From the Archives

I'm not happy with NBA league pass today, though fortunately I managed to work around it.  More later, but for now, here's another email from the Dear League Pass archives.

March 23, 2011

To Whom It May Concern,

I recently signed up for the NBA league pass from London.  I very much enjoy the technology and access to NBA games.  I have been watching games with a friend in another country the day after the games have been completed in the United States. 

I have a few suggestions that I think would make a good product even better.  Mostly they relate to helping "hide" the final result of the game and improving the flow of the game for the viewer.

1.  The bar at the bottom of the screen contains too much information - inadvertently, I think.  (This is the bar that has the four quarters of the game, with circular "d"s and "m"s that viewers can click on to advance the game action.)  One specific problem is that you can tell very easily if the game has gone into overtime because the overtime periods are contained in the bar.  An example of this is the Lakers-Suns game last night: I knew immediately that the game went into three overtimes because that information appeared in the bar, which reduced the tension and drama of the game b/c I knew how long it would last!  One alternative (which I don't know if it is practical), is to hide the overtime periods in the bar; if a game goes to overtime, the regular time bar can be replaced by an overtime bar so that you don't know that there is an overtime until you get to the end of regular time.  Another easy option is to allow viewers the option of "closing" the bar and opening it again as wanted. 

2.  I find the commercial break transitions to be very irritating.  The games should be edited so that you don't have to fast forward through the commercial action.  I have the NFL game pass and they do that for their games.  It can't be that hard to do.  Also, the "great moments in NBA history" feature is fairly annoying, especially after you've seen them 100 times. 

Thanks,
Aubrey Fox