Beginning with the 2025–2026 NBA season, basketball enthusiasts will be introduced to a groundbreaking wave of analytical insights, both during live broadcasts and across digital platforms, made possible through a collaboration between the league and Amazon Web Services’ artificial intelligence technology. By combining advanced AI with an intricate system of player-movement tracking, fans will soon experience a level of statistical detail and real-time interpretation that has never before been available in professional basketball. This ambitious initiative is unfolding under the umbrella of a newly conceived analytical environment known as **’NBA Inside the Game,’** a platform designed to translate the complexity of in-game dynamics into data-driven insights that are both accessible and illuminating.
The promise of this platform is not limited to generic box score numbers; instead, it brings forth highly specialized and precise performance metrics capable of capturing subtle aspects of gameplay. Viewers will, for example, be able to monitor the behavior of individual defenders during specific offensive sequences, or evaluate the calculated difficulty of particular shots based on the context in which they are attempted. Such enhancements expand the audience’s capacity to appreciate the strategy, skill, and decision-making that unfold in every possession, by going far beyond the basic outcome of whether or not a shot is converted.
At the heart of this innovative system is an extraordinary methodology that tracks no fewer than 29 distinct points on each player’s body in order to map their movement across the court with razor-like precision. While Amazon Web Services has not disclosed exactly which anatomical markers are being measured or the precise mechanisms behind the tracking process, this wealth of kinetic data is continuously fed into the AI engine. The ultimate goal, as AWS emphasizes, is to produce a new category of statistics able to quantify dimensions of basketball execution that historically have remained beyond the reach of traditional data analysis.
These innovations allow for entirely new kinds of evaluation. For instance, when a player takes a shot, the analysis will extend beyond a binary success or failure. Instead, fans will gain visibility into how challenging that attempt truly was, factoring in spatial conditions, defensive pressure, and shooting mechanics. Central to this expansion is the **Expected Field Goal Percentage**, a predictive measurement that calculates the likelihood of a player making a given shot. This calculation incorporates not only the player’s shooting stance and body orientation but also the location and defensive alignment of opponents, producing a more comprehensive model of scoring probability than any existing metric.
Another novel statistic, referred to as **Gravity**, attempts to capture the strategic ‘pull’ a player exerts on opposing defenders and the extent to which their mere presence reshapes offensive opportunities for teammates. By examining how defenders respond to a particular player’s positioning, both on and off the ball, the metric quantifies the degree of spacing advantage generated. In essence, it measures how effectively one’s movements manipulate the defensive scheme, thereby creating openings and high-quality opportunities for others. Closely aligning with this concept is AWS’s introduction of the **Defensive Score Box**, a specialized suite of measurements that brings long-overdue attention to the efforts of defenders on the court. Whereas traditional stats often highlight scorers, this defensive-focused analysis will break down core plays—rebounds, blocks, contests, and similar actions—specifically through the lens of players assigned defensive responsibilities.
Beyond statistics alone, the NBA and AWS have engineered a complementary tool called **Play Finder**, which provides an interactive way for fans to search through recorded NBA game footage at the granular level of individual plays. Whether seeking a specific possession, a memorable defensive stand, or a highlight shot, fans will be empowered to navigate archives directly in conjunction with the platform’s new wealth of contextualized statistical material. Together, these features position ‘NBA Inside the Game’ not only as a scoring table of numbers but as a comprehensive gateway into the internal logic and rhythm of basketball as it is played at the highest level.
All of these advanced metrics will not be confined to back-end analysis but will surface directly on live NBA broadcasts as well as across the official NBA mobile application and website. In doing so, the league continues a broader trend in professional sports toward the adoption of real-time analytics to enhance fan engagement. Precedents for such innovations have already been witnessed in other major leagues: the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) employ Hawk-Eye camera systems, developed by Sony, to track movements such as the trajectory of football plays, the motion of hockey pucks, or the flight of baseballs during games. Likewise, Wimbledon made headlines when it adopted Hawk-Eye’s automated line-calling system, a decision that at first unsettled traditional tennis audiences but ultimately revolutionized officiating and established new standards for precision in sport.
This latest collaboration does not emerge in isolation but is instead an amplification of an existing strategic partnership between the NBA and Amazon. In 2024, the two organizations entered into an extensive 11-year agreement covering media rights, which granted Prime Video the ability to stream 66 NBA regular-season games each year. The inaugural broadcast in this deal is scheduled for October 24th, marking Amazon’s official debut as a primary distribution partner for live NBA content. Beyond broadcasting, the contract also positioned AWS as the NBA’s official provider of cloud services and AI solutions, extending across the league’s affiliates including the WNBA and developmental leagues. The new analytics initiative, therefore, represents not only a technical milestone but also a continuation and deepening of a relationship designed to reshape both the viewing experience and the analytical discourse surrounding professional basketball.
Sourse: https://www.theverge.com/news/790187/amazon-aws-ai-nba-stats
