The new technology will facilitate decision-making in objective cases
It will open new horizons in match analysis and content offered to fans
The ‘hawk eye’ the technology already used in sports such as tennis or soccer to determine the exact position of the ball, will come to the NBA from the 2023-2024 season and will partially alleviate the work of the referees after a season marked by a long series of errors.
The NBA recently signed a multi-year deal with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations for a technology that will allow the league to collect specialized data, control the movement of each player and the ball at all times and facilitate various calls from referees.
The new technology will facilitate decision-making in objective cases such as the position of players’ feet on three-point shots or to determine if a player touched the ball while on or off the court.
Will not send phone calls
It is not excluded that in the future the ‘Hawkeye’ will make automatic calls in these cases, something that already happens regularly in tenniswhich no longer uses line judges in its major tournaments on the ATP and WTA Tour.
And it is that the technology developed for Sony will not only be used to help arbitrationbut it will open new horizons in the analysis of matches and in the content offered to fans.
In fact, the NBA plans to carry out virtual recreations of games and offer ‘dynamic’ angles to follow the plays of the stars. The American league had already been collaborating with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations since 2019 and carried out some successful ‘hawk-eye’ tests in the last Summer League.
Arbitral errors, under magnifying glass
This season of The NBA has been marked by a long series of arbitration controversies and the league commissioner, Adam Silver, recently highlighted that referees are under constant review.
One of the most notable mistakes of the year occurred in January in a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, when they did not whistle a very clear foul on LeBron James in the last seconds, orA decisive ruling that motivated the indignation and anger of the Los Angeles team.
Asked why there was no foul in Jayson Tatum’s action on LeBron, lThe referees of the game that ended with the victory of the Celtics in overtime (125-121) admitted their mistake.
They recognize the arbitration error
“There was contact. At that moment, during the match, we didn’t see a foul. The referees failed in that play”, they explained. “That hurt A LOT!!! I don’t get it,” LeBron tweeted at the time.
Another case was registered in early February in a duel between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Dallas Mavericks.when the referees returned a possession to the Texans believing that Brandon Ingram, from the rivals, had touched the ball with a foot on the line.
That mistake ended up cutting the Pelicans’ chances of victory and the referees later recognized their mistake. If in the case of LeBron, the ‘hawk eye’ would not give particular benefits, the new technology may facilitate calls like the one that involved Ingram.