Gaming Friday: Guarding Kobe Bryant

I caught this feature on SportsCenter last night.  EA Sports and ESPN originally launched their Virtual Playbook inside the NFL season.  I recall sitting in front of the TV as I debated who to start in my upcoming fantasy football showdown only to see two Madden teams unveiled on the screen as ESPN's studio team directed their movements.  That floored me.  It was the best X's and O's scenario I'd seen in awhile and my eyes were wide open at the possibilities.

So now I'm super excited at the possibility of seeing this concept emerge in basketball.  And here it comes - last night showing a feature to preview the Lakers-Nuggets series.  I'm not going to lie, this wasn't exactly amazing to me.  I'm a little weirded out by the thought of Jon Barry in a suit trying to guard virtual Kobe.  I'd much rather see the NFL execution where Jon Barry directs JR Smith on how to stop Kobe.  But, that said, we did catch a glimpse.  This is a look into where things may go quickly -- where a virtual version of a basketball player shows up on a real court to teach.  I can't wait for the next round!

College Coaches Encouraged to use Twitter?

I've come across several coaches who are using Twitter, and I've signed up to receive many of their feeds.  A couple of my favorites so far are John Calipari of Kentucky and Tom Crean of Indiana.  The two actually have a contest going to see who can get the most followers.  Right now, Coach Cal is romping this one - perhaps similar to how their teams would fair on the court.  He's pulled in over 52,000 followers to Crean's 5,000. 

A couple other notable coaches in College Hoops using Twitter are Jeff Capel of Oklahoma, Josh Pastner of Memphis, and Steve Wojciechowski of Duke.

The NCAA released a statement on Twitter, saying "We view Twitter as a blog.  As long as coaches are on there talking about what they did with their day and how their practice went or things like that, that's fine..."

So what's all this mean?  I stumbled across a coach sales site (not where you buy a coach but where coaches get tips on how to recruit better) that is urging all coaches to get out there on Twitter NOW.  And to me it makes sense for a few reasons.

1. It lets your fan base (and your donor base) get to know you better.  What makes you tick?  What are your feelings about the season, what is your life like away from the court?  Making that emotional connection is key and is one of the things I'm really feeling with Coach Calipari.
2. It lets your recruits (and their parents) get to know you better.  What is your personality like?  From one side of what you value to a lighter side of what movies or TV shows are you into?  It's the way of letting people know about your program at a glance.
3. Maybe most importantly, coaches have high demands on their time.  They are on the road often but with that comes the inevitable down time in an airport terminal or two.  By posting from their blackberry/iPhone, they can reach everyone at once.

Needless to say I'm going to follow this closely.  It's fascinating.

Wordle Map of My Blog to Date

So I stumbled onto Wordle the other day and found it pretty sweet. The site basically takes a count of all the words you use in your writing and lays it out as artwork. Larger sizes for words you use more than others. I was a bit afraid of what I'd find... but pleasantly surprised with the result. You can cut and paste a speech or presentation in here and see if things are out of line. Or a URL, as I did.

So, curious what this blog is about? Take a look at this image.

Gaming Friday: Create your own team

So I came across this the other day and was pretty excited.  The big new feature in this summer's NCAA Football 10 is the ability to create your school online, then play with them in the game.  But it isn't so much the fact that you can do it that I'm pumped about but rather where you can do it and how.  

I've never been a huge fan of sitting in front of a TV screen with a controller or joystick trying to customize much of anything.  It just isn't intuitive and to me leaves you wishing you could do more things faster.  It's also not the easiest way to search other designs or inspirations.  This lets you take a lunch break at work and keep working on your squad. 

Beyond this, you actually feel like you are creating a team.  Not just forming one.  Watching this developer interview made me realize how intricate we will be able to customize details from logo placement and look on the field to player ability to the mascot.  It's nice on a few levels - I can finally create Drake (not sure if I can customize low attendance) and put them in their conference, not force them to join the Big Ten.  That's nice.

