NBA Games on Magic Leap Headsets Expected Within Half a Decade

Magic Leap has joined forces with the NBA to reinvent how basketball is experienced. This partnership could signal that the company’s headset is approaching its market launch. Since its founding in 2010, Magic Leap has been one of the standout players in augmented reality—despite revealing minimal information about its actual hardware. Now, CEO Rony Abovitz has suggested that the AR Magic Leap device may be on course for a release in the near future. Speaking at Recode’s Code Media conference alongside NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Abovitz revealed that live basketball games will be delivered directly to the headset. The action will be captured using volumetric video, enabling viewers to navigate the court freely and pick any preferred perspective.

The event also featured a video of retired NBA star and current analyst Shaquille O’Neal, who showcased his own Magic Leap headset and expressed excitement about watching games through the glasses, describing the experience as “the most amazing thing.”

In a subsequent conversation with The Verge, Abovitz confirmed that this live NBA streaming capability will become available within two to five years.

Volumetric video relies on multiple cameras to create a depth-rich image, a technique that closely resembles the standard production setup used for sports broadcasts. This makes NBA games an ideal testing ground for Magic Leap’s innovations.