AI has been a gamechanger in sports, bringing spectators closer to the action, breaking down athletic feats once thought impossible to measure, and producing player analytics that make Moneyball look like a first draft. The latest leap forward comes from a new collaboration between the NBA and Amazon Web Services, a multi-year partnership that will fuse basketball with advanced artificial intelligence in ways the league has never attempted before.
The NBA is attempting to move beyond simply recording what happened on the court. The ambition is to explain how it happened, in real time, to audiences around the world. Basketball has been documented through the box score for decades. With AI, the box score jumps out in real time, to give the viewer a high-resolution, 3D image of the performance behind the statistics.
Announced on Oct. 1, 2025, the deal makes AWS the Official Cloud and Cloud AI Partner of the NBA, WNBA, G League, Basketball Africa League and NBA 2K League. At the center of the partnership is “NBA Inside the Game powered by AWS,” a new platform designed to process billions of data points and turn them into insights available during live broadcasts, in the NBA app, and across the league’s digital channels.
“Partnering with AWS provides us with an opportunity to elevate the live game experience through innovation and offer fans a deeper understanding of the game of basketball for years to come,” said NBA Executive Vice President and Head of Media Operations and Technology Ken DeGennaro.
The platform will attempt to expand basketball statistics beyond the traditional box score. A new “Defensive Box Score” will capture elements of defensive play that have never been consistently measured, such as double teams, ball pressure, and switches, while also identifying which defender is responsible for each offensive player. The aim is to create a more complete picture of defensive performance that reflects the reality of how possessions unfold.
Another feature, “Shot Difficulty,” will calculate the expected success rate of a shot by factoring in player orientation, defender pressure, positioning, and other contextual elements. Instead of evaluating only whether a shot is made or missed, the new system will provide a probability that conveys how difficult the attempt actually was.
A third area of focus is “Gravity,” which measures how much defensive attention a player draws, with or without the ball. Long understood anecdotally by coaches and analysts, this effect will now be quantified through optical tracking data and custom neural networks, providing evidence of how star players change the geometry of the court even when they are not directly involved in a play.
“At AWS, we’re excited by the NBA’s vision to push the boundaries of what’s possible in sports,” said Francessca Vasquez, AWS Vice President of Professional Services & Agentic AI. “This partnership will showcase how cloud and AI can reimagine the game of basketball—from generating new insights to creating experiences that bring fans closer to the game they love.”
The application of AI in sports is not unique to basketball. Around the world, federations and leagues have begun integrating similar systems to improve fairness, accuracy, and fan engagement.
In gymnastics, the International Gymnastics Federation has worked with Fujitsu to implement its Judging Support System, which uses AI and 3D data capture to evaluate performances. The system recognizes joint positions, tracks body movement, and matches elements against a database to assist judges. It was used at the 2021 and 2022 World Championships, providing a new level of precision for scoring while also offering audiences more detailed visualizations.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, OMEGA and Olympic Broadcasting Services applied AI-driven stroboscopic analysis across events including diving, athletics and gymnastics. In diving, the system delivered enhanced graphics showing rotation speeds and entry angles, allowing viewers to understand performances at a biomechanical level. In long-distance events such as canoe sprint and marathon swimming, motion tracking helped commentators keep audiences informed about athlete positions in real time.
For the NBA, the benefits of its AWS partnership go beyond statistical analysis. The league’s global platforms—NBA.com, the NBA app and NBA League Pass—will now run on AWS, enabling more personalized and multilingual content for fans worldwide. Prime Video, which began an 11-year agreement to broadcast NBA games this season, will also integrate the new technology, debuting during an Oct. 24 doubleheader featuring the Celtics against the Knicks and the Lakers against the Timberwolves.
Another tool, called “Play Finder,” will allow fans and broadcasters to search across thousands of games for similar plays. By analyzing player movements and strategies, the system can instantly identify patterns and deliver historical context during live broadcasts. Teams will also have access to the underlying models, integrating them into coaching and front-office decision-making. Future versions of Play Finder are expected to give fans deeper access to strategic breakdowns directly through the NBA app.
The partnership underscores a broader transformation taking place across sports. What once existed only in film rooms or scouting reports is increasingly being packaged for live audiences. The ability to quantify elements that were previously invisible—whether a defender’s effort, a shooter’s angle, or the pressure created by a player—reflects a growing demand for more complete, data-driven storytelling.
