AI only just beginning to revolutionise the NBA game

It’s not a scene out of the future, but a reality on the hard courts of today.

- THOMAS URBAIN

Using artificial intelligence, a top basketball team found the right defensive strategy that made the difference to win the NBA championship.

Data specialist Rajiv Maheswaran declines to name the outfit that leveraged AI analysis to victory, saying in a corporate video only that it happened several years ago.

That was “the moment that sealed it”, added the co-founder of tech startup Second Spectrum, which provides the league with swathes of player positioning data gathered during crucial games.

Analytics have transformed the NBA over the past decade, with AI and other breakthroughs still ramping up.

Embryonic in the early 2000s, the revolution truly took hold with motion-capture cameras installed in every venue in 2013.

Ten years later, new tech upgraded renderings of the court from 2D to 3D, unlocking even more precious data.

Cameras track 29 points for each player “so you know not just where they are, but you know where their elbow is, and you know where their knee is”, said Ben Alamar, a sports analytics writer and consultant.