Who Knew Basketball Needed an Interactive LED Floor?

I stood on an indoor basketball court in Orlando, Florida, in mid-May, ball in hand and LeBron 15 sneakers on my feet, ready to run some drills. My instructor drew up a basic diagram for me to follow in my next drill using an iPad. He showed how he wanted me to start at the baseline, then curl up to the corner of the free-throw line before taking a pass and driving to the basket. Easy enough to remember. Here’s the thing, though: I didn’t have to remember any of the words he spoke or any of the lines he scribbled. That’s because, as he drew on his iPad screen, his diagrams simply appeared under my feet. Anytime he wanted to change or remove the drill, he simply tapped the iPad’s screen, and everything on the floor changed instantly, illuminating my new route. The court was inside a demo facility for ASB GlassFloor, a pioneer in LED flooring used across several major sports. Over the course of an afternoon visit, ASB’s team took me through a catalog of visual experiences on their basketball court setup. Name an NBA team court design; they could swap it onto the surface we were standing on with one tap. Any practice drill template could be loaded onto the floor using ASB’s “Whiteboard” feature, a potential capability leap for basketball coaches and trainers. The company tells me that soon, these diagrams could feature active animations that change as the drill is completed. Meanwhile, a sensor in my pocket tracked my movements and created fun effects on the LED panels beneath me, like a trail of flames that flittered behind me as I ran. (This in-person demo was made possible by ASB covering some travel costs.) Nearly every NBA team has spent time on this same court, ASB says, as part of a practice gym arrangement in Orlando that’s involved team visits during the 2024-25 season. Company reps report incredible feedback, from players impressed by the court’s visuals to coaches and trainers who immediately fell in love with the Whiteboard and connected “Playbook” features. One visit from the Toronto Raptors went viral. These eye-popping visual elements, which also offer immense potential in areas like fan engagement and advertising, were what first caught my attention. But I quickly realized that this step forward in surface technology isn’t confined to flashy visuals. In fact, many of its greatest long-term impacts could be seen in tangential areas like player health tracking and deep game data analysis, made possible by the floor’s ability to integrate a variety of tracking sensors. A light-up floor on full display during a Champions League game in Belgrade, Serbia. Courtesy of ASB GlassFloor Giant Steps ASB GlassFloor has deep roots in sports surface manufacturing. The company was founded in 1965 as a drywall construction entity by Horst Babinsky in Germany under the name Trockenausbau Horst Babinsky KG. It initially broke into the sports scene by creating squash courts from high-density wood panels in the mid-1970s. Previously, high-level squash was exclusively played on plaster, and as Babinsky’s son Christof—now the company’s CEO—tells it, this innovation was initially scoffed at by squash’s governing bodies. When it came to market, though, wood was quickly judged as superior.