NBA Digital Targets Hardcore Fan for Draft Coverage

While ESPN provides primary linear coverage of the NBA Draft tonight, NBA Digital will be catering to fans that want to delve even deeper into the league’s rookie–coming-out party.

“Draft Week on NBA TV” is offering a whopping total of 125 hours of Draft coverage this week, and NBA.com will feature video interviews from the green room and social commentary via Facebook and Twitter. In addition, NBA Mobile will provide instant alerts and breaking-news updates on draft picks through the NBA Game Time app.

“ESPN does an amazing job with the draft itself, but we take everything around it and run with it,” says Scooter Vertino, VP of content for NBA Digital. “We want to be your one-stop shop for everything NBA before, during, and after the draft.”

NBA TV Bookends Draft
NBA TV’s Draft preview begins at 6 p.m. ET this evening, and the Draft Recap picks up following the main event at midnight and runs until 2 a.m. Both the pre- and post-shows feature host Rick Kamla and analysts Steve Smith, Seth Davis, and David Aldridge.

“The [post-draft] show is unique to us,” says Vertino. “We have two hours to go over everything that happened in an in-depth way that no one else can offer. We have calls in for a bunch of [interviews] already, and that will continue to change depending on how the Draft plays out.”

In addition to the pre- and post-shows, NBA TV and NBA.com will feature live interviews with players moments after they are selected, with reporter Craig Sager at the Prudential Center.

NBA TV will pick up where it left off on Friday with the NBA Draft Review from 7 to 9 p.m. Host Matt Winer, NBA coaching veteran Mike Fratello Aldridge, and former NBA scout Ron Thompson will break down each division team by team to assess the impact of the draft.

NBA.com: The Place for the Hardcore (Draft) Fan
NBA.com’s live draft coverage is highlighted by Winer’s Instant Analysis segment on key draft selections that will be available exclusively on NBA.com.

“With the Instant Analysis, when a player is picked and you click on the Instant Analysis page, you hear his pros and cons immediately,” says Vertino. “I like to think, because it’s on the Internet, we can go a little bit long and more in-depth. We don’t necessarily have to worry about missing the next pick because we don’t have such a strict schedule.”

On NBA.com, writer John Schuhmann will be chatting live with fans, while social media correspondent LaChina Robinson will monitor the on-going conversation and provide updates via the NBA Facebook page (Facebook.com/nba) and Twitter account (www.twitter.com/nba).

In addition, the Virtual Green Room will feature interviews conducted by Sager and a behind-the-scenes look at the prospects as they go through NBA Combine, the days leading up to the Draft, and right up until the Draft itself.

“Our production team put together 50-plus profiles on these prospects,” says Vertino. “It gives fans an up-close-and-personal look at these players and some first-person explanations of how they got here.”