NBA D-League Futurecasts

Even though the NBA season has been put on hold, at least for now, you still have the opportunity to watch professional basketball. The NBA Development League season starts its eleventh season next Friday, November, 25th. The D-league is the only minor league division of the NBA and currently has sixteen teams in the league.

Since we are talking about livestreaming this week, I thought it would be a good blog topic to discuss. One of the ideas behind the D-League is to show off the talent to the world and is available all for free. They have what they call NBA Futurecasts, livestreams of all D-League games available to anyone with a computer and a internet connection.

This is the third year that I have been hired on by NBA Entertainment to be the Team Tricaster Director (TTD) for the Dakota Wizards, the team located in Bismarck, ND and who is now owned by the Golden State Warriors.

A Tricaster is a video switcher/computer/streaming device all-in-one machine that allows us to push the switch and stream these games out to the world. During each broadcast you will see three cameras used, full scoreboard graphics, play-by-play announcing and everything else you expect from a normal television broadcast.

Although we as operators due what normally several people do, it’s a lot of fun and I look forward to tip-off of every game. It doesn’t hurt that I sit at the scorer’s table and get to watch every game up close. Its easy to sometimes forget that you have a game to direct and switch as the quality of play is awesome and some players are actually on NBA teams and have been sent down to get more playing time. In fact, last year’s D-League defensive player of the year was from the Wizards and had to NBA call-ups to the big show.

Anyways, getting back to the NBA Futurecasts, they can be found here. Every game is streamed and no username and password is required. Simply click on the game you want to watch and enjoy. The player that is used detects the strength of your bandwith and will give you the best quality available. The highest being in High Definition. All games are also immediately archived and if you join a game late, no problem, you can simply start at the beginning of the game to make sure you don’t miss any of the highlights.

So if you are a fan of the NBA and feel like you need to get your basketball fix, feel free to log onto the future of the NBA and check out a Futurecast.

Pause Before You Post

I am glad that I didn't grow up with Facebook or Twitter. I think it would make it even harder than it already is.
The only good that may have come out of using social sites like this would be to talk to people that you maybe wouldn't of in school and possibly make some new friends. But the negatives, for me anyways outweigh the positives.
October is National Pause Before You Post month. Its a month where educators and students makes pledges to pause before they post anything online that may harm someone else. I first found out about this from an article on a local television station's website. One of the local high schools is partaking in the event. According to the article, the teachers have talked about the issue of cyber-bullying before, but this month they are talking about more in class and encouraging students to think about things before they post them online. They are suppose to ask themselves, who will see it, will anyone be embarrased or hurt by it, am I proud of it, and how would I feel if someone posted it about me.
The main webpage behind all this, has a promotional video using upcoming teen celebrities asking teens to please Pause Before You Post. There is also links for students, parents and educators to follow, where they can find more information about this campaign.
We now live in a society where almost everyone uses social media to display their feelings and thoughts. I  know as an adult, I would never post anything harmful about someone on one of these websites. But for children and teens, its probably more of a challenge. So and so always started it, but this is a good way for maybe some students to end the negative posts and to realize how foolish of a thing this really is.