The Miami Heat will meet the Dallas Mavericks for the second time in five years when The Finals 2011 tips off on ABC tonight at 9 p.m. ET. NBA fans in 215 countries and territories will watch, listen, and participate in this crowning event through an array of multimedia and digital technologies. Whether they win or lose, the Heat will rank better in NBA 2K12 than they did in NBA 2K11. The new basketball game will be on display at E3 2011 in Los Angeles. Chris Bosh talks about the Heat needing to earn video game respect on the real hardwoods in this exclusive video interview.
The Finals will be broadcast in Live 3D for the first time. Led by ESPN 3D in the United States, six broadcast partners – Foxtel (Australia), BesTV (China), NTV (Turkey), Sky 3D (UK) – will present The Finals in live 3D to an international audience for the first time. Gamers can also relive The Finals in NBA 2K11 in stereoscopic 3D on PlayStation 3.
NBA Digital will bring the games home. A record of more than 2.5 billion videos have been viewed by fans on NBA.com this season. More than 8.8 million fans on the league’s Facebook page will have access to exclusive content. More than 250 tweets will be sent from The Finals to more than 2.6 millionfollowers on the NBA Twitter page.
Eight International players that will compete in The Finals: Joel Anthony (Canada), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Lithuania), and Jamaal Magloire (Canada) from Miami; Jose Juan Barea (Puerto Rico), Rodrigue Beaubois (France), Ian Mahinmi (France), Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), and Peja Stojakovic (Serbia) from Dallas.