Sunday, February 6, 2011

Welcome to Hoopz-1

Welcome to Hoopz-1, the site which links to sites which in turn link to sources of pro basketball games. If you really want to watch a pro basketball game on your computer, you will find this Site useful; see the User Guide below for details.

HOOPZ-1 ULTIMATE DIRECTORY OF SOURCES OF STREAMS OF LIVE NBA BASKETBALL GAMES

HOW TO USE THE HOOPZ-1 DIRECTORY TO SOURCES OF LIVE GAMES
This Directory is one of the very most important components of Hoopz-1. Each site in the Hoopz-1 Directory to Sources of Live Games has a different mix of types of sources. Also, each site linked to has a different pattern of quantity and quality (reliability).

In general and all in all, trying to watch something on your computer is much more difficult stuff than most people would think. Whether or not they intended it, geeks and nerds always end up with an overall situation that is more complicated than it needs to be. If you don't know what you are doing, and/or if you don't have a large number of possible sources at your disposal, you are not going to be watching many games, that's for sure.

BEST TYPE OF LINK: SIMPLE CLICK AND PLAYS
The best type of link is one where you simply click it and the game stream comes up (using a Flash Player that you almost certainly already have on your computer). In general, the more you have to do other than "click and play", the lesser the reliablity and the greater the risk of damage to your computer system.

NEXT BEST TYPE OF LINK: CLICK AND PLAYS REQUIRING A BROWSER ADD-ONIn some cases a "plug-in" or "active-x control" is required in association with a click and play. Those are known as types of browser add-ons. These are generally safer and more reliable than full scale programs. But these are not completely safe by any means.

LINKS THAT ARE NOT AS RELIABLE AND NOT AS SAFE: SPECIAL PROGRAMS REQUIRED
In some cases a program is needed to view the game streams. Always remember that if you install a program it may or may not work and also remember that the program may possibly come with spyware, adware, or even possibly malware. Moreover, many of the programs are Chinese and are very difficult to use if you don't know the Chinese language.

Again, click and play links are preferable to links that require a special program to be installed on the computer.

UNRELIABLE AND UNSAFE LINKS -- MARKETING GIMMICKS
If you come on some kind of marketing gimmick where you are supposed to pick something to sign up for, I would immediately move on. I would not participate in anything like that if I were you. Whether or not any of the offers are really worth anything or are nothing more than scams, by the time you "complete the offer, the game will be half over or whatever. Moreover, there is a good chance that the game will not actually play even if you do complete one of the "offers".

ABSOLUTE WORST TYPE OF LINK TOOLBAR INSTALLATION REQUIRED
Anytime you are bribed to install a toolbar you are likely looking at spyware or malware. Never install a toolbar you have never heard of because you have been promised some reward (like being able to watch a game). If you fall for this, you probably will have spyware or malware, and you probably will not ever be able to watch the game!

LINK SOURCES VERSUS LIVE STREAM BROADCASTING SOURCES
The listings of links can not and are not organized by type of source but rather by the two main types of sites that have the links to sources. One type of site, which we call "Link Sources", consists of sites that provide links to streams scheduled to operate for particular games. (But always remember that often scheduled streams will not turn out to be actual streams, thus the need for multiple possibilities).

The other type of site, which we call "Live Stream Broadcasting Sources", consists of live broadcasting sites in general, which sometimes have live streams to games. You have to use the search functions at those sites to try to find live game streams. The two big problems with these types of sites are (1) often the search does not work well and it is very difficult to determine whether there is a game or not somewhere on the site and (2) when you go to a "broadcast" of a live game, there is often just a static ad rather than a stream. If the ad claims there is a game and you follow that link, very often there will not be a game but just more ads and possibly a scam operation and/or spyware of some type.

For each of the two listings the rank order is according to our best estimation of how useful each site is. But this is an art and not a science and, moreover, the situation changes from week to week if not even by day to day. Therefore, do not consider the rank order as all that important.

Link sources very recently discovered are considered unreliable until proven and so are not listed. But we do separately list both proven and "long-shot" broadcast stream sources (since those are social sites and you might possibly get lucky by finding someone who is actually streaming a game).

The proceeding has been an excerpt from the full User Guide to Hoopz-1. See the complete User Guide for more valuable information.

Always remember, true reliability is not available anywhere, but in general, the following listings are from greter reliability to lower reliability.

