By David Rumsey

The 76ers stole a win last night in Boston as they await the return of Joel Embiid, who sprained his knee in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The team's overall health has been paramount this season, thanks in part to work with a specialized sports science firm. More on that below.

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The 76ers are hoping to continue their 2023 playoff run after earning the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference thanks in part to a partnership with Pitch Ready, a sport science firm that specializes in the analysis and care for lower-limb injury reduction and rehabilitation, according to SBJ's Joe Lemire.

The data retrieved from a full motion capture scan of players at training camp helped personalize training programs through the preseason and set the tone for a 54-28 record in the regular season and a four-game sweep of the Nets in the first round of the playoffs.

That 90-minute scanning process requires players in minimum attire, standing at attention while the reflective markers are affixed, then warming up and completing a series of exercises. The motion capture data is a vital input in feeding its algorithms to identify risk factors.

Lemire has more on Pitch Ready and its benefits for NBA teams at SBJ Tech.

Pitch Ready's scanning system is a laborious process

SI Tickets is launching a primary ticketing product today called Box Office that’s built on blockchain technology, SBJ's Bret McCormick reports.

Box Office won’t challenge Ticketmaster or SeatGeek initially but rather Eventbrite, Dice and Tixr, with a focus on the market for events with tickets ranging from 50 to 5,000 in number. All tickets created with Box Office will be NFTs, giving event organizers the ability to shift digital tickets into various types of digital content before, during or post-event, like a thank you video, personalized message or sponsor offer, for example.

SI Tickets began building its primary ticketing offering about a year ago. It partnered with ConsenSys to create a primary ticketing solution that will run on the Polygon blockchain in part because SI Tickets didn’t have the kind of legacy barcode solution that’s now commonplace in preventing fraud throughout the ticketing industry. Otherwise, the blockchain aspects of Box Office are not user-facing and won’t be noticed by ticket buyers.

I'm excited to try out a new app feature this summer from the USGA, which will use the PGA Tour’s ShotLink scoring technology to enhance the digital fan experience on the governing body’s revamped app and website during the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open.

“USGA ShotCast, Powered by Cisco” will include dynamic shot trails, radar data, green view and video highlights, giving fans the ability to follow the action with 3D hole imagery and real-time radar data.

The technology will let fans using ShotCast to change the viewing angle, zoom into the player's perspective and measure the undulation and slopes of players’ putts.

New features the USGA has not used before include ball radar behind all tees and greens as well as cameras around the greens

Amazon is shuttering its fitness wearables and will no longer support its Halo devices after July 31.

The Halo wristband, which can track heart rate, physical activity and sleep, debuted in August 2020. It also had the capacity to measure body fat and use AI to analyze tone of voice in order to determine stress and emotional wellbeing.

Amazon said that anyone who purchased a Halo device in the past 12 months would be refunded and subscription charges would be immediately cancelled.

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