Missile Tracking Technology Is Unlocking The Game Of Basketball
Basketball has found out how to play Moneyball, and they've taken a page out of the Missile Defense Agency's book to do it.
Mark Wilson at Fast Company reports how Stats, a company specializing in sports statistics, is using missile interceptor tech to gather reams of data about NBA players and other sports teams.
The way that it works is a marvel in itself.
Cameras mounted at the top of stadiums are able to track players, identify where they are when they shoot, and then a computer interprets the data to identify where they're successful, when they miss, and where a player is the best at sinking shots.
The missile technology comes in when you consider that the system has to track 10 sprinting athletes moving in an unexpected pattern in two dimensional space. Even more, the system tracks an eleventh body — the ball — through three dimensions of space, identifying anything from a single dribble to a halfcourt shot.
Ten teams are using the tech. Oh, and so is the U.S. Military. To track ballistic missiles.
And it seems to be working well for the NBA franchises, because four of them made the payoffs, and one — the Oklahoma City Thunder — made the finals.
SportVU, initially designed with military tech to track soccer games by an Israeli company, but after they were purchased by Stat, the technology was applied to basketball as well.
They're looking into getting it into football stadiums as well.
So far, the ten teams have pooled their data so that everyone can peek at everyone else's data. This has allowed individual teams can build research departments and get game-changing insights into how to strategize in a general matter.
It is changing the way team strategize.
Check out the full story at Fast Company.
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