LINK SOURCES
A very solid source where the reliability is higher than for any other source. Note that this site is sometimes slow to load.

Another very solid source where the reliability is as good as it gets in 2011.

Popular European origin forum where members post the links to basketball game streams that they have discovered before and during the game. This one features by a wide margin the greatest number of links, but the reliability is not as good as the sites listed above this one. Due to the sheer number of links and since new links are sometimes posted in the forum even after a game is underway, this site can be especially useful if during a game your stream goes bad or dead. No forum registration is required to obtain the links to streams.

A good Spanish Site that has been around for years that lists links to games. For some reason the streams linked to by this site have a particularly bad reliability track record. Also, sometimes there are no links for a game that do not require you to have a program. Remember that if you install a program it may or may not work and also remember that it may possibly come with spyware, adware, or even possibly malware.

An important page from the popular European origin forum that indexes links to streams to games that require an application to be downloaded. Remember that if you install a program it may or may not work and also remember that it may possibly come with spyware, adware, or even possibly malware. No forum registration is required,

Last Revision and Extension: March 2011

RADIO BROADCASTS OF GAMES -- AUDIO LINKS

Link directory of all live audio (radio) streams of NBA games by team. There are multiple streams from multiple radio stations for each team.

NBA.com allows you to listen to radio broadcasts of live games for free, but you have to have an "NBA Insider" registration and you have to log in with it. Although NBA Insider is free, the log-in sometimes does not work correctly, which delays your being able to listen to the game. Furthermore, sometimes the link to the radio broadcast simply does not work, so you can not listen to the game even after you log in. All that said, this is usually a place to go if you simply can't watch the game and have to settle for listening to the game.

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO TO LISTEN TO A GAME AT NBA.COM
(1) Click the link immediately above.

(2) Log-in, or if necessary, register and log in as an NBA Insider at NBA.com. Both registering and logging in can be started by clicking NBA Audio League Pass > Listen Now and following the prompts to register and /or to log-in.

(3) When you are logged in, click "Listen Now" under NBA Audio League Pass

(4) Click on a live broadcast link. For some games, the broadcast of both teams (of that same game) are available.

UPDATES TO THE DIRECTORIES

The above lists will be checked and updated as often as possible. At a minimum, the directory will be updated three times a year, roughly once every four months. Full updates involve verifying every directory entry and getting rid of ones that are not providing much anymore and of course newly discovered sources will be added to the directory during full updates.

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--THE VERY LATEST 20 GAMES AVAILABLE


HOOPZ-1 DIRECTORY OF SOURCES OF COMPLETED GAMES VIDEO DOWNLOADS

IMPORTANT NOTES
It is easier to watch a game by downloading it then by trying to watch it live, often much easier. The first three links in this directory are to threads in a forum. You do not have to register or log in to view any of these. The links take you to the first page of each thread. Most of these threads have more than 100 pages and there are hundreds of games available for download! Click on "last" (near the top and to the right) to see the latest game downloads posted.

REGULAR SEASON, PLAYOFF GAMES, AND MORE
The perfect source for Regular Season and Playoffs game downloads for 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11

Hundreds of playoff games AND highlight videos of great players and teams from many different years

A massive source of Regular Season and Playoffs games in 2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10, but NOT 2010-11

PLAYOFF GAMES (only)
2010 Playoffs Full Game Downloads

REGULAR SEASON GAMES (only)
2010-11 Regular Season Full Game Downloads

2009-10 Regular Season Full Game Downloads

VARIOUS BASKETBALL VIDEOS (NOT SINGLE GAMES)
Non Game Downloads at a Popular European Forum

INTERNATIONAL GAMES
International Basketball Games

OTHER US LEAGUES
WNBA, PBA, Euro League, NBL, Other Leagues Games

NBA OFF SEASON
Summer League 2010
Pre Season for 2010-11

This list will be checked often and updated as time permits and as necessary. Dead sites and threads will be removed and newly found sites and threads will be added.

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--#21 TO #40 THAT ARE AVAILABLE

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--#41 TO #60 THAT ARE AVAILABLE


DIRECTORY OF PROGRAMS USEFUL FOR WATCHING GAMES LIVE

PROGRAMS THAT ALLOW YOU TO WATCH MORE GAMES
There are so many problems associated with internet streams of basketball games that it is highly recommended that you download two or three live broadcast programs. Sometimes and surprisingly often, use of one of these programs is the only way you are going to be able to watch a regular season game. However, if all you ever want to do is watch playoff games live, then you probably don't need to work with any of the broadcast programs.

