How the NBA can learn from the NFL’s virtual draft experience

Negative takeaways

Parts of the NFL Draft, however, seemed forced. Or one person said on Twitter, “cornier than the middle of Nebraska.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s awkward gestures towards fans doesn’t play as well in a virtual draft. Though it was a bonus to get fan videos to make the a part of it, but the audio sounded prerecorded. A collage of fan pictures/videos would work just fine without Silver having to turn towards them.

One way the NBA can cater to its fans is to provide a live Twitter feed as a sidebar on the screen. Of course it would need someone to filter through the tweets. It could involve established player’s reactions, recently-drafted players and former players.

The NBA timeline is such that there’s typically one month between the lottery and the draft. There isn’t a sure-fire pick in the 2020 NBA Draft like that of the NFL. Even still, one month is plenty of time to make your decision so that 30 minutes isn’t needed from the start of the production to introducing the pick.

Going back to the humanizing element of going inside people’s homes, interviews are a mainstay of the common draft experience. There will be a delay in some of the feeds but there’s no reason not to have more interviews. The NFL sometimes gets overwhelming with the analysis and fit of players. One of the best parts is getting a player’s instant reaction with live interviews creates some raw emotion and is another part of storytelling.

Understandably, teams want to delay the 2020 NBA Draft. There’s a lot of uncertainty within the league of prospects and delaying would give them a longer period to evaluate and, eventually, bring them in for pre-draft workouts. But it’s clear, sports fans crave the liveliness of sporting events and for a sport that pushes the envelope on social media, it’s advantageous to use that strength.