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GOAT sneaker marketplace partners with NBA player Kyle Kuzma
Online sneaker marketplace GOAT announced that Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma will serve as the company's brand ambassador. Today's announcement marks the first partnership between a sneaker reselling platform and a professional athlete. During this NBA season, GOAT will outfit Kuzma with 'rare and highly-coveted Nike sneakers,' which he'll wear both on and off the court
Here's Max Payne 3's TV commercial
The official Max Payne 3 television commercial debuted last night during the Lakers v. Spurs game on ESPN last night, and it's chock full of all the Max Payne-y things you'd expect – slow motion bullets, slow motion jumping, slow motion ladies, etc.It's a little sad that the game is billed as "from the makers of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption," considering that the original Max Payne predates both GTA3 and the entire Red Dead franchise. Then again, a modern 18 year old gamer would only have been seven years old when the series originally debuted in 2001, so we can't really blame Rockstar for playing to its target demographic's familiarities. Kids these days with their Macintosh computers and their Fiat 500s.
The NBA playoffs, presented by World of Warcraft
This isn't exactly shocking news (this just in: Blizzard has an advertising budget!) but it is worth noting: Mark C. was watching the NBA playoffs the other day and lo and behold, guess which familiar logo appeared during a halftime sponsorship. Apparently the announcer even read off the name of the game during a tag. I don't think Mark is exactly right about it being one of the "first non-sports games being advertised in a sporting event" (I'm pretty sure I've seen one of those Killzone 2 or Call of Duty spots during my Cubs games lately), but it's the first time we've seen WoW promoted outside of the usual TV spots.It's interesting to note, too, that it's being presented during the NBA playoffs as well -- I've seen more WoW twitterers tweet about the hockey playoffs lately than the basketball equivalent. Then again, Mark also says he saw it on the NBA TV subscription service, so maybe it was targeted at people who are willing to subscribe to a digital service. And just for the heck of it, we'll also point out that it was an LA (Blizzard is in Anaheim) vs. Houston (Blizzard also has an HQ in Austin) game, so maybe it was geographically targeted as well.But this will probably not be the last time you see WoW in this context. Keep those eyes open.
Every single 2008 - 2009 LA Lakers game to be aired in HD
Getting to the NBA Finals has its perks. 'Course, being situated in Los Angeles, California doesn't hurt either. Either way, LA Lakers fans who can't get enough of HD sports are really in luck, as the club's entire 2008 - 2009 season (we're talking preseason, regular season, the whole shebang) will be aired in crystal clear high-definition. Between KCAL HD, FSN HD, TNT HD, ESPN HD and ABC HD, every last Lakers game, home and away, will be available (at least in the greater LA area) in HD. C'mon NBA -- how about we make this the norm rather than the exception?[Thanks, Pete][Image courtesy of BBallOne]
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)
