The intimate marriage between astrology and sports used to be something of a running gag between my relatively sparse, mostly female college friends and me. James Harden’s Virgo Sun made him perfect for me, a Taurus, I reasoned, and it also explained the implosion of his short-lived collaboration with Kevin Durant (Libra Sun) and Kyrie Irving (Aries Sun) on the Brooklyn Nets in 2021. So, in February, when I first discovered The Zodiac GM—then a growing fixture in NBA Twitter, whose detailed astrological analyses of teams’ synergies were proving stunningly accurate—I had to talk to him. And talk we did! I spoke to the Zodiac GM again on Tuesday following the conclusion of the 2024 NBA Finals, which saw the Boston Celtics crowned this year’s champions. And a lot has changed for him since February: His Twitter following has ballooned from around 3,000 when we spoke to well over 17,000, and he's been profiled and interviewed by places like GQ and the Houston Chronicle. But he's also been interviewed by different college basketball teams, an NBA team, and even an NFL team, all seeking his input on astrology-based team-building. “They were just curious about how their team is, and my version of analysis, to understand their strengths and their weaknesses from a different perspective,” he said. “It’s been a really exciting season to be doing this.” (Unfortunately, the Zodiac GM was not at liberty to name these teams.) In February, the Zodiac GM—who, again, prefers to stay a mystery to his still-growing cult of followers—told me he came to love astrology as a way of bonding with his brother who has autism. This particular shared interest helped them make sense of their communication styles and their relationship, inspiring him to “study the science” of astrology for over 30 years. That passion for both astrology and basketball has allowed him to merge two stereotypically gendered, seemingly disparate interests—while simultaneously amusing and informing NBA Twitter about the inner dynamics of our favorite teams, and sometimes predicting the future. Given that we’re currently in the off-season, it’s all about the future right now, and the game-changing trades and team-building moves that franchises will make over the next few months to try to compete next season. But before we got to any of that, I thought a 2023-2024 season exit interview was in order. In short, the Zodiac GM wasn't exactly surprised by the Celtics' triumph, the Dallas Mavericks' late-season heroics and ultimate downfall, or the Clippers' anti-climactic, post-season demise. At the end of the day, it was all written in the stars. When energies connect very well. A+ ????Joe Mazzulla, Cancer w/ Capricorn moon ????Jayson Tatum, Pisces w/ Taurus moon https://t.co/zmS8Ue6MH5 — The Zodiac GM (@TheZodiacGM) June 19, 2024 The “throughline of the season,” the Zodiac GM said, has been “the dominance of water signs.” In some ways this makes sense—basketball is all about fluidity, he notes. Some water sign stars, just to name a few, include reigning and now three-time MVP Nikola Jokic (Pisces), Steph Curry (Pisces), Joel Embiid (Pisces), Anthony Davis (Pisces), Tyrese Haliburton (Pisces), Jaylen Brown (Scorpio), and Tyrese Maxey (Scorpio). And, of course, there’s Luka Dončić and Jayson Tatum—the superstars at the heart of the Finals—who are coincidentally both Pisces Suns themselves. Despite ESPN's analysts perplexingly and decisively favoring Dončić’s Dallas Mavericks over Boston, Boston triumphed in just five games, and the Zodiac GM wasn’t surprised. “First, there’s a major talent gap,” he said. Of course, talent alone doesn’t win championships: “There was also a major [astrological] synergy gap favoring the Celtics.” Here is where we get into the nitty-gritty—that is,…
