NEW YORK — I’ve followed the Golden State Warriors closely for the past three seasons as a beat writer and attended every game of the NBA Finals when the Cleveland Cavaliers came from behind to capture the championship.
Watching “FOLLOW MY LEAD: The Story of the 2016 NBA Finals” presented by the league and Oculus was for me a chance to relive the dramatic seven-game series. But it ended up being something entirely different from what I had already seen up close with my own two eyes.
The 3D virtual reality sports documentary that was released Wednesday and available for free on the Oculus Store for Samsung’s Gear VR is a 25-minute-long experience that not only put me in the middle of the action on the court, but also gave me eyes in the back of my head with the 360-degree viewing.
With the camera providing footage from a stanchion’s-eye view below the basket, there were opportunities to witness historical moments from an angle closer than any courtside seat could provide. There was LeBron James trash-talking Stephen Curry after blocking the reigning MVP’s shot. There was James getting tangled up with Draymond Green. There was James hustling down the court to block Andre Iguodala from behind in Game 7.
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The moments that stood out for me were the ones that reporters didn’t have total access to, but the camera operators did for filmmaking. James is leading a pregame huddle and can be heard appearing to utter a four-letter word. On the practice day when Green was suspended by the NBA and all eyes were on him, his demeanor was filmed from the side of the practice facility closest to him where reporters cannot stand.
It went on like that for nearly half an hour, and it didn’t feel that long because of the storytelling. Eugene Wei, the Head of Video at Oculus, said the goal was to push the medium in VR and that one myth was that clips had to be short when watching on a VR headset. Of the NBA Finals, he said, “You can’t tell that story faithfully in four minutes.”
“Groundbreaking” was the word that Jeff Marsilio, the NBA’s Vice President of Global Media Distribution, kept using because this was believed to be the longest live action production of its kind. Most VR content is under 10 minutes. The goal was to focus on the drama of the Finals rather than the technology.
But I couldn’t help it. Beat reporters like myself are wired to see every facet of the NBA scene. We can tell how a player is feeling from a facial expression. We survey the scene before, during and after games for the movers and shakers of the league to see who’s hanging around the court. There’s a potential story behind every detail.
So while wearing the headset and watching the trailer and documentary narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan, I did a 180 and watched what was going on behind the cameras. In one shot, I came face-to-face to NBA commissioner Adam Silver sitting in his seat at the game. I could see how individual fans — like Silver — reacted to what was going on during the game. Instead of watching Curry speak at a press conference, I could see my hard-working colleague, Bay Area News Group columnist Marcus Thompson II, was right in the front row. Courtside, there was ESPN’s Marc Stein watching James’ every movement.
I tried to be everywhere while attending that series, but it’s impossible. This documentary takes you seemingly everywhere — from tipoff to inside the barriers when Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith are shirtless in the championship parade in Cleveland.
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— NBA Store (@NBASTORE) September 13, 2016