For Christmas, my wife received an iPad Mini. For the most part, I have not used it, except for playing games from time to time with my daughter. We have had some epic Fruit Ninja battles that should be recorded in written history. This week, I was given the opportunity to look at a new app from Shout! Factory called Basketball Time Machine. I have to admit that I also downloaded Temple Run on the same day. I may have spent more time dodging monkeys and jumping trees than I did looking at basketball videos, but I found plenty of time for hoops.
The Basketball Time Machine is a curated group of basketball-related videos from 1960 to the present. You can choose the year of the video, then narrow things down by looking at various categories, including best games, superstars, top plays, champs, college, ads, and fun. I spent the most time looking at college and fun.
Initially, I was hoping to see a video that I remembered from the early 1990s in which Todd Day, who was on the Milwaukee Bucks at the time, hit a 3-pointer after two New York Knicks flew by him. I remember this video being part of an NBA promotion, so I figured I could find it on the Time Machine. However, looking for a particular video is not the best use of this app. That would be YouTube (where most of the videos come from), and I couldn’t find that particular video there either. maybe Day has copyright control of all of his videos. As a Bucks’ fan, I would have liked to see an option to choose a particular NBA team, but then I remembered that I liked the Bucks and they don’t have that many highlights.
The best use of Basketball Time Machine comes from using the randomizing option and re-discovering gems from your basketball past. Early on, I saw a highlight from Tim Duncan’s rookie in season when he was playing in Milwaukee. I happened to be at the game. He took an inbounds pass behind his head and flushed down an incredible dunk. It’s somewhat hard to remember he had that type of athleticism and I can still recall the entire Milwaukee crowd collectively uttering a hushed “ooh.” Other videos I enjoyed included a Ralph Sampson recruiting story from the early 1980s and the end of the 1997 NCAA championship game with Arizona beating Kentucky. I was living abroad at the time and the game was shown on TV to my surprise. When regulation ended, credits rolled and they did not show the overtime period to my great dismay. Now, I can say that I’ve seen the overtime. Even better, I had forgotten who won, so the video had some drama to it.
The video quality for some of the older videos isn’t great and some of the videos have non-English commentary or subtitles. My guess is that they took what they could find on YouTube and picked the best of the lot. That said, there are many videos for Michael Jordan fans. Basketball Time Machine offers plenty of good entertainment for people who need to wait for an appointment or are traveling. The app helps people discover (or re-discover) great basketball of the past.
Perry Missner is a college basketball enthusiast who writes for RotoWire along with several other outlets. He welcomes your comments on Twitter at @PerryMissner or via email at [email protected]
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