New “Connected Basketball X” Proves We Are Too Stupid For Sports

No. No to whomever designed, implemented, fabricated, approved, wanted or will buy this. Unlike your mothers, I am mad and disappointed. I am filled with a rage that could only be sated by destroying you all in a dunk contest. And I will use a regular damn ball to do it! I don’t need an app to posterize your asses!

Enter the Wilson X Connected Basketball, a “smart” basketball with a small sensor inside of it that keeps track of when you’ve made and missed a shot.

Paired with a smartphone app over Bluetooth, you can use the ball to train and improve your game.

It’s the first ball of its kind designed to gamify your hoop skills, but is it worth the $200 entry fee? Regular basketballs cost around $30 to $35.

This ball is $200.

The Connected Basketball works on both indoor and outdoor courts, but before you can begin playing with the ball and tracking your stats, you need to ensure your court meets a few prerequisites.

For starters, your hoop needs to be at least 10 feet tall. Wilson says the ball’s tracking accuracy won’t work as well if the hoop is shorter.

This ball is $200.

A net and rigid backboard and rim are also recommended for more accurate ball-tracking. The majority of New York City’s public basketball courts don’t have nets and I’d wager the same is true in many other cities. That means you’ll either have to buy a net and bring a ladder to install it on a public court, like I did, or stick to using the ball indoors.

Lastly, you need to calibrate and connect the ball to your phone. It only takes a few seconds to do so. Simply spin the ball 10 feet into the air and let it hit the ground; the app will tell you when it’s connected. The most annoying part is needing to recalibrate the ball before starting each game mode (Wilson says this is because the ball goes into hibernation mode to save on battery life, but I kept switching between game modes and there’s no way the ball went into hibernation.)

This ball is $200. We don’t deserve sports.