nba
Latest
The NBA counts more than a billion likes and followers
Ahead of tonight's NBA All-Star Game, the league proclaimed it's the first pro sports association with over a billion combined likes and followers on social media. It's debatable how many people that figure actually represents, but it apparently comes from combining likes and follows for the league, teams and individual players across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tencent and Sina. However you count it, there's no doubt that the NBA encourages interaction online, claiming nearly 90 percent of players have an account at least one platform. Unsurprisingly, LeBron James leads players with 66.3 million likes and followers, while the Lakers are the number one team despite racking up an 11 - 44 record this season.
Studio sues makers of 'NBA 2K16' for using player tattoos
Sports video games attempt to offer an experience that's as lifelike as possible, which includes details like players' tattoos. NBA 2K16 is a title that does just that, and the pursuit of accuracy may land it in legal trouble. Take-Two, the parent company of 2K Sports that makes the basketball game, was hit with a lawsuit this week from the designers that created some of the big-name players' tattoos. Solid Oak Sketches, LLC claims that Take-Two should have to pay up for using the artwork in the game. Tattoo copyrights don't exist, but Solid Oak argues that the "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works" of the artists should be protected by law.
Watch LeBron James' training on your Gear VR
Did you get a shiny Gear VR headset as a gift? If so, you already have something new to try with it. Oculus, Samsung and Uninterrupted are launching Striving for Greatness, a 12-minute Gear VR "experience" that shows what training is like for basketball superstar LeBron James. As with the Patriots' football practice, this probably isn't going to go too deep -- the teasers hint at a look-at-how-good-my-life-is vibe. All the same, it's worth a peek (in the Oculus Store or Milk VR store) if you're a hoops fan eager for some more immersion.
Kobe Bryant decides to announce his retirement online
Kobe Bryant announced his retirement at the end of the NBA season through the web and social media -- not by press conference. Sure, Twitter retirement announcements aren't a new thing: Shaq did so in 2011, not to mention David Ortiz and Steve Nash. It wasn't a completely Twitter-specific announcement. He linked to his farewell message / poem in full on The Players' Tribune (a site launched by fellow former-athlete Derek Jeter). The site, which allows pro athletes to self-publish (and say what they want to), meant Bryant gets to say his piece -- although it's not specific. That said, it's already been retweeted over 70,000 times, and half an hour later, the NBA followed up itself on Twitter. The response was so strong that Jeter's site crashed under the strain. It's back online now, so if you'd like to see a portrait of Bryant whispering his farewell sonnet into a basketball, here's where to go.
DraftKings, FanDuel and the feds: The daily fantasy story so far
This season, if you're a sports fan or are even sports fan-adjacent, two words have become nearly inescapable: daily fantasy. The suddenly booming industry has steamrolled TV, radio and the internet with ads promising that playing this "game of skill" can turn your intimate knowledge of sports into big bucks. Its annoyingly bombastic ads alone are enough to make anyone skeptical, since even in this fantasy not everyone can wind up an instant million dollar winner. All of the publicity has worked in FanDuel and DraftKings' favor, making daily fantasy games more popular than ever. That is, until a leak that showed the possibility of insider trading sparked a backlash. Now daily fantasy has the full focus of powerful government figures who may decide if the games will continue.
The first NBA game of the season will be streamed in VR
NextVR has announced that it'll stream tonight's opening game of the NBA season to all of its users in virtual reality. If you have a Gear VR (and compatible handset), then you'll be able to watch the Warriors take on the Pelicans as if you were court side. It's early days for the technology, so virtual viewers will only have one viewing angle during the event, although it'll switch to another for the pre-game ring giving ceremony. In an interview with Wired, NextVR's Brad Allen revealed that users will also be limited to a 180-degree view. Instead of being able to turn around and see the audience around you, you'll be shown the NBA, Turner and NextVR logos. Viewers will also be listening to the sounds of game as if they were there, rather than listening to a commentator, although that could well change with future broadcasts.
