As NBA game play has evolved, pointed out by one of the announcers last night during a series of possessions when all ten players were capable of hitting a three-pointer (with Blake Griffin as a stretch), so has the league's use of technology. Most obvious is its increased use of social media, where it has "over 500 million followers and likes combined across all league, team, and player pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Sina, and Tencent that had access to All-Star," Melissa Rosenthal Brenner, the NBA's senior vice president of marketing, told CNN Money.
Back in 2008, we weren't on Twitter, Instagram didn't exist and there was no Snapchat. We had a cumulative audience of 500,000 people," she said, referring to the last time the game was in New Orleans.
To fully capture the dunk contest, TNT, which broadcasted the game, used 23 4k cameras that allow fans to catch slams at every angle, "clearly and in slow motion," according to CNN.
In some ways, the NBA development league has already surpassed the NBA. Many of its teams track physiological analytics, such as cardiovascular exertion, musculoskeletal intensity, fatigue, rate of acceleration and deceleration, number of jumps, and distance run, by attaching to their players wearable technologies, according to CNN.
In a way, the wearable devices allow in-game readings similar to the energy bar available to gamers of NBA 2k14 and now also NBA Live 2014 (my personal favorite, which just returned this year).
As most twenty-somethings (like myself) tend to give up video games at some point, NBA players only increase their playing rate. Some, like the Pelicans' Anthony Davis, even use it to scout upcoming opponents.
"I'm a big gamer," said Kevin Durant, who, in addition to claiming he plays 2k14 more than he plays basketball also enjoys Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Golf and Madden. "That's all I do when I've got free time."
Others, like Carmelo Anthony, lean towards old school games, but keep tabs on the latest basketball games to check their personal rankings.
"I think I could have been rated a little bit higher," said Anthony. "I think if you ask any player they'll tell you that."