Sunday, June 08, 2008

NBA, Players Go Hi-Tech

The Celtics and Lakers have revived the madness of eighties basketball with their improbably run to the finals. It's a marketing dream. The two most stories franchises in the National Basketball League squaring off once again.

And it couldn't come at a better time. The league, in the middle of rapid expansion overseas, is also in the golden age of fan participation.

Emerging technologies have connected the fan, the league and the players in ways never before imagined. This isn't about fantasy sports (although that's wicked awesome too); instead, this is about the league deploying technologies that have turned the game into a thinking man's sport.

Along with other leagues, the NBA offers fans the ability to receive statistics and updates online and on cell phones. But the most innovative program may be its touch-screen computers used by statisticians to deliver real-time, graphical updates to games.

Lenovo ThinkPads running Windows XP are used by eagle-eyed and nimble-fingered statisticians to instantly distribute stats to the in-arena scoreboards and displays via a digital television interface as well as to TV broadcasters. The stats are time-coded with the game and real-time clocks.

Those stat trackers also allow the league -- and its teams -- to parse out data immediately, synching it with video clips to deliver near real-time video information overlaid with numbers.

Players like Shane Battier can then dissect their opponent's latest trends (because anyone who's played sports knows that you're constantly adjusting what you do) before they hit the court; and weirdo broadcaster Bill Walton can keep up-to-date on the latest news from the league, which he can then distribute to fans across a variety of means.

Posted By Brad King at 10:21 PM
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