenham, a look at why psychological evaluation of prospective recruits makes sense

Fiery. Combustible. Melodramatic. Predictably hyperbolic adjective after predictably hyperbolic adjective. If you’re looking for a salutary lesson in how journalists (including, despite attempts to the contrary, this writer) tend to paint complicated characters with a broad brush, look no further than descriptions of Antonio Conte.

In the run up to his appointment as Tottenham manager in 2021, the Italian was bombarded with pejoratives. The ‘trade off’ which Spurs chairman Daniel Levy made in hiring Conte was presented in equally dismissive terms. It was a case of putting up with the ‘baggage’ to land a ‘born winner’.

I say this language is the preserve of journalists, but (amidst the unhealthy amount of Spurs content I’ve consumed since then), there's been little to suggest a more sophisticated dialogue about human behaviour within the Tottenham boardroom. Which perhaps isn't surprising, if your recruitment team seems to consist solely of a chairman and managing director.

And yet, there's no reason why the conversation couldn't have been more nuanced. During the Toronto Raptors’ search for a head coach in 2022/23, the NBA side involved psychologist Alex Auerbach (pictured far right in the above photo) in their recruitment drive. As Auerbach describes:

“I was part of our executive leadership team, so I was involved in our interviews (to recruit a head coach). My role was to do much like I did in the draft, which was to assess the person and help unpack questions such as, 'What behaviors might we see from this person? What do they value? How are they going to show up?’”

“My word was never taken as gospel: there were always challenges and debates, but it helps both parties arrive at a clearer decision.

“One of the things that I could do was psychologically assess the person (being interviewed), to help understand who they are under pressure and how they handle stress, and then be able to talk about points that other people might overlook, given their specific viewpoint.”

In this week’s Mind Room post, we’ll be examining Auerbach’s role in more detail, to help explain why teams could do a lot worse than consider involving psychologists in coach and player recruitment.