The city’s first public “smart” basketball hoop has been stripped of its Internet live-streaming feature at least partly because New Yorkers can’t be trusted not to do something obscene for the camera a la the Portal.
A “Huupe,” donated by its manufacturer to Manhattan’s Tompkins Square Park last month, had to be disconnected from the ‘Net under its agreement with the city because of concerns over content streaming, Huupe CEO Paul Anton said.
The move comes a couple months after a virtual “portal” gizmo set up in Manhattan’s Flatiron District linked New York City to Dublin, Ireland, through a 24/7 livestream — and had to be shut down in less than a week over some users’ raunchy behavior.
In the case of the Huupe, the streaming shutdown also means users are blocked from using its backboard screen’s unique functions such as watching YouTube, receiving on-demand training and playing with others from around the world.
“The main point of the Huupe is shot-tracking above all else, so there was a desire to focus on that for kids and athletes, as the shot-tracking really promotes physical activity more than anything else,” company CEO Paul Anton said.
Not that many Tompkins players notice the features they don’t have access to, anyways — the hoop hasn’t been wildly popular for a myriad of reasons, locals say.
The East Village park was chosen to house the Huupe because of the green space’s electrical access near the courts, a rep for the city Parks Department said — and Anton insisted the device sees thousands of shots made per day, mainly from young players.
But Sunday afternoon, the all-white Huupe – with a sticker price upwards of tens of thousands of dollars – was largely untouched by players favoring traditional basketball hoops at the park, several of them told The Post.
“I’m old-school,” said Sebastian Blank, who was found shooting hoops on a traditional net at the court. “[The technology] gets in my head, you focus on making mistakes instead of just seeing what happens. There’s too much stuff going on.”
A Huupe user who goes by Majesty Da Rebel online told The Post he shoots at it several times a week with about five other players, although some are from the company itself.
“Huupe is revolutionary for the b-ball culture,” he said. “How many basketball hoops have you seen like it? It’s the first of its kind.”
But other players, like Blank, weren’t so convinced.
Levi Carter-Frem, 22, and 14-year-old Wyatt Watson said there are many reasons why the Huupe is under-used, from its location in an unkempt corner of the park to the less-distinct 3-pointer lines drawn near it, to a rumor that the “smart” hoop isn’t actually at a standard 10 feet tall.
Those who use the Huupe are typically younger players, especially when the regular courts are already overtaken by older park-goers, Watson said.
Blank added that, when used at night, the Huupe screen isn’t bright enough to see.
Skeptics online have exchanged concerns over the durability of Huupe.
“Wondering how many backboard shots that LCD screen can take before it shatters,” a user wrote on X.
Anton told The Post that the Huupe has faced “zero hardware issues” so far and that he checks on it himself a few times a day.
“The first week, there was just some power stuff,” Anton said. “I’m here living in New York now, so I’m the maintenance guy, I’m the hardware guy. I check it out like five or six times a day, playing with kids with it all the time.”
Despite some missing “smart” functionalities, Anton contends the Huupe is “way better” for pro hopefuls who want to see their shot tracking and distance in real-time.
“We’re not the first to try and get shots, but we are the first company in the world to display that information in real-time so that when you’re done, you see where you shot from,” he said.
“It gives you a shot chart, just like in the NBA. I don’t know what other basketball hoops could do that.”
The Huupe follows in the footsteps of several high-tech projects to debut in the Big Apple, including those the Adams administration has sought to bring to parks this year — such as a media lab at the Red Hook Recreation Center.
The Huupe will be available for public use until October, the parks rep told The Post.
Its tenure at Tompkins Square Park will be short this year, as the device will be put in storage during the winter months, the representative said. After that, its fate remains unclear, as discussions surrounding the Huupe’s next location have not happened yet.
