How Technology Has Disrupted the NBA and What Does It Mean?

Technology changes everything, including in basketball. While I have only watched basketball since the mid-2000s, I can’t help but to notice the effects of technology disruptions in the past 10 years alone. Like all disruptions, it creates winners and losers. This thought motivated me to tally the effects and see if there are lessons to help me navigate the changes in my own field as well.

Well, here are my observations below and my conclusion comes at the end.

1. More 3 pointers and faster pace.

Competing against streaming, the golden age of TV, to apps, NBA evolved to garner viewers (and also win games). The league average 3 pointer field goal attempts increased from 18.1 in 2007 to 28.7 in 2017. Likewise, the league average possessions per 48 games increased from 92.4 to 97.8 in the same period.

Winner – J.J Redick signing a 1 year $23 million a year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. Making 3 pointers help.

Loser – Roy Hibbert went from an All-Star in 2014 to a 2^nd round draft pick trade piece in 2016 and out of the league in 2017. Being 7’2 and setting good screens don’t help anymore.

2. Social media.

Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, twitter, etc have given players and participants a platform and access unlike anything we have seen before. Charles Barkley even said young players are forming super teams of social media. There is no taboo in talking to each other when one can bypass calling each other’s household.

Winner – ESPN Columnist Adrian Wojnarwowski’s name has become synonymous with NBA break news. His tweets during the free agency season has been termed “Woj bombs.” 

Loser/Winner – Eric Bledsoe. After a disastrous start to the Phoenix Sun’s season and the firing of head coach, Bledsoe tweeted “I don’t wanna be here.” It led to a $10,000 fine from the NBA and benching, but it worked out in the end. He got sent to a good team in the Milwaukee Bucks. He got himself fired from his job, but he also got him to an even better job.

Loser – D’ Angelo Russell’s leaked snapchat video of his then Laker teammate Nick Young’s cheating confession led to Young and Iggy Azalea’s broken engagement and his expulsion from the team.

3. Content Platforms.

The strong network effects of social media content sharing and high smartphone penetrations have given life to content producers across multiple platforms. The days when sports content creation is limited to papers, radio shows, and TV are long gone.

Winner (Youtube Entertainers) – Brandon Armstrong’s basketball impersonations under BdotAdot5 has led to invitations to NBA All Star Weekend’s celebrity games and appearances on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.  ChrisSmoove’s NBA 2K video game playing led to his collaboration videos with NBA players Tony Parker and John Wall. He is also selling T-shirts based on his catch phrases.

Winner (Youtube Video Editors)- The Frishberg brothers’ basketball mixes on Youtube under Maxmillion711 has garnered him over 45,000 subscribers and over 20 million views. He has also become an in-demand editor for a number of sports organizations. There are also lots of NBA highlight reel editors who constantly play a mouse and cat game with Youtube over copyrights issues.

Winner (Podcasters) – Bloomberg’s article on Dunc’d On, a basketball podcast by Duncan and Leroux, says it all. These two NBA outsiders quit their law professions to produce between 5-15 hours of content each week and they are commercially profitable. Podcasts from active/former NBA players, J.J Redick, Randy Foye, Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, etc have also become a thing.

Winner (New Media Groups and Writers) – Bill Simmon’s The Ringer, Lebron James and Maverick Carter’s The Uninterrupted, and Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight have all found success with or without the affiliation of large media organizations.

Losers – other content creators. There are only so much eye balls to go around and the competition is fiercer than ever.

4. Big Data. 

Sports analytics have been around since econometrics and popularized since Michael Lewis’ Money Ball, but the NBA is undergoing a big data revolution, credit the abundant hardware, software, and human resources.

Winner – Noah, a sensor technology company, used to track basketball shooting is employed by the Toronto Raptors to help players train. NBA has hosted its 2^nd annual hackathon in 2017 to promote and recruit basketball analytics talents. Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey has long been a proponent of sports analytics. He co-founded the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and may get the last laugh one of these days if his Houston Rockets wins the championship.  

Loser – Coaches, scouts, trainers, and managers from the last generation. Also, Charles Barkley, a long and strong opponent of analytics.

After going through all the winners and losers, I did learn several things about industry changes and career paths. 

Don’t be stubborn and ignore trends.

If you are on the court, learn how to shoot some 3s. If you are behind the scenes or on the sidelines, know some analytics. It is fine to recognize one’s limited aptitude for whatever is trending and focus on one’s strength, but it is important to stay relevant and literate.

Stay alert and seize the window of democratized opportunities.

Successful basketball content producers seized the leveled playing field created a path despite their lack of degree or access. The window of democratized opportunities is limited because the first mover advantage disappears and new barriers to entry are inevitably rebuilt. When seizing opportunities, there is a balance between preparing and acting. Don’t go in unprepared, but don’t act only when you are 100% prepared because by then it is too late.

Build on what makes you unique, including what you might perceive as your disadvantage.

Reading Bloomberg’s coverage on Dunc’ed On, I learned that Duncan and Leroux leveraged their lawyer background into being experts on NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, a key puzzle in understanding NBA salaries, trades, and teams.

Also, it reminded me of what I read about Kyrie Irving and Xi Jingping. Kyrie said he developed his acrobatic layups because he grew up playing on a hoop with a broken backboard. He joked that he imagines how much better he would have been if he played on a good hoop. However, my thoughts are the opposite. It is precisely because of the broken backboard, he developed his now unstoppable acrobatic layups. Similarly, Xi learned from his disadvantaged youth and turned it into a strength. “Many of Xi’s generation agree that when their schooling stopped and they learned to survive on their wits, they developed emotional toughness and independence of thought. Xi later reflected on his ability to listen to other points of view without necessarily bowing to them. I had to learn to enjoy having my errors pointed out to me, but not to be swayed too much by that. Just because so-and-so says something, I’m not going to start weighing every cost and benefit. I’m not going to lose my appetite over it.” (quote =/= endorsement)