Nowadays, we can see the trend of digitalization literally everywhere. There is not one area or topic that digitalization has not had an impact on. The sport of basketball, one of the most practiced sports in the world, is no exception to this. Recently, several technologies, that can improve referee, coach and player performance, have been adopted in this sport.
One of the first technological possibilities that had an impact on the sports, is the possibility to watch back a game or training. It helps identifying mistakes and improving on these areas. However, while this is a nice start, technology has developed further and using technology to improve your skill-level is a requirement if you want to belong to the top.
One of the ways technological development is represented in the sport of basketball, is in the use of high-tech or smart basketballs. These look like traditional balls, but they include Bluetooth and smartphone pairing options. This enables players to assemble data on their shot accuracy, dribble speed and other performances. By using such a smart ball, it is very easy to track whether you are making progress or not.
Furthermore, several innovative systems that improve shot accuracy, such as Noah Basketball, have been developed. These systems gather and analyze data and are able to provide real-time feedback. The Noah Basketball system analyzes shots of a player and immediately gives verbal responses. For example, it can tell a player the angle his elbow should be in in order to have the best shot accuracy.
But technology has not only been implemented to improve player performance, coaches also benefit from this. They are able to gather and analyze data on their team and individual players and adjust their training or game-strategy according to this. IT goes even further in calculating which strategy work best against what team or which player is most likely to hit the game-winning three pointer from the right side. On top of that, innovative systems have the capability of evaluating new players and give recommendations on scouting and recruitment.
Lastly, technology has had a major impact on referee performance. In early stages, it enables referees to communicate with each other through headphones. Nowadays, technology is deployed for referees way beyond this. In basketball, replay vision is used to evaluate last touch decisions in the last two minutes of a game and also helps determining if players have released the ball before the shot clock goes off. In some non-NBA games, organizations started piloting with robot referees. However, while this is something that might become reality in the future, these days we still rely on the human eye.
It can thus be concluded that technology has also majorly impacted the game of basketball in multiple areas. Despite this major impact, we can certainly forecast that the technological impact is nowhere done and will continue to disrupt the way this sport is practiced for sure.
https://psuvanguard.com/robot-referees-in-basketball/
https://www.topendsports.com/resources/technology.htm
https://www.noahbasketball.com/blog/how-has-sports-technology-changed-basketball
https://citi.io/2020/09/20/these-5-smart-basketball-inventions-will-enhance-your-game/
https://www.eliteskillsbball.com/index.php/the-technology/
https://www.ibtimes.com/how-technology-nba-helping-basketball-players-game-access-2618943
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1648/4/042057/pdf
https://www.sportinggoodsinfo.com/use-of-technology-in-basketball/
I found your article very interesting as I didn’t know the extent of technology and data in basketball until now. However, another thought that immediately crossed my mind is how far can technology go and how far do we want it to go? It feels like new technologies are trying to optimize every part of our lives, with now even having technology embedded in a basketball. What is your opinion on this? And do you think that coaches and referees will become unneccesary in the long term, because cameras en technology will take over their role?
Such an informative post with backing of great sources! Technology has indeed changes sports immensely but I am wondering where this would end? Technology for training sounds amazing and can bring players to the next level but don’t you think that technology should be avoided in games to test the real limits of players and keep the game flowing? For instance referees checking replays can really slow down the game, would it not be more fun to trust the referees eyes.
I’m wondering what others think about this?