As explained in the Hoopz-1 User Guide, most of the live broadcast downloadable programs are Chinese. If you download and install one or more of these programs, you will have a greater chance of seeing the games you want to see with the quality you want to have. The following is a list of the most tested, reliable, and recommended programs that are useful in watching games.

Unless you are a complete basketball fanatic, do not download more than three peer to peer live broadcast programs at the most, because these programs tend to be more difficult to manage within your overall system than most programs are. For example, you may have to use msconfig to stop these programs from starting up automatically whenever you boot up your computer.

VLC MEDIA PLAYER
Get VLC Media Player Here

This program is indirectly very useful for watching basketball games. This is a much more flexible media player than Windows Media Player and is even more flexible than Real Player. Almost everyone who watches media on their computer finds they need this media player program from time to time. There are movie files and streams that no media player other than VLC will play for one reason or another. The usefullness of VLC extends beyond basketball streams. All in all, this is extremely highly recommended.

PPLIVE
This is the first Chinese program that Hoopz-1 will recommend. This program is maintained by one of the most important and best universities in China. But when you are installing it be careful to say no to any optional toolbar or anything of that sort. As long as you install the program only, you will not so far as we know get any adware, spyware, or malware either from installing or using the program. However, you will need to use msconfig or the equivalent to prevent PPLive from running in the background every time your computer boots up. Or you can simply exit from the program by right clicking the icon in the tray and then clicking the lowest option.

Important Note: Unless you install the "Chinese language pack" on your computer the program will be in Chinese and if you don't know Chinese you won't be able to set preferences or anything like that. But by using a little common sense you can still watch basketball games with it even if you don't know Chinese.

Here you will find many links to choose from for downloading this program:

A little more about and the download links for PPLive

VEETLE BROADCASTS
Get VEETLE Here

Veetle is a US-based internet broadcasting system that appears to be an adware-free spyware-free, and malware-free download. Basketball broadcasts are not numerous to date (partly because adminstrators sometimes stop the broadcasts) but they are almost always very high quality, on average in fact the highest quality of all programs tried to date. Highly recommended for the quality alone, but hopefully the number of games shown on this system will increase in 2010-11.

========== TORRENTS ==========

UTORRENT TORRENT PROCESSING FOR COMPLETED GAMES
Get UTORRENT Here

This program is useful to be able to download and then watch videos of completed games using torrent sharing. It will not be of any help in watching live games. Many more completed NBA games are available via torrent than are available on Youtube or from direct downloads. This torrent program is known for it's reliability, efficiency, and low usage of computer resources. It is the only torrent program that we would recommend.

WARNINGS REGARDING TORRENTS
However, torrents are among the riskiest things you can do with a computer. It is easy for criminals, who by the way are never caught, to include spyware and very nasty viruses with torrent downloads. So using torrents is a risky proposition. Hoopz-1 itself does not generally use nor endorse the use of torrents. Hoopz-1 does not include any links to torrents on the "Download NBA Basketball Games" page and we just barely decided to link to the UTorrent program here on the programs page.

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--#61 TO #80 THAT ARE AVAILABLE

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--#81 TO #100 THAT ARE AVAILABLE

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--#101 TO #120 THAT ARE AVAILABLE


YOUTUBE AND HOOPZ-1 POSTED PLAYOFF GAMES

COMPLETE PLAYOFF GAMES POSTED
We have posted Youtube videos of a few complete playoff games. So far, we have the following games posted:

--April 2008 Lakers-Nuggets Round One Playoff Series, Game 4, in 11 parts

--April 2008 Lakers-Nuggets Round One Playoff Series, Game 3, in 10 parts

--April 2008 Lakers-Nuggets Round One Playoff Series, Game 1, in 12 parts

SEE THE ARCHIVE JUST BELOW FOR THESE

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--#121 TO #140 THAT ARE AVAILABLE

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--#141 TO #160 THAT ARE AVAILABLE

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--#161 TO #180 THAT ARE AVAILABLE

DOWNLOADS OF 2010-11 GAMES--#181 TO #180 THAT ARE AVAILABLE