Does watching the game in VIRTUAL REALITY make your couch the new courtside seats?
I felt like some character from a canned Black Mirror episode: alone in my boxers on a Sunday night, with a bulky silver headset strapped to my face, a joystick in one hand and a Bud Light in the other. But inside the goggles, I was courtside at a Magic–Cavs game, next to a 16-year-old grocery bagger with virtual blue sunglasses and a virtual blond Afro. His online alias: Slim Shady.
Last year, the NBA and Oculus ran a commercial featuring Adam Levine and Jonah Hill watching the Warriors in their respective homes while their lookalike avatars sat beside each other in VR, nodding, moving their mouths, and waving their hands. They were bro-ing out in Oculus Venues, a virtual theater that lets you watch live concerts, comedy shows, and sports with hundreds of cyber randos. Since I spend most nights scrolling through Twitter and dating apps with a game running in the background, I figured: Why not find the Adam Levine to my Jonah Hill?
So one day this spring, I got an Oculus Go headset ($249; oculus.com), decked out my digital self (green hoodie, flattop, and VR headset with cat eyes on it), and picked up a few tall boys for a Monday-night matchup between the Warriors and the Hornets.
This story is from the May 2019 edition of Esquire.
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This story is from the May 2019 edition of Esquire.
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