The way fans watch the NBA will change dramatically this month when the league begins a new, 11-year package of broadcast deals. Beyond simply shaking up where games air, the league is thinking big with a newly unveiled partnership with Amazon Web Services that will build a new Inside the Game platform for AI-powered statistics.
The collaboration between the NBA and AWS will utilize motion-tracking data from in-arena cameras to develop a new set of statistics that will be available in real-time for teams, broadcasters, and fans. AWS will use its cloud computing technology and AI machine learning tools to create statistics that are less focused on the result of a given play and instead built around the movement of players on the court.
“(Fans) not only are going to be able to watch their favorite players make an amazing move or drain an amazing three-pointer, but also understand contextually how hard it was,” AWS Global Director of Strategic Partnerships Kristin Shaff told Awful Announcing. “What was happening on the court when that play happened or that basket was made.”
First up are new Defensive Box Score, Shot Difficulty, and Gravity metrics. These will build on existing concepts that teams use to develop strategy, adding instantaneous speed and historical context to bring a greater level of storytelling to broadcasts, online highlights, and digital video.
Shot Difficult builds on the existing stat of expected field goal percentage, tracking 29 different body parts to analyze how a player’s “pose” affects their accuracy on various shots. The data could, in real time, show just how much better a shooter like Steph Curry is than the rest of the league, given the level of difficulty of his shots, or the difference in accuracy when a player like Karl-Anthony Towns comes off a screen compared with when he spots up above the break.
Speaking of Curry, the Gravity metric was basically made to quantify his value. The term has been used for years among NBA analysts, but the new AWS partnership will actually show how a great shooter like Curry pulls the defense so dramatically with his presence on the court. Or, it could show how strongly a defense collapses into the paint when Joel Embiid posts up on the block.
“Now (broadcast crews) can show the same highlight they were going to show anyway, but add this additional insight of how this movement off the ball may have helped create an opening for a teammate,” NBA VP of stats technology product development Charlie Rohlf told AA.
Defensive Box Score will gauge the effectiveness of individual defenders by tracking how they maneuver around the court and how they impact the accuracy of nearby shooters or passers. Defenders will be rated by how they alter the offense’s approach and success in putting the ball in the hoop. We all see how Victor Wembanyama erases baskets around the paint; this metric will assign a value to the ground he covers and the way he reduces the effectiveness of scorers.
The league views this as an opportunity to deepen fans’ understanding and appreciation of modern basketball and to enhance the overall game-watching experience. However, due to the complexity of these new metrics and the necessary evolution to incorporate them into broadcasts, the NBA is currently in an educational mode.
“Through our broadcast partners, certainly we have to educate the talent … and the production team,” NBA head of media operations and technology Ken DeGennaro told AA. “What is coming, what these numbers are, how they’re evaluating and can be compared, so that they can properly speak to them. We’re also going to receive feedback from them.”
Because every national NBA game will now be available on streaming under the new package, the league can develop a more granular understanding of audience habits. League executives can pore over the second-to-second data, much like a MrBeast producer, to see how particular elements of the broadcast are landing.
Amazon’s NFL broadcasts utilize the Prime Vision alt-cast as a testing ground for new AI-powered features before they debut on Thursday Night Football. DeGennaro expects to utilize alt-casts for experimentation on the NBA side, as well as on Prime Video.
“It’s no secret that Amazon and NBC are going to bring a lot of creativity to this,” he said.
NBA staff will prepare more sophisticated statistical information using the new data, or work with broadcast partners to develop “augmented video” for highlights packages. In real-time during games, NBA broadcasters will receive alerts on the AWS interface when a play crackles into historic territory or is an aberration for a player or team. The hope is that producers will quickly deploy this on the broadcast, either with replays or graphics.
In the future, DeGennaro believes the data will be deployed instantly on-air.
“Eventually, it will be in-game augmentation. Things that we can do in the broadcast in real time,” he said. “Once the fans are comfortable with the numbers and once the fans are comfortable with the vernacular, that is all sort of in the broadcast, be it in the highlights, be it in live action during the primary broadcast or even an alt-cast, sharing all that information.”
All the new components of the NBA viewing experience will work together seamlessly. More digital broadcasts mean more viewer info and a new place to watch games. On these broadcasts, the latest version of the Inside the Game platform will showcase pioneering new data and enhance the fan experience. New partners with a vested interest in digital video and streaming will collaborate to build the product over time.
The league is still plagued by negative conversation among national commentators who drag the style of the modern game, with more three-pointers and less physical play. This partnership could be part of how the league gradually highlights the complexities and intricacies of the game of basketball today.
“We have these amazing athletes playing the game at a high level, only the way these individuals, these 450 to 500 individuals, can do at this level,” DeGennaro said. “Sharing with (fans), here is the strategy going in, here are the things that go in and make the play, and then just how amazing the outcomes are.
“It’s more than somebody bringing the ball up, and I’ll improvise. There is a lot of strategy, there is a lot of play, and there is a lot of basketball understanding that goes into it, rather than it being streetball or pickup.”
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.