Facebook is sharing more ad dollars with its video creators
Facebook's shiny logo isn't all that's new for the social network today: The outfit's also announced how it plans to split video ad revenue with publishers. Like YouTube, Facebook will give content creators 55 percent of ad revenue and keep the rest, according to Fortune. Early publishing partners include Funny or Die, Fox Sports, Hearst and the NBA. And if you're curious about how ads will work with video, it doesn't seem like you'll have to worry about them auto-playing loud and proud while you're scrolling through your news feed on mobile. On the handheld platform, when you tap a clip you'll go to a different screen with "Suggested Videos" and once your selected video finishes, an ad will play before the next one's served up.
As the NFL gets sued over Sunday Ticket, NBA offers à la carte games
If you're tired of bundles that force you to pay hundreds of dollars for games you'll never watch, two new developments might make you happy. First off, the NBA has announced that you can now buy individual games and team packages on its League Pass subscription, a fairly radical move that's likely to irk cable operators. On another front, DirecTV and the NFL have been slapped with a class-action suit claiming that the NFL Sunday Ticket violates antitrust laws.
120 Sports streams its live news and analysis on Apple TV
With the backing of Sports Illustrated, MLB, NHL, the PGA tour and more, 120 Sports started streaming free live sports news and analysis on the web and mobile devices last June. Now, the digital network is making the leap to set-top boxes, starting with Apple TV. The channel delivers 8 hours of live coverage every day, with the "120 Morning Run" from 8-10 AM ET during the week. Football fans can take a long lunch for "120 Football Fix" from 12-2 PM ET, and if you miss a live broadcast, there's a library of videos for on-demand viewing, too.
Pelicans' Holiday is T-Rexing in NBA 2K15 glitch video
We're fairly certain that New Orleans Pelicans basketball player Jrue Holiday has perfectly functional arms in real life. As demonstrated by YouTube user wEEman33, it appears that NBA 2K15 disagrees. As seen in the video shared shared above, a recent glitch in the game caused Holiday's arms to seemingly retreat into his body following a server-side update to its MyTeam mode, leaving his hands to jut out from his shoulders like fish fins with opposable thumbs. To make matters worse, the shirtless Holiday was also missing part of his torso and occasionally disappeared, but none of it stopped him from sinking multiple three-point shots. According to Operation Sports, the special armless "Sapphire" version of Holiday no longer exists, as Visual Concepts issued a patch to squash the bug yesterday. 2K Sports' basketball game is no stranger to horrifying glitches; NBA 2K15's face-scanning feature resulted in numerous monstrosities for created players. The publisher had fun with the issue, offering fans Halloween masks based on the face-scan glitch to print out and wear. [Image: 2K Sports]
Use social media to follow your teams with BreakingSports
Now you can get loads of information about your favorite teams and players from a variety of social media sites without spending hours searching those sites individually. BreakingSports is a free universal app that requires iOS 7.0 or later. Once you register on the app you will be able to have hundreds of updates delivered directly to your device without doing any searching. The app works with the four major American sports leagues, the NFL, MLB, the NBA, and the NHL. Users can select first which league they are interested in, then choose which teams you want to follow and finally the app provides a team roster and users can choose individual players and receive updates on them. The app is always seeking out information on the social media sites from games, news conferences, or sports reporters comments. BreakingSports detects the items which match the users criterion and sends notifications right to the user's device. The information covers game previews, roster moves, injuries, news alerts, line-up changes, rumors, and more. Once the game begins, users can choose to receive updated scores and injury updates throughout the game. BreakingSports seems like a no-brainer for fantasy players. Now with this app you can follow each of the players on your team and get updated data on any injuries, whether they will be in or out of the line-up, and other team information that might impact your fantasy line-up. In addition to stories and updates about your favorites the app provides users with a general news feed for each of the four leagues. These will keep users informed about all the activity taking place around the league and with other teams. So with one app users can be up to speed on all they need to know when talking sports with friends over a few cold ones. I used the app for a couple of days and found a couple of shortcomings. First you can't follow college football or basketball or any of the major soccer leagues such as MLS or the Premier League. I can understand college because of the huge number of teams and players but with soccer a growing interest in the US, it might be a good idea to add that sport in the future. The other area users need to be aware of is the volume of notifications you will receive. I selected two teams and three players and my phone seemed like it was going off all the time. I can only imagine how many alerts i would have received if I had entered a ten or twelve man fantasy football roster. It could be more than users want, but with all those alerts users should be assured BreakingSports is doing what it set out to do and that is bring loads of useful information directly to users devices.
