• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, January 9, 2019

The NBA, which has a record of accommodating social media more fully than other pro sports, will join with Turner Sports to allow fans to vote for which player they want to see in an isolated camera live-stream, and let Twitter users watch that player for the entire second half of a game.

As it is envisioned, fans will continue to watch the game in full on Turner’s TNT, and watch a significant player only on Twitter, in the second half.

Sports leagues and teams are trying to give viewers -- particularly younger viewers -- new ways to get involved with sports via streaming media, and this idea may be proof of that.

The NBA has amassed 27.5 million Twitter followers since 2009, more than any other sports league in the world, but the iso-cam feature will only be available to Twitter users in the U.S.

The Twitter iso-cam arrangement begins Feb. 17 when TNT airs the NBA All-Star game.  TNT, the NBA and Twitter will add 19 more games through the season.

The announcement was made during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Silver were scheduled to speak at a session.

Sports Illustrated reported that the @NBA second half coverage of just one player will be augmented with live audio commentary from prominent NBA and Twitter influencers. @NBA enjoys robust tweet conversations between fans during games.

The NBA has been experimenting with other ways to broaden fan experiences. This season it began allowing viewers to to watch just the fourth quarter of a game, for $1.99 via NBA Digital. In December it started letting fans buy into a game from the second quarter on, for $4.99, or from the third quarter, for $2.99.

Reportedly, the NBA came to the conclusion that offering those smaller pay-per view options would be a way to entice younger fans, who weren’t likely to pay on a monthly or even per-game basis.