From...

June 30, 1999
Web posted at: 12:42 p.m. EDT (1642 GMT)

by Bernhard Warner

NEW YORK (IDG) -- Perhaps it's fitting that this year's NBA Finals ended Friday night with a last gasp attempt under the basket. Just a few feet from where New York Knicks guard Latrell Sprewell launched an off-balance prayer of a jump shot lay a glimpse into the league's future.

Or rather, a snapshot.

Throughout the series, two roving digital cameras, fastened onto the base of each of the backboards, followed the action on the court and off. With eight cameras in all, NBA's JamCam entertained fans at home. At NBA.com, viewers could select one of three camera vantage points and, with a mouse click, take a digital snapshot of, say, Spike Lee's reaction to Sprewell's near miss.

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Last year, in one of the first games during which the camera was used, fans kept JamCam busy. In one blowout game between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz, 90,000 pictures were taken.

The use of digital cameras is something many of the more progressive sports leagues are trying to boost fan interest. NASCAR, professional tennis, horse and boat racing have all incorporated digital cameras in some of their bigger events.

It's not exactly interactive television, the mythic experience promised earlier this decade in which the viewer was supposed to be able to play director. In fact, it's not even close. Following along on TV while trying to simultaneously freeze the action on a 28K modem is like guessing, blindfolded, when a roulette wheel will come to a stop. But digital cameras are a worthy experiment. And they are totally in keeping with the pioneer spirit of the NBA.

"We've always linked the brand with what I'd broadly call technology," says Adam Silver, president and COO of NBA Entertainment, a division of the league that oversees the operation of the site and forges multibillion dollar TV broadcast pacts. "Being on the Internet is critical for how we define ourselves."

The hoopsters' league is using NBA.com to make a fast break in retail sales. In the fall, the site's store will relaunch with a new look and help from league sponsor IBM. It's unlikely that the revenue generated from e-commerce will outpace the broadcast and sponsorship dollars that the league sees annually, but Silver feels sales could provide a viable revenue stream.

From Commissioner David Stern on down, the league's top brass has grasped the reality that the NBA's ambitions to expand internationally hinge upon the Internet. The league has television broadcast deals that cover 199 countries, but not all of those countries have live coverage. (In many countries, announcers watch a taped version of the game and later dub in their own play-by-play coverage in the local language.) But anyone anywhere with a Net connection can follow the sounds and real-time text feeds of every game live on NBA.com. With the help of ESPN Internet Ventures division, the league in 1997 began offering audiocasts of all games on its Web site for a fee. A live, graphics- and text-based game feed was added this year.

Stefanie Scheer, director of Internet services for NBA, says such features have contributed to a startling pattern in NBA.com traffic. More than 35 percent of NBA.com viewers are from countries outside the United States. For that reason, the league is committed to keeping its site state-of-the-art.

For now, text and audio are admittedly crude but necessary middle-stage features of any Webcast. Technology and bandwidth performance issues are improving, but need to be mastered before sports fans opt for laptop broadcasts. However, Silver says there is demand from broadcasters. "We're getting lots of interest [to do multimedia Webcasts] from broadcasters, especially internationally," says Silver. But the league hasn't devised a way to dole out Web rights yet. You can bet that U.S. broadcast partners NBC and TNT will be very interested in the discussions. "Probably by the next set of deals, we'll have to come to grips with this issue," Silver says.

While the Internet has made strides in the sports world in the past 18 months, it still has a long way to go. Just ask online journalists, who are not yet invited to attend the most hyped sporting events. At Game 3 of the NBA Finals, for example, media credentials were distributed to print and broadcast reporters from the New York Times to the New York Beacon to an Italian basketball publication, Basket & Basket. But no dot-com journos were granted access.

Mike Bass, a league spokesman, says the bigger online sports publications such as ESPN.com and SportsLine get coverage from syndicated columnists and journalists from their more established media siblings such as ESPN and CBS.

But the league is trying to fill in the gaps where it can. A new feature for the NBA Finals was "Samantha," a rookie producer whose face was never shown. With total access to the players, Samantha produced behind-the-scenes reports before and after each game. Scheer won't reveal the identity of Samantha, saying only that she's been well-received by fans. Her mysterious identity adds intrigue, Scheer adds.

"It's sort of what we have that nobody else has: total access," says Scheer. The finals, especially in New York, were amply covered by traditional media, but there were still tidbits, like practice footage and impromptu interviews, that fell through the cracks. "We're the only ones that can give that to you," boasts Scheer. And it's only on the Web.