Inside the weight room of the NBA All Stars

Cisco promotes connectivity between fans and players

At a time when media brands and sports franchises are creating ways to build up and maintain a fan base online via sites like Facebook, the NBA is going one step further - live interaction with players while they're in the weight room. 

This weekend, visitors to Phoenix will get a glimpse of behind-the-scenes activities at the NBA All-Star game in that city. Through the use of a system called TelePresence, made by Cisco Systems (an official partner of the NBA), fans will be able to interact with the league's stars - a marketing gimmick to get fans giddy about buying merchandise and other sports mementos about their favorite players or teams.

The way fans will be able to connect is through these TelePresence systems. One will be located in the Phoenix Convention Center, and the other at the stadium. The systems will then connect to one inside the weight room, where players can answer questions from fans all weekend.

"By deploying Cisco TelePresence directly on the NBA Jam Session show floor, we are bridging the gap between athletes and fans, giving basketball enthusiasts a virtual pass to the arena with a unique ability to interact with players in new ways that were not possible at previous marquee sporting events," said Alan Cohen, vice president, enterprise marketing, Cisco. "Building on our relationship with the NBA, we're bringing fans closer to the game, from the boardroom to the locker room."

The timing couldn't be better for the NBA. This weekend, Phoenix is expected to see more than 20,000 visitors. "Economic impact figures ranging from $80 million to more than $100 million have been forecast, but with the sluggish economy and consumer spending down, officials say there’s no accurate way to predict how much will be spent," according to the Phoenix Business Journal. Moreover, the NBA stars have recently proven their global dominance at the Beijing Olympics.

But while this is a novel game to see, and chance to mix it up with the players (at least via teleconferencing), isn't the real "All Star" game to watch the one when basketball favorites play in the Olympics? Now that's a weight room worth a peek.