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NBA commissioner Adam Silver wants players to be able to use wearable technology during games. Getting there, however, will require a deal with the players’ union.
“The players are in a position right now where they’re essentially wearing wearables 22 hours a day, and the only time they’re not wearing them is when they’re playing in the game,” Silver told CNBC Sport earlier this week. “So that can’t make sense.”
The current collective bargaining agreement prohibits wearables in games, and the league and union haven’t had any recent talks about changing that, according to sources close to the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). While Silver said that “everybody wants” the information that can be gathered from players wearing such devices, he also acknowledged that the players have concerns about how the information could be used, pointing to contract negotiations as the biggest sticking point.
“If you could see a player was slowing down or something like that, they’re worried that that could get used in bargaining, and I get that,” he said.
But the union’s concerns go beyond bargaining, according to sources close to the NBPA. The union’s view is that the players should be the primary owners and controllers of their own health data and the league shouldn’t be the one solely dictating how the data is used.
Players do wear devices off the court, those sources acknowledged, but that’s so they can use their own data and make informed decisions about their long-term well-being. The union is open to discussing in-game use, they added.
The NBA has already tested on-court wearables—just not on players. Referees wore wrist devices in select Summer League games this year, as part of what the league called a “successful pilot program.”
The devices allowed officials to communicate with the league’s replay center regarding reviews, scoring changes, and clock malfunctions. The program won’t be used in the regular season, the league said.
As for the players, Silver acknowledged that the league and union need to “come to some agreement on exactly how the information is used” before wearables can be used in games. Still, he remains confident that a deal will get done.
“We’ll work something out with them,” he said.
The NBA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from FOS.
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