Jason Fortin is living the dream. And not just because his beloved New York Knicks are three wins away from their first NBA championship since he was a toddler.
The Long Island native, who followed Knicks games at Madison Square Garden since childhood, now sits courtside at “The World’s Most Famous Arena” for every St. John’s men’s basketball home game.
His seat directly behind the bench didn’t cost several thousand dollars, like those paid for by celebrity superfans Timothee Chalamet and Tracey Morgan. Instead, his spot was earned, thanks to his work as St. John’s basketball’s in-house stat guru.
Like the Knicks, the Red Storm have enjoyed a resurgence over the past three years, thanks in part to Fortin’s contributions. In March, St. John’s advanced to its first Sweet 16 since 1999, the same year the Knicks last appeared in the NBA Finals. When the Red Storm won a second-round NCAA Tournament game on a buzzer-beating layup, the bench erupted onto the court in San Diego in celebration.
Mixed among the six- and seven-foot college athletes was a 55-year old from Rye.
Fortin has always been a keen observer of basketball. But he never expected to be this close to the game.
“I couldn’t rank the others, but storming that court was a top 10 moment in my life,” said Fortin, a married father of three. “It was unbelievable. It was awesome.”
The only thing more unlikely than Fortin’s presence among the madness was the journey it took to get there.
Formerly a financial analyst who built statistical models on Wall Street, then at a hedge fund in Greenwich, Conn., Fortin has spent the past three seasons providing statistical trends and analysis for legendary coach Rick Pitino and his staff. He attends every practice and game, home and away.
Fortin, a Westchester Country Club member, first dabbled in sports analytics with a “strokes gained” metric in golf, then broadened his focus to see what trends he could find on the basketball court. He dug deep in search of statistics that were more meaningful than field goal percentage, and other surface-level numbers cited by most broadcasters and journalists.
Like many Knick fans, he’ll always have a soft spot for 10-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony. “Melo scores 40, but Knicks lose,” was a common headline, as the team won just one playoff series during Anthony’s seven years in New York.
“Well, Carmelo filled out the stat sheet — he scores 40, but he does it on 50 shots,” Fortin said. “If he had taken the night off, and his teammates were average, and they took those 50 shots, they would have made half of them. That’s 25 makes. Multiplied by two, that’s 50 points. So, even though he scored 40, he’s generated minus 10 points of score. He’s hurt his team’s scoring by 10.”
After identifying trends over hundreds of games, then refining and breaking them down in color-coded spreadsheets — an endeavor Fortin dubbed “Project Melo” — he had one primary takeaway: success isn’t about the number of shots, it’s how efficiently they’re taken.
With that insight in mind, Fortin took a shot of his own.
After working for months to arrange a meeting, a mutual friend introduced him to Pitino at Winged Foot Golf Club. Fortin shared his elevator pitch with the Hall of Famer, who won national championships at Kentucky and Louisville in addition to stints as head coach of the Knicks and Celtics.
“We talked for 20 minutes, and he said, ‘Why don’t you come present to my coaches?’” Fortin recalled of their 2023 conversation. “I presented to the coaches the next day, and he said, ‘Why don’t you come to practice for a week, see if you could add value?’ As I tell people, he has not told me yet to stop coming.”
The relatively easy commute to New York City was a major reason that Fortin and his wife, Heidi, moved to Rye 20 years ago. Now that their three children — Simone, Julian, and Thea — are grown, Jason is making frequent trips to Manhattan again, volunteering for Pitino and St. John’s, something he can do because of his success in the financial world.
“You could be the smartest person in the world, but in my view, timing is everything in terms of investing,” Fortin said. “And my timing on private equity was good, the timing on putting it in the market was good, and I’ve been fortunate enough where I generate more in capital gains each year than I spend. And so, I was able to look at things and do stuff that I wanted.”
Fortin’s investment in basketball has been equally timely. After a 25-year Big East title drought, St. John’s won regular season and tournament championships in 2025, then repeated in 2026. Fortin has a collection of ruby and gold rings to show for it.
But before anyone might try to connect the Red Storm’s success to his arrival, he shuts the idea down.
“I feel very fortunate I have this thing,” he said of his role. “I’ve always felt a risk that I might come across that I’m adding more value than I am. People say, ‘Oh, you’re like the guy for Moneyball.’ It’s not nearly as impactful. I’m just value-added. I get to participate in stuff, but really, what the coaches do is on another level.”
During the season, Fortin sends several reports a day to coaches and players by email, highlighting efficiency metrics and notable tendencies, like where opponents shoot from and whether they prefer to go right or left in certain situations. From there, he said, it’s up to the experts to determine how to use that information.
“I can honestly tell you, I couldn’t draw up a play for like a ninth-grade team,” Fortin said. “I am not an X’s and O’s guy. And I think this is why it’s worked out well. I’m not a coach. I just simply present trends and stuff that’s out there at a high level. Pitino and the assistant coaches then take it and apply it at a total micro level.”
Still, there’s no denying Fortin has an impact on a game that can be decided by several split-second decisions. In the Red Storm’s second-round NCAA Tournament win, junior Dylan Darling hadn’t made a shot all game. But in the closing seconds, the left-handed point guard exposed a defensive flaw, then put up a game-winning shot with his right hand. In moments like that, it’s hard not to think about the importance of little things like tendencies.
Five days after the thrilling 67-65 defeat of Kansas, St. John’s faced Duke, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, in the Sweet 16. The Red Storm led by double digits in the second half, and were still up two with four minutes remaining, but the season came to an end in an 80-75 loss, showing how fickle the sport can be.
“Being such a huge Knicks fan, I really did not focus that much on college,” Fortin said. “But now that I’m part of the college game, I’ve got to tell you, every play in college feels like life and death. The intensity is off the charts.”
One major challenge of college basketball, especially in an era where players can transfer at will, is the roster turnover every season. That means constant uncertainty, but also new opportunities for Fortin to unearth.
“It’s just the thrill of a lifetime to work for who I think is the greatest college coach of all time,” Fortin said of Pitino. “Yes, there are other people that have won more championships, but every place he goes, he impacts, without fail. Hopefully, we do get to a Final 4 at some point. I think that would really cement his legacy, and I would just love to be a part of it.”
