NBA to Install Data-tracking Cameras in All 29 League Arenas

In today’s day and age technology is taking over the sports we all know and love. The human element is being taken out of sports across the board. There will always be a bit of a human element but leagues want to get calls right. Sports also want to accurately record statistics. After all, there’s a lot of money involved. The NBA is no different. Recently, they’ve come to an agreement with a company to install data-tracking cameras in every arena in the league.

After six or so teams installed camera systems by STATS LLC called SportsVU for the 2011-12 season, last season half the NBA started using the cameras. Now the NBA have come to an agreement with an outside tech consultant to install the data-tracking cameras in all 29 league arenas before the start of next season.

This is the next evolution in basketball and it will change the NBA as we know it. This will change the way statistics are collected, how game tape is watched, how scouting is done and how teams prepare for opponents.

Zach Lowe or Grantland reports how the camera system works and has already been used.

The cameras record every movement on the court — of players, officials, and the ball — several times per second, so that subscribing teams have been able to track the positioning of players in new ways. In a Grantland exclusive in March, the Toronto Raptors showed how they have used the data to (among many other things) build computerized “ghost defenders” that reacted in optimal ways to every offensive action. The team could then overlay camera recordings of actual game play to see how closely Toronto’s real players mirrored the actions of their ghosts.