NBA will ‘ring’ in restart with technology

The NBA is going to put a ring on it.

A vital component of the league’s 100-page restart plan — which was approved by the players association — focused on keeping players and staff of the 22 teams healthy within the bubble at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Fla. That includes safety protocols, social distancing, extensive required testing and wearable technology, the most peculiar of which is a lightweight, titanium “smart ring.”

All players and essential staff members will be given the option to wear a diagnostic ring designed by Finlandbased tech company, Oura, that resembles a plain wedding band. The ring, which retails for between $299 to $399, contains sensors that track vital statistics like heart rate, respiration rate and body temperature. The data collected from the ring is fed into an algorithm that the venture capital-backed company boasts can predict the onset of coronavirus symptoms up to three days in advance with over 90 percent accuracy (study conducted by Oura Health in conjunction with West Virginia Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute).

The ring’s data will be analyzed by the University of Michigan to create an illness risk index.

The league will also harvest data on residents’ temperatures, blood oxygen saturation levels, locations and pairwise proximity using other smart technology. Everyone will be given smart thermometers and pulse oximeters, as well as Disney MagicBands and proximity alarms.

Disney MagicBands currently act as admission passes to the parks, payment tender and hotel room keys, and the league plans to leverage this location data for contact tracing. Players will be required to wear these at all times when not on the court.

Some have expressed concerns about the use of the data, which the league plans to delete within four weeks of the conclusion of the season.

“It will entail enormous sacrifice for everyone involved,” commissioner Adam Silver said this week. “Listen, It’s not an ideal situation trying to find our new normal in the middle of a pandemic … I can understand how some players feel it’s not for them.”

Training camps are set to begin July 9, with games commencing July 30.