I want to end this though with where I think this could go.  To me, there are a couple inspiring paths here: 

1. What is the revenue extension here?  Can I buy custom-designed stadiums and play in them?  (If these are all created online, how can EA inspire a community of designers to create their own artwork in the game... and let players buy them.  Much like Threadless does with tee shirts.)  
   
2. How can the amazing uniform designer tool get blown out in venue?  I love the idea of design contests at Nebraska impacting what the Cornhuskers actually wear in real life.  EA has the chance to be the fuel for a new level of emotional connection.

I can't wait to see this when it comes out July 14!

Kobe Doin' Work Debuts this Saturday

I was pretty excited a year ago or so when I heard that Spike Lee was creating a movie documentary on a late season game with Kobe Bryant.  I got even more excited when I heard he was using 30 cameras, much like the soccer show Zidane.  

The feature, "Kobe Doin' Work" premieres this Saturday on ESPN.  I know I'm going to be glued into this.  Here are a couple trailers worth checking out:

Kobe on his teammates.  I am inspired by how intimate this feels.  To me, one of Kobe's early career challenges was that he often appeared a bit tight, very professional, and definitely intense.    This is a different side of Kobe - you can envision him for a great teammate, someone you want to go to battle with.  

Here's another great one -- Kobe on why coaches don't hide their play calls.  (Though I saw Nate McMillan trying to keep these from the Rockets in the last series!)  From this, I think it is pretty great to hear his Basketball IQ at work -- Kobe's one of the smartest players in the league, and it's pretty powerful to hear him essentially unplugged.  

Make sure you tune in this weekend.  8 pm EST Saturday...  And if you want one last place to click, here is an interview with Spike Lee on the project.

Amazing use of crowd effects in NBA Legends campaign

When I heard the NBA was creating videos around the best playoff moments of all time, I wondered if we'd see Larry Legend. The play against the Pistons where he stole the inbounds pass at the end of the game still plays in my head as one of those moments that got me excited about basketball growing up. I remember my dad reacting and the energy in our living room. I was inspired.

So naturally I was super excited plays like this were joining the new Amazing Playoff campaign. But what floored me was the way they took the crowd out of the play when this was edited together. It was Bird on the same court in an empty gym. Naturally the crowd comes later. But the emotion and passion that comes from putting in the time in the gym when no one is around and then having it pay off on the biggest stage is powerful. Check this out, and think of how this connects with high school players everywhere.

Not to be outdone, here's another version - of the Lakers sending the Blazers to a Playoff exit. It's worth watching, if only to see a much younger Kobe and Shaq in action.

ddd

Madden 10 Changes the NFL Draft World

Last Saturday as I was watching the NFL Draft, I decided to check in on Madden 10, which hits shelves August 14. What I saw literally floored me. (In a good way). The team at Madden re-invented Draft Day.

What do I mean? Well first, they had a scrolling ticker across the top, much like you might expect to find on NFL.com or ESPN.com. Check. But dive deeper. Moments after each pick was announced, up on the Madden site popped screen grabs and highlights of the player... on his new squad! So being a Packer fan I went in to check out BJ Raji deeper. Mind you until about a minute before he was picked (when TV showed him celebrating in his living room), no one knew who the Pack would pick - Raji or Michael Crabtree? Each Madden screen grab showed the official power ratings of the player.



This was incredible, and here's the other Pack first pick, Clay Matthews.


But beyond the revealing of players in their new unis and official ratings (which by the way was a brilliant move as so much of the gameplay of Madden is dependent on player ratings), the Madden product team ran an interactive twitter forum during the unveiling. So here was this world where you had near real-time introductions of players in a way that showed off the strength of Madden, and you connected the product or dev team on Madden to their fans in a way that was super amazing. Here are the Twitter sites: one and two.

Where can this go for them? I'd love to see the combine taken into account next year -- can they extend the Draft a little longer? Can they take this beyond one round? Can they get the newly drafted rookies to comment on their ratings?