NBA’s “Smart Ball” is coming: Silver announces new technology
The NBA is developing a smart basketball with Wilson equipped with a microchip: it could arrive as early as 2027 and help referees make decisions
A basketball capable of detecting touches, spin and changes in trajectory, helping referees make more accurate decisions. The NBA’s next major technological innovation could be a Smart Ball, an intelligent basketball the league is developing with Wilson that could debut in official games as early as 2027.
Commissioner Adam Silver discussed it in an interview with CNBC, explaining the progress of a project that has already been tested in the G League, Summer League and some Preseason games.
We’re experimenting with putting a small chip inside the basketball that weighs about one gram
Adam Silver
The Bluetooth sensor, placed inside a basketball weighing roughly 620 grams overall, would make it possible to collect information about its movement without changing its characteristics.
And that is precisely one of the areas the NBA has focused on most: making sure players cannot feel any difference compared with a traditional basketball.
Nobody has been able to notice the difference. That’s a good sign
Adam Silver
How the Smart Ball would work in the NBA
The most immediate application involves officiating. Thanks to the chip, it would be possible to detect small changes in the ball’s rotation or trajectory, helping determine whether a player touched it before it went out of bounds or whether a shot was deflected.
Those situations can currently require several replay reviews, while this technology could allow them to be analyzed with greater precision.
I think as early as next year we could use this technology to help officials during our games
Adam Silver
But Silver is also looking beyond the NBA. In the future, the Smart Ball could become a training tool available to everyone, allowing users to analyze hundreds of shots and determine which release angles and spin rates produce the best results.
That consumer version, however, is still a few years away.
NBA and wearable devices: why are players concerned?
The smart basketball is not the only innovation the NBA is studying. The league is also evaluating the use of so-called wearables, devices capable of collecting data on athletes’ physical condition and performance.
The project, however, still has to clear one major hurdle: an agreement with the NBPA, the NBA players’ union.
The main concern is how teams might use the information, especially during contract negotiations.
If the data showed that a player was slowing down or something like that, players worry that information could be used in negotiations. And I understand their concern
Adam Silver
In other words, a team could use data collected during games to evaluate an athlete’s physical performance and use it as an argument to offer him a less lucrative contract.
Silver nevertheless pointed out that these tools are already part of players’ everyday lives, as they use them to monitor sleep, recovery and performance.
Players wear these devices practically 22 hours a day. The only time they don’t use them is during games. It doesn’t make much sense. We’ll reach an agreement
Adam Silver
The NBA has already experimented with wrist devices for referees as well, making communication with the Replay Center easier during reviews, score corrections and clock-related issues.
So the Smart Ball’s debut could be relatively close. The issue of player wearables, on the other hand, is more delicate: the technology can provide valuable information, but first the league must establish who will be allowed to use it and, above all, for what purposes.