Avatars Hit the Hardwood

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 - Cramer on HOT - Stock Picks), Nissan, CBS (CBS Quote - Cramer on CBS - Stock Picks), General Electric's (GE Quote - Cramer on GE - Stock Picks) NBC arm, and Reuters (RTRSY Quote - Cramer on RTRSY - Stock Picks).

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.

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