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Avatars Hit the Hardwood

Robert Holden

With the playoffs in full swing, the National Basketball Association is expecting its ambitious jump in to the virtual world to be a slam dunk with residents of Second Life.

On Monday, the NBA announced the launch of NBA Headquarters, the league's own private interactive virtual island. An avatar of NBA Commissioner David Stern unveiled the destination, which features, among other things, broadband video of classic games and highlights. Users can also have their avatars' pictures taken with the league's championship trophy.

"Bringing the NBA to the virtual world provides us with a new and innovative platform to reach our fans and the millions of residents in Second Life," said Stern in a press release. "The NBA Headquarters creates an interactive worldwide community where fans can come together, engage with our game, and most importantly, share in their passion for the NBA."

Second Life, the 3-D virtual world created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, has become home to both individual users and big businesses. While residents are creating a 3-D virtual existence in order to design and sell goods for real money, corporations are clamoring to buy up virtual space, echoing the early days of the Internet boom in the late 1990's.

The NBA's virtual destination, developed with The Electric Sheep Company, will provide basketball fans and Second Life residents with access to comprehensive features.

"The NBA is a sports innovator, being the first professional sports league to unveil a comprehensive headquarters in a virtual world," Sibley Verbeck, CEO of Electric Sheep, said in a statement. "The NBA is engaging its fan community at a whole new level, and bringing fans together from around the world."

The selection of names that Verbeck's company has helped penetrate Second Life is impressive. For instance, Electric Sheep has created the virtual homesteads for Starwood Hotels (HOT Quote), Nissan, CBS (CBS Quote), General Electric's (GE Quote) NBC arm, and Reuters (RTRSY Quote).

Electric Sheep seemed a perfect fit to help design and build the NBA's virtual presence. Last year, the firm built Major League Baseball's aptly named Baseball private island, with a virtual Yankee Stadium that featured a late-season game between the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox and their New York rival.

The virtual stadium also doubled as Pittsburgh's PNC Park, home of the 2006 All-Star Game. MLB was able to stream live video footage of the home run derby on the Second Life scoreboard. A limited number of virtual tickets were made available to Second Life residents for a price of $1,000 Linden, the virtual world's currency.

Residents can enter the NBA's virtual T-Mobile Arena and watch broadband video of classic NBA playoff games and finals matchups on the arena's JumboTron. Second Life users will also have the opportunity to answer trivia questions and participate in a half-time, half-court shot contest. Additionally, live stat feeds and 3-D shot charts of finals games will be made available.

Second Life NBA fans will also be able to purchase both NBA and WNBA jerseys, as well as other merchandise, for their avatars at the NBA Store, which is designed to look like the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue in New York.

The NBA Headquarters island also highlights the 50 Greatest NBA Players. Avatars can take part in a variety of basketball activities at the NBA Jam Session. Fans can play a game of HORSE or try out their best Michael Jordan impression during an animated dunk contest.