‘Hawkeye’ arrives in NBA after year of dispute with referee

he “Hawkeye”, Techniques already used in sports such as tennis and soccer to determine the exact position of the ball at a given moment are Nba from Season 2023-2024 And it partially relieves the referee’s job after a season marked by a long string of notable errors.

The NBA recently struck a multi-year deal with Sony’s Hawkeye Innovations for technology that will allow the league to collect professional data, constantly monitor each player’s and ball’s movements, and facilitate various decisions by umpires.

new technology Make decisions easier Used in objective cases such as the position of a player’s feet on a three-point shot, or to determine if a player has touched the ball on or off the court.

The possibility of “Hawkeye” appearing in the future cannot be denied. make automatic decisions Cases like this are already a regular occurrence in tennis, which no longer uses line judges in the big tournaments of the ATP and WTA tours.

And the technology developed for Sony will not only be used to assist with arbitration, but will open up new horizons in match analysis and content provided to fans.

In fact, the NBA plans to conduct virtual recreations of the game, Provides a “dynamic” angle Follow the stars.

The American League has already been working with Sony’s Hawkeye Innovations since 2019 and successfully completed several “Hawkeye” tests at the last Summer League.

Arbitral error under the NBA’s magnifying glass

The NBA’s current season has been plagued by controversy over refereeing, with league commissioner Adam Silver recently stressing that refereeing is under constant review.

One of the most notable errors of the year came when he failed to whistle a very clear foul on LeBron James in the final seconds of a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics in January. Wrath of the Angel Team.

When asked why there were no fouls in Jayson Tatum’s action against LeBron, the umpires in the game that ended in a Celtics victory (125-121) in overtime admitted their mistakes.

“There was contact. At that moment, no fouls were seen during the match. The referee failed on that play,” they explained.

“That hurt so much!!! I don’t know,” LeBron tweeted.

In early February, during a duel between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Dallas Mavericks, an umpire returned the possession to the Texans after he believed rival Brandon Ingram had touched the ball with one foot.

The mistake robbed the Pelicans of a chance to win, and the umpire later admitted their mistake.

In the case of LeBron, new technology could facilitate decisions like the one involving Ingram, if the “hawk’s eye” doesn’t offer any particular benefit.