The NBA's first 4K broadcast unfortunately involves the Knicks
The good news is that what might be the first Ultra HD broadcast for a game from one of the major US sports leagues is happening right now. The bad news? That 4K game involves the currently 5 - 35 New York Knicks playing the Milwaukee Bucks in the UK. Also Sports Business Daily reports you can't really watch it, unless you're in the UK and have an invite to the O2 arena to see it, or are inside the NBA HQ in New York City. A BT Sport press release notes a deal with the league to show more games in the UK and Ireland, which includes the production of games in 4K. While we'd love to see what otherworldly trick Giannis Antetokounmpo will have for us next, for now we'll have to handle watching it in mere HD on NBA TV, where the Knicks are currently down by 20 points. Update: Multichannel News got a look at the stream in New York, and reported that while 4K "provided real courtside vistas" even a few million more pixels couldn't fix what's wrong with these Knicks. They lost the game, 97 - 75. [Image credit: Randy Belice via Getty Images]
Apple Pay goes pro, signs with NBA's Orlando Magic
The Amway Center, home of the NBA's Orlando Magic, will officially become the first Apple Pay-compatible arena in the sport when the Magic face off against the Utah Jazz this Friday. Chase will be one of the companies helping to make the NFC payment option available for purchases inside the venue. "The Magic are committed to our fans and their experience and are continually looking for ways to innovate in order to make that experience legendary," Magic CEO Alex Martins noted in a press release today. "We are thrilled to join our partners Chase and Levy Restaurants to be the first NBA team to integrate Apple Pay into its home venue and specifically the Amway Center, the most technologically advanced arena in North America." In addition to Apple Pay integration, the Amway Center was also the first NBA location to utilize iBeacon technology to provide users of the team's mobile app with updates while visiting the venue.
Recommended Reading: Hollywood's love affair with Christopher Nolan
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Why Hollywood Loves 'Interstellar' Director Christopher Nolan by Ben Fritz, The Wall Street Journal Folks in Hollywood seem to trust director Christopher Nolan to crank out films that'll grab box office bucks. His latest effort, Interstellar, hits movie theaters next week, and it cost a whopping $165 million to make. According to The Wall Street Journal's Ben Fritz, the last non-franchise film to shell out that much was Nolan's 2010 film Inception. The filmmaker seems to get whatever he needs to craft his movies, with the trust that he'll keep his streak of success going.
