In March 2023, the National Basketball Association and Hawk-Eye Innovations forged a partnership to, as the press release then noted, “capture the game in real-time in three dimensions, including the movement of each player on the court and the ball, all at sub-second latency.” Through the application of the tracking technology, officials sought to increase the accuracy of calls and, by extension, the speed of gameplay. Certainly, they were buoyed by the success of its implementation in other sports, particularly in tennis.
Fast forward two years, and it’s fair to argue that Hawk-Eye has made its mark in the pro league. Over the weekend, for instance, two matches saw the innovation put to good use. The Nuggets found themselves escaping with a win over the Clippers following a putback dunk by Aaron Gordon that was deemed to have beaten the final buzzer by a split second. Meanwhile, the Timberwolves benefited from the top-down replay of LeBron James’ swipe on the ball that, upon scrutiny, caught Anthony Edwards’ wrist. The successful challenge turned what would have been a Lakers’ possession into a foul and two decisive charities with 10.1 ticks left in the contest.
Make no mistake. The use of Hawk-Eye in those instances was not without its fair share of criticism. In the Nuggets-Clippers set-to, the supposed “sub-second latency” still seemed deficient in catching all the frames of the video. In the Timberwolves-Lakers encounter, the view from above restricted depth perception enough to allow for second-guessing on when and where contact was made. And from the outside looking in, the very nature of the reviews belied the stated objective of the league to lean on its alliance with the Sony-owned company to “speed up gameplay.”
In any case, Hawk-Eye looks to be a permanent fixture insofar as revisiting calls is concerned. If nothing else, it does its part in minimizing the effects of human frailty in the ensuing verdicts. Of course, it likewise brings about the unintended consequence of highlighting whistles and missed violations that were not, or could not, be reviewed in any given outing. Which is to say if the ultimate goal is to get things right (at least in the crunch), more needs to be done. Else, its selective influence may well bring about censure rather than confidence in the NBA’s principal product.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.