Ask any professional athlete and they’ll tell you how difficult it is to win a championship in any given sport. Ask the Golden State Warriors and, although they often make it look effortless, they’ll tell you how difficult it is to no only win one, but two championships over the course of three consecutive NBA Finals appearances.
With hopes of continuing their recent success with another deep playoff run, the Mercury News reported on Friday that the Warriors are partnering with SyncThink, a virtual reality company based in Palo Alto, to combat both concussion and fatigue symptoms.
“We can’t have people with concussion and potentially life-altering issues going back into the games. It’s not a good look,” assistant general manager Kirk Lacob told the Mercury News. “You don’t want people hurt for the rest of their life because of it. But it’s also very competitive and guys will try to do whatever they can to get back in the game. So what can we do to combat that? This is a step in the right direction.”
SyncThink uses headsets and eye-tracking technology to gather data on brain function. According to the Mercury News, the company gathers data based on how well their patient’s can track “a red dot rotating in a circle” in the headsets.
For the Warriors, their partnership with SyncThink is meant to catch concussions, such as the one Klay Thompson suffered during the 2015 playoffs, and fatigue symptoms, similar to what Steve Kerr said many of his players were dealing with earlier this year, before it causes serious damage.
Although the NBA does not have the same concussion regulations as the NFL, the Warriors are planning on using the data from SyncThink to improve the health of their players.
“Right now it’s more about collection,” Lacob said. “We don’t want to jump to conclusions and start doing things based on small data sets. We need to make sure the actions that come with this data is reasonable.”