Yesterday, the NBA established its presence in the booming virtual world Second Life, launching a 3D NBA store, NBA arena, and press center. This is big news, as the NBA is the first major sport to begin its foray into Second Life, which has over 6 million users and $1.5 million real-world dollars exchanged daily.

…the NBA Second Life presence is aimed at appealing to experienced virtual world users while also bringing newbies into the fold. Among the various destinations is NBA Orientation Island, which helps new users learn to do such Second Life basics as walking, flying and teleporting.

In addition, fans can visit the T-Mobile Arena, where they can watch highlights of classic NBA playoff games and receive up to the minute stats on this year’s contests. They can also visit a secondary virtual court to play games like horse and the Toyota Crash the Boards challenge – a dunking contest.

Kudos to the NBA for being such an active and early technology adopter, even in the midst of one of the most entertaining playoffs ever. (Go Warriors!) It won’t be long before the NFL and MLB take notice and start making moves.

(from Media Week)