Fox Sports Go comes to Windows Phone
If there's one downside to being a sports fan, it's that you can't take your HDTV with you wherever you go. Like, for instance, you get a lot of weird looks if you try and watch a 40-inch plasma while trying to buy groceries down at the local market. Thankfully, some relief has appeared in the form of Fox Sports Go, which has now arrived on the Windows Phone Store. The app itself is free, since you'll have to sign in to your specific cable provider, such as AT&T, Time Warner or Comcast, to get access to the good stuff. Now, you can stand in the DMV queue rocking out to (select) MLB, NBA and Champions League games - although given the smaller screen size, it might be wise to move the phone closer to your face. [Image Credit: Eric Broder Van Dyke / Shutterstock]
What's on your HDTV: NBA, US F1 GP, 'Annedroids', 'Sunset Overdrive'
The NBA season is ready to begin, and while we'll have to do without the likes of Paul George, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid and Bradley Beal (for varying lengths of time), we are excited to see the return of Derrick Rose and LeBron James (to Cleveland). The defending champs however, are the Spurs and they will help kick the season off Tuesday night. Otherwise, sports fans can look forward to the final game(s) of the World Series, a 30 for 30 special focusing on Brian Bosworth, and F1 racing in the US on Sunday afternoon. If you're not into sports though, CBS is switching its Thursday night schedule back to the normal shows instead of football, while NBC brings the combo of Chris Rock and Prince to Saturday Night Live and Frances McDormand teams up with HBO on an adaptation of the novel Olive Kitteridge. On Amazon Prime we've got new episodes of Annedroids, a kids show about a young scientist (Anne) who builds droids in her spare time (it's actually very good), while Netflix adds the documentary Bound By Flesh and the movie Rain Man this week. Finally, gamers can check out Sunset Overdrive (Joystiq's five-star review is here) on Xbox One and SingStar on PS4. Hit the gallery or just look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Follow MLB, NFL, and NBA rumors with Trade Rumors app
For a large number of fans, what happens to their favorite teams off the fields and courts is just as important as the action that takes place in the games. Now with a single app users can follow all the latest rumors about trades, cuts, waivers, hirings, firings and just about everything else dealing with roster changes in the Trade Rumors app. The origin of this app began with a web site put together as a hobby by a fan who loved the baseball "hot stove" season. He poured over Internet sites looking for information on all the player movements during the off season. His hobby grew into a full time job and now his site MLBTradeRumors.com is one of the most wide read sites of its kind on the web. It is used by fans, reporters, and team officials to keep up with player movement. The site compiles reports from other web sources including well known insiders such as Ken Rosenthal of Fox, Buster Olney and Jason Starke of ESPN and Hall of Fame reporter Peter Gammons. The baseball site was successful and grew into similar sites for football and basketball. Now you can access all of this information in this single free universal app. The other sites are ProFootballRumors.com and HoopsRumors.com. Users can choose to receive news feeds from all three sports or just the one or two that holds the most interest. Additionally users can select news feeds dealing with their favorite teams and just about every player active in MLB, the NFL, and the NBA. The app contains all of the stories posted on the three web sites and is separated by sports and teams or players. Just tap on the story you want to read or slide the graphics left and right to find the one that interests you. Then a single tap opens the story for your perusal. Once you read that story you can slide the stories left and right again to read more without going back to the main page. Trade Rumors also offers users the ability to share stories with friends through all the major social networking sites plus email, texts and more. You won't get game stories and scores in this app but you do receive a compilation of information from some of the most outstanding reporters working on the web. So if trades, waivers, roster changes, etc. are of interest to you, this app should be one you download. I have used the original sites for years and was thrilled when I found I can now get all that same great information the Trade Rumors app. It is now on my iPhone and iPad.
Upcoming NBA 2K15 patch to address MyPark, other issues
2K Sports submitted an update to Sony and Microsoft for certification to patch issues with NBA 2K15 in the "coming days." The publisher's support team noted on Twitter that the patch will address a number of issues, including the game's MyPark mode. Since the game launched last week, players have been regularly booted from the online mode. NBA 2K15 is the latest in the publisher's annual pro basketball series, and was generally met with critical approval last week. The game also received a card-battling companion app this week on iOS and Android. While the details of NBA 2K15's patch are not yet known, here's hoping it alleviates the nightmarish results of its face-scanning feature. The game is available for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. [Image: 2K Sports]
Engadget Daily: Facebook tackles anonymity, Vaio post-Sony, and more!
Zuckerberg and Co. are in hot water regarding the social giant's real-name policy, but it looks like all the outcry may have paid off. Well, sort of. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours, including Facebook's purported anonymity app, Vaio's new hybrid tablet, a magical product called Carrot, and more!
Metareview: NBA 2K15
Another year, another entry in what may be the most consistent series in sports video games. NBA 2K15 follows a critically-beloved predecessor that we described as "gorgeous," before adding that "the on-court action is every bit as engaging and hospitable as it's always been, and the visuals are more impressive than ever." Can the franchise once again live up to its already lofty standards? If history is any indicator, the answer is probably a resounding "yes," but let's find out what the critics think anyway.
