🏀 Speaking of sports, this happened last night, and I was there to see it with a couple of friends.

Both Ben Thompson and Jason Snell had reservations about Apple’s only immersive video to come out since Vision Pro came out. It is a 5-minute highlight reel of the Major League Soccer Cup and after seeing it myself I kind of disagree with both of them. The video is fine!

There are some limitations of the technology: you can’t have the camera panning around the pitch so you have to be in a fixed position, and a soccer pitch is so vast that there is no way to watch a game from the same spot while being close to the action, while at the same time being close to the action is the whole point of immersion. So, to square that circle Apple, or whomever they chose to produce the video, opted to cut to the most interesting bits of action from the most interesting spots.

I don’t know how much soccer Snell, Thompson and other Apple commentators have seen in their lives but I would wager that it’s not a lot. I am far from being a super-fan, but I’ve seen enough games to know where to look and the cuts in the video were fine — for those who know the game. Moving from spot to spot was logical and it was clear which games you were watching.

But what did Apple intend with this? To have an immersive video for the fans? Or was it a tech demo? Or maybe a vehicle to get more Apple whales — and let’s face it if you own an AVP you are an Apple whale no matter what you tell yourself — to get into MLS? They’re three different things with different tradeoffs and it seems like they went for the fans here first, but how many of them are there who also have a Vision Pro?

Now with basketball you actually can be close to the action and have a good overview of the game, and this is where everyone, fan or not, would probably prefer a single court-side position over quick cuts. So I hope Adam Silver is working on that. I don’t know or watch baseball, but I assume it’s somewhere in between basketball and soccer. At the only baseball game I ever watched I could clearly see every part of the field, I just didn’t know what was going on or where I should look.

The optimal version for every sport would of course be to have a choice between several spots around the court, pitch or field and I do hope we’ll get that for some of the upcoming NBA playoff games. I already have a League Pass and would happily pay extra for the experience.

🏀 Remember these two nitwits shaking hands on a deal? Well, the deal is dead and the Caps and Wizards' owner suddenly has some nice things to say about DC. Quoth Wikipedia:

Eating crow is a colloquial idiom, used in some English-speaking countries, that means humiliation by admitting having been proven wrong after taking a strong position. The crow is a carrion-eater that is presumably repulsive to eat in the same way that being proven wrong might be emotionally hard to swallow.

🏀 Make that three in a row for Wizards, who almost blew an early 16-point lead against Chicago. It wasn’t the prettiest basketball, but I’ll take it. This increases the stakes for tomorrow’s home game with the Nets, if there is such a thing as “stakes” for a team that won’t have a post-season.

🏀 Another two wins in a row for the Wizards last week, and both of them at home. So starved were the fans for a W that there were half-standing ovations. This week is the last chance for another home win with Pistons coming to town before back-to-back games against Bucks and Lakers.

🏀 It was clear after their first 10 games that the Wizards won’t have a post-season, but it’s now a mathematical certainty. At least they have a two-game winning streak (stretched from a streak of one — thank you for the laughs, WaPo). Against the Heat, no less. The Washington Wizards are the ultimate broken clock.

I make a lot of charts and I watch a lot of basketball. I am therefore obligated to link to this explanation of why line chart baselines do not need to start at zero, which uses some basketball statistics to make a compelling case. (ᔥWaxy.org)

🏀 From a 21-point lead in the second quarter to a 10-point loss to Orlando last night, and the Wizards are yet to win their 10th game after loosing 53. They should get a team therapist since their third-quarter meltdowns are purely psychological.

🏀 “The Wizards lost their 13th straight game Thursday night and have the worst record in the NBA, but at least Jordan Poole scored a season-high 34 points against the Lakers.”

No comment, truly.

🏀 “I don’t need to lay eggs to know when one is rotten” is a spin on being allowed to critique something without being an expert in the field, or indeed without ever having done that something at all. Well, I’ve never played basketball but after last night’s game against the Nuggets I can say with some certainty that the Wizards are the worst team in the NBA. Any clip of theirs, like the one I just linked to, should be set to Yakety Sax (aka the Benny Hill theme).