"Hawkeye" NBA will use "Hawkeye" to follow the footsteps of the footnet Can it avoid a major missed judgment?

Tencent News|Sports production column "Eagle Eye", a detailed look at the sports world, insight into the essence.

The NBA officially announced a cooperation agreement with Sony Sports to use Hawkeye starting in the 2023-24 season, a major goal of which is to help referees make better and faster decision decisions, improve the accuracy of whistling penalties and the fluency of the game.

In recent years, Hawkeye has become popular in football, tennis, volleyball and other events, and its use has indeed improved the accuracy of referee decisions. But can the use of high technology make the major misses that LeBron James suffered when playing the Celtics disappear? I'm afraid not.

Because of the current NBA mistakes and missed judgments and cannot correct a major reason is the problem of the replay system, Hawkeye is accurate, if you can't watch the replay under specific circumstances, you can't challenge, the referee can't change the penalty, and the accuracy of Hawkeye loses its meaning.

The meaning of Hawkeye technology

Hawkeye Innovations was founded in 2001, the concept of Hawkeye technology comes from missile tracking technology (similar to the data analysis system SportVU), Hawkeye founder Paul Hawkins applied the technology to ball tracking.

There are two important components of ball tracking technology, namely optical 2D vision processing (capturing the landing point of the ball) and 3D triangulation (simulating the flight time of the ball). Usually, the Hawkeye system uses 8-12 ultra-high-speed tracking cameras, and the captured data will be instantly fed into the central control system, and the system can provide various real-time services to referees and broadcasters.

Taking tennis games as an example, the data captured by high-speed cameras can instantly generate a map of the ball's movement route and landing point, and the whole process takes less than 10 seconds, and the accuracy is unmatched by the human eye. Using Hawkeye, you save a lot of time watching the replay when judging out of bounds and pressing the line, and you can directly determine the penalty result.

Initially, Hawkeye technology was used in cricket, and later in tennis and football. In 2006, Hawkeye made his professional debut in the first round of the Miami Women's Open, when American Jackson went down in history for applying for the Hawkeye Challenge after a serve was ruled out of bounds.

Considering that the mistakes and omissions of tennis focus more on whether the ball is out of bounds, the use of Hawkeye technology is definitely good for the development of the sport, and the famous Agassiz and others have recognized the use of Hawkeye technology.

Including volleyball, in the 10th round of the 2015 Women's Volleyball World Cup, the focus battle between China and Russia was carried out in the fourth game. At that time, Russia led 19-18, Russia's smash was judged out of bounds, Russia applied for the Hawkeye challenge, the replay showed that it was indeed out of bounds, Russia's challenge failed, and the Chinese women's volleyball team equalized the score, and finally won the game and won 3-1.

In tennis, volleyball, badminton, the value of Hawkeye technology can be maximized. However, Hawkeye heard a lot of scolding in the football arena. Because tennis, volleyball, badminton and other net-blocking sports have no physical contact, no confrontation, and the pace of the game is slower than that of football, the use of Hawkeye technology in the football field has caused a lot of controversy.

Hawkeye technology can indeed judge offside and out of bounds, avoiding the famous "door line wrongful case" in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. However, in football, there are a lot of physical confrontations, falling to the ground, and if these are all handed over to Hawkeye, the game will completely lose its fluidity. This also raises a contradiction: the referee plays the dual role of plaintiff and judge on the field, because the right to decide whether or not to watch the replay is still in the hands of the referee.

What effect can the NBA use of Hawkeye?

When the news came out that the NBA would use Hawkeye technology, probably most people's first reaction was to applaud, thinking that using Hawkeye would greatly reduce the occurrence of false judgments. But in fact, if you think about it, is the focus of the NBA's dispute about wrong and missed judgments really focused on the judgment of right and wrong judgments? If you just struggle with the right or wrong penalty, in fact, the NBA replay system can already meet the demand, but it is just a matter of speed and slowness.

From the perspective of the NBA's attitude, the use of the Hawkeye system is to improve the accuracy and fluency of the decision. The Hawkeye system is certainly faster than the replay system in judging whether the ball is out of bounds, who touches the ball out of bounds, interferes with the ball, and whether the three-point shot is stepping on the line, and the Hawkeye system has a unique advantage in judging these rounds.

But what about rounds such as foul or not? In a basketball game with a super fast pace of attack and defense, how exactly should the referee handle it? Even if Hawkeye is fast, the controversy of the previous round has not yet been decided, and the game has moved on to the next round, what should I do at this time?

Take the major missed judgment that James played the Celtics before as an example, under the same rules, even if the Hawkeye system is enabled, can that missed judgment be avoided? No, it's a rule dictate.

According to the rules, because the referee did not blow Tatum for a foul in that round, he could not watch the replay, and the coach did not qualify. So even if Hawkeye technology is enabled, no matter how powerful Hawkeye is, the result of missing judgments cannot be changed, unless the alliance modifies the rules, allows challenges, and uses Hawkeye to ensure that the penalty is okay.

So, Hawkeye is powerful and can help referees to blow penalties perfectly. However, if the alliance cannot optimize some rules, no matter how powerful the technology is, it is useless, the rules are stuck there, and the high technology cannot be used, for nothing.

But then again, the league also pursues the fluidity of the game, and no one wants to watch a game full of challenges and a disrupted rhythm. How to find a balance between fluency and accuracy is something the league needs to work on.