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You'll need your phone to get into Miami Heat home games
You can't collect ticket stubs for Miami Heat home games anymore, because the team is shifting to mobile-only entry. Even if buy your ticket from American Airlines Arena's box office, you'll still have to present your phone at the entrance to get in. While other teams also have mobile ticketing, Heat is the the first to completely ditch paper tickets. A spokesperson said in a statement that the team decided to go mobile only after looking at figures and realizing that one in three audience member used a digital ticket last season anyway.
Retailer's 3D Demo Days, new Pirates movie trailer highlight ESPN 3D's first NBA game
We're just a few hours away from the first NBA game on ESPN 3D when the Heat face the Knicks at 7 p.m. at Madison Square Garden, and now ESPN has announced it will have the "television premiere" of the 3D trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides during the broadcast. While we wonder if that will become a trend for the network to show off 3D trailers for the slew of movies coming to theaters in the future, those who haven't bought a 3D capable TV but do want to see how the broadcast looks may want to check out one of the retailers (Best Buy, among others) participating in the CEA's Demo Days, coming back this weekend just in time for the game. Of course, that may mean choosing between Lebron vs. Amare and The Engadget Show tonight, but we're sure you'll make the right decision.
ESPN 3D will broadcast 14 NBA games this year starting with Heat/Knicks December 17
While ESPN 3D's NCAA football plans are still leaking out in dribs and drabs (Ohio State is featured in the next two broadcasts, hosting Indiana on September 9 and at Wisconsin on the 16th) it has finally released its plans for the NBA season. Basketball fans can look forward to 14 planned broadcasts this season, with eight regular season matchups and six games in the playoffs, including three in the Western Conference Finals. LeBron, Dwyane, Chris and the rest of the Heat kick things off with a visit to Madison Square Garden against the Knicks December 17, with plenty of highlight matches among those that follow. Check the full schedule after the break, with so few on the slate you'll want to make sure you're free.
Shaq reprises role as NBA 2K7 cover athlete
Shaquille O'Neal looks to continue his illustrious games career by accepting the role of NBA 2K7 cover athlete for a second straight year. 2K Sports has implemented a new post play mechanic for this year's iteration, allowing players to perform a dazzling array of Kung fu-based maneuvers -- okay, we made that last part up.2K Sports has confirmed a September release for PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. The PS3 version will likely be released at the system's launch or soon after.
What's on HDTV today: Not the NBA
I woke up excited to check out the basketball games today. The stars are out:, Lebron James, Steve Nash, Tracy McGrady, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Chauncey Billups and more, but despite an excellent first game to the triple header, today is definitely a bust.Three games: Cleveland vs. Phoenix, Houston at Miami, and Pistons vs. Lakers, but I'm only going to see one of them in high definition, and if you don't live near one of the home teams, you may not even get that. The Detroit Pistons game will be broadcast locally in 1080i by WB20, as many of their home games are, but it will also be available nationally on ESPN, however not in HD. Neither of the two earlier games were broadcast in high definition on ABC. I don't know if this is due to local licensing agreements (what I suspect keeps ESPN from broadcasting the Pistons game in HD tonight) or what, but David Stern needs to take care of this. With no NFL on this weekend, the NBA is the only game in town. Sports fans love their high definition, but with none available my attention is wandering over to the X-Games and Arena League football. If I want to catch some HD sports, my best bet at the moment is probably Gotham TV on my Xbox 360.With all the expenses paid to broadcast and view games in high definition, how professional basketball can simply ignore national high definition broadcasts is a mystery to me. It seems the NFL is taking a page from the NBA's book and broadcasting some games themselves, but maybe more is needed for professional basketball to continue to grow as HDTV adoption does.Update: Apparently the NBA is more on the ball than I thought, the Miami game switched to HD later on, and the Pistons - Lakers game is available in high definition on both WB and ESPN, unlike games earlier in the season which were nationally broadcast only in SD. More later, I'm watching the game. (Go Pistons)
