That's what former basketball hopeful Kylin Shaw is working on with his startup, Hippos Exoskeleton ' a 'knee sleeve' that measures stress on the knee joint and inflates around the knee to protect it from major injuries like ACL and MCL tears. The sleeve inflates in 30 milliseconds, which the company says is faster than the 60 milliseconds it takes for ACL tears to occur. 'I dedicated myself to intensive training' But at 17, just as I was preparing for a professional basketball career and NCAA trials, I heard a sickening pop from my knee while landing from a dunk,' he said. Shaw and his co-founder Bhavy Metakar (CTO) initially bootstrapped Hippos by investing $1,000 of their savings to develop a prototype and generate initial pre-orders from clinics and athletes. The startup has now raised a $642,000 pre-seed round from investors Possible Ventures and Silicon Roundabout Ventures. The startup has performed trials with U.K. football clubs as well as with star athletes, like world skiing champion Alex Schlopy of the U.S. Ski Team. In a statement, Schlopy said: 'I'm impressed by the preventative function and it feels so light and comfortable! This brace gives me a sense of psychological safety.'...
In late 2002, the NBA awarded an expansion team, the Charlotte Bobcats, to Black Entertainment Television co-founder Bob Johnson. Four years later, former NBA star Michael Jordan bought a minority stake in the franchise, and in 2010, he bought Johnson's stake. However, Jordan sold his majority stake in the franchise in July 2023. This lack of diversity in basketball team ownership is especially disappointing considering the rich history of Black ownership in sports, which began when the top leagues in the U.S. were still segregated. My students are often surprised that the history of professional team sports in the U.S. goes far beyond the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB. But the media's focus on the 'big four' leagues can cause fans to overlook the incredible accomplishments and leadership of many pioneers in athletics, including those from marginalized groups whose participation in mainstream leagues were limited or banned. The first 50 years of professional basketball was an amalgam of regional leagues and barnstorming teams. As with baseball and football, basketball teams from this era were segregated. But white teams and Black teams would square off against one another in exhibitions as they toured the country....
Families, scouts and fans gathered to witness the unveiling of the next generation of prodigious basketball talent. I watched the event on a YouTube livestream, which broadcast the players shooting, running sprints and leaping for slam dunks. Amid the sea of prospects, it was impossible to ignore the magnetic presence of Amen and Ausar Thompson, the identical twin brothers who were just selected as the fourth and fifth picks, respectively, in the 2023 NBA draft. The duo symbolizes the transformative potential of Overtime Elite, which offers young athletes a new path to maximize their earning potential outside of the NCAA and propel them to professional stardom. It allows its student-athletes to monetize their talents, offering them two options. They can accept a $100,000 minimum salary from the school, which means they must forgo NCAA eligibility. Or they can remain amateurs so they can play in college, with the organization offering scholarships to help them pay their college tuition. OTE also acts as an arm of a media company, Overtime Sports Inc., that provides film crews to help players burnish their personal brands....
The game was still dominated largely by a fleet of seven-foot centers, most of whom couldn't shoot from more than a few feet out from the basket. Even the game's best player, Michael Jordan, was a mid-range specialist who averaged under two three-point attempts per game for his career. 'When I first started in the profession, 10 to 12 years ago, data analytics was almost nonexistent in training rooms,' says Adam Petway, the director of strength and conditioning for men's basketball at the University of Louisville. 'Today, we have force platform technology, we have velocity-based training, we have GPS tracking during games and in training, all to get a more objective analysis to help our athletes. So it's grown exponentially.' Petway, who previously worked on the coaching staffs of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and Washington Wizards, holds a bachelor's degree in sports science, an MBA with an emphasis in sport management, and a doctorate in sports science. Recently, he extended his education through MIT Professional Education's Applied Data Science Program (ADSP)....
