Dezeen Magazine

Nike creates first full-size LED basketball court in Shanghai for training with Kobe Bryant

Sports brand Nike has created a full-sized basketball court with motion-tracking and reactive LED visualisation technology built into the floor to help American star Kobe Bryant teach his moves to young players in Shanghai (+ slideshow).

Housed in a dedicated facility called the House of Mamba, the court was created to coincide with the Nike RISE campaign, which centres around a competition for young Chinese players to win a chance to participate in the Nike World Basketball Festival in Barcelona this September.

Bryant is one of a number of well-known basketball players taking part in RISE, with the participants having already received training from Le Bron James in the first rounds in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taipei and Kaohsiung.

Nike LED basketball court

James selected 30 players to move on to the next stage with Bryant in Shanghai, where they trained on the responsive court, which tracks the movement of players on its surface with built-in motion sensors.

Nike LED basketball court

The court can lay out sets of moves for individual people, create drills based on Bryant's training programme that are adapted for the court, and respond to mistakes as well as display performance stats.

Nike LED basketball court

It can also show classic court markings, with customised overlays including Nike's RISE branding.

When not in use for training and games, the LED surface can display almost any combination of moving images, graphics and colours.

Nike LED basketball court