10 years of Adam Silver's crazy tech demos, ranked
From virtual James Naismith to Jesser, Club Sportico dives into how viral NBA history has been made
Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today we’re talking about NBA vaporware.
For years now, Adam Silver has kicked off NBA All-Star Weekend with a future-facing tech demo, from a hologram James Naismith to a jersey that changes numbers on demand to … robot dogs? If you’re online, you’ve likely seen several of these unveils. And if you’re like me, you’ve also likely wondered, What’s the point here?
Is the NBA commissioner calling his shot on the future of fan entertainment? Or is he poking fun at a league that prides itself on being cutting edge?
The moments come during the league’s annual tech summit, which includes panels with owners and industry executives. Those are often highly educational, but also almost always unrecorded and off-the-record. Meanwhile Silver’s bits get a life of their own.
The Club Sportico investigative team dug up Silver’s last 10 presentations, a time capsule of the league’s ever-evolving vision. We’ve also scored each demo on a three-metric basis, because they are supposed to be about having fun (we think??).
2016: Hello, James Naismith
Unfortunately, the video of this moment appears to have died with clips app Vine. But we can still get a sense based on surviving coverage…
💡 Predictiveness: 10/10
⭐ Production Value: 5/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 2/10
Holograms are basically here, so Silver nailed that part.
Silver also praised virtual reality during the talk, saying in the future it would allow fans to high five a player or “drive home with him after the game.” This won’t be the last time holograms or mixed reality play a starring role. Or surreal expectations about player-audience interactions, as a matter of fact.
2017: Wearables-based Free Throw Predictions
💡 Predictiveness: 10/10
⭐ Production Value: 7/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 4/10
Credit the NBA for how retro-futuristic this demo looks, from the supposed trackers on Langston Galloway’s stomach to the Minority Report-esque display.
A lot of this tracking is now available via wrist or finger-based devices, though—as Silver jokingly pointed out—union concerns are part of the reason sportsbooks can’t set their player props based on how much caffeine each athlete has consumed in the previous 12 hours.
2018: Shaq Takes a Magic Leap
💡 Predictiveness: 4/10
⭐ Production Value: 2/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 2/10
This one’s slightly different, taking place at a tech conference days before the All-Star Game, but we’re saying it fits.
Tabletop versions of game broadcasts are still popping up in today’s demos, and it’s not the NBA’s fault that Magic Leap flopped (before being resurrected by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund), but this concept still feels far away from being available to everyday consumers, much less desired by them.
2019: Jersey Swapping 2.0
💡 Predictiveness: 1/10
⭐ Production Value: 8/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 5/10
Here’s the canonical Adam Silver tech demo in my opinion, which brought the concept into a new era.
Of course, a jersey that changes name and number on demand totally does not exist, but at least the production value was high enough to make this moment go viral.
2020: United Center VR ft. Bill Murray
💡 Predictiveness: 2/10
⭐ Production Value: 6/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 8/10
So, half the time, these moments are played almost entirely straight, and the other half are completely parodic. Here you can see Silver transition from the former to the latter, with a supposed demo about the future of VR viewing quickly pivoting into a chance to get Bill Murray on stage—which is honestly probably a better use of everyone’s time anyway.
2021: COVID, N/A
2022: Welcome to The ~~Metaverse~~
💡 Predictiveness: 2/10
⭐ Production Value: 3/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 4/10
Man, the metaverse was a weird time. This video makes clear that nobody really knew what it meant—and looking back on it, nobody misses it either.
(NAT, evidently, was short for NBA Augmented Telepresence, if you were curious. These are jokes, right!?)
2023: Scan Yourself Into a Game
💡 Predictiveness: 6/10
⭐ Production Value: 6/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 3/10
This video also went viral, if I recall correctly. You can clearly tell the crowd was into it. The elevated production value got people talking—and laughing. To be fair to the tech, we are now digitally replacing players in-game, just with Mickey Mouse characters rather than Ahmad Rashad.
2024: Introducing NB-AI
💡 Predictiveness: 9/10
⭐ Production Value: 8/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 3/10
You can clearly tell NB-AI started as a great name, and the demo unfolded from there. There was also a segment where Victor Wembanyama’s face was replaced with Ahmad Rashad’s in real time.
AI assistants and generative video are very much here today, so this scores high in predictiveness, and the production value is high too. But is it too predictable?
2025: Robot Rebounders
💡 Predictiveness: 2/10
⭐ Production Value: 10/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 7/10
Credit to Steph Curry, Steve Kerr and Draymond Green for taking this back into the parody lane with a sketch straight out of an NBC sitcom.
Maybe the future of the All-Star Saturday Night should be humans vs. robots?
2026: Entering POV Mode
💡 Predictiveness: 9/10
⭐ Production Value: 8/10
⁉️ WTF Factor: 2/10
And now, the latest entrant. Last Friday, Silver was joined by star rookies Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel, as well as YouTuber Jesser, to show what it might be like to watch an NBA game from the point of view of a player on the court.
This is pretty much feasible now, with a bit of a built-in delay. We’ve seen similar tech pop up on ESPN. The fact that a social media star played a role says as much about the future of the NBA as anything Silver has shown on-stage over the last decade.
Eben’s 🔥 Take: I love that the NBA does this. Whether the demos hit or not, these are all things that people in our industry talk about. My only critique would be: When World Cup bids include manufactured weather and we already have a space-focused soccer team, is the NBA thinking big enough?
On the most recent Sporticast episode, Eben, Scott and Kurt discussed the economic future for MLS teams. It included a debate about two different revenue streams, one common to all major sports leagues (media) and the other unique to global soccer (player sales) 👇
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.