New “NBA Experience” Is New Must-See Attraction in Disney Springs

Whether you’re a casual fan of basketball, a die-hard NBA season-ticket holder or somewhere in between, the new NBA Experience located in Disney Springs has tons of activities and interactive modules that captivate attendees and bring them closer to the game.

This state-of-the-art venue opened in August 2019 and gives fans a multitude of ways to learn more about the history of their favorite teams and players. The 13 different basketball-themed activities on site are family-friendly and easily accessible for fans, regardless of age and skill level.

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From the time you enter to the time you leave, it’s clear you’re in a space that serves as a museum to the game.

Another thing that becomes clear is that the inner kid inside of you will come out at some point—that feeling of when you first picked up a basketball and you made your first jumper or dribbled between your legs without looking for the first time.

Upon purchasing a ticket and walking through the front entrance, guests are asked to enter their names, favorite teams, pick a skill level—either beginner, intermediate or advanced—and a unique user name, and a key card is generated for each visitor. That card will then be used to swipe at each interactive station or game to start it.

The first floor has several rooms and hallways that focus on giving fans a glimpse of what it’s like to be an NBA legend.

The Champions hall has the MVP and Larry O’Brien championship trophies displayed in an interactive photo booth. Swipe your card and you can take three photos with each trophy by following the screen prompts. The photos are able to be downloaded through the “My Disney Experience” app a few days later.

The Players hall has a locker room feel to it, filled with jerseys of all-time greats hanging in framed cases. There’s also a neat station with measurements such as height, hand size, foot size of current and former greats such as Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Damian Lillard that fans can use to compare themselves to.

For instance, want to see how small your hands are in comparison to KD’s, you can stick your hand in a ball that has his hand-print embossed in it. You can do a similar test with your foot size and compare it to Shaq’s infamous size 22 feet.

From there, you can make your way to the NBA Combine module where you do a series of activities such as measuring your wingspan, vertical jump and shooting accuracy from the free-throw line in the same manner as players do when they go through the combine before the draft.

In terms of physical activity, that’s just the warmup for what lies ahead when you make your way upstairs to the second floor.

Remember when you would go to the arcade as a child? If you were anything like me, the first thing you searched for is the infamous pop-a-shot game. Well, there are two stations with multiple modules for groups or individual play.

The first set is a shorter distance goal that moves around during each game while the other is a longer distance hoop that is stationary. After shooting until your arms are about to fall off, the only thing left to do is wonder if there are any prize tickets that will come out of the machines after each game is completed.

Spoiler alert, there aren’t!

A unique experience located beside those machines is a new sling-shot game and it’s played in a group format of 15 players where you take foam-like balls and try to shoot them at baskets that are set at different heights. This game is particularly fun for families and groups of friends of all ages.

From there, you can go to modules that allow you to lower rims so you can dunk, work on dribbling technique, go through a shooting drill on a court with NBA measurements and a trivia game as well.

After you’re tired out from all of the activities, upon leaving, you can check out the NBA store attached to the front entrance that features merchandise of all NBA teams and your favorite players currently in the league and the legends of the past.

Overall, fans get a true glimpse of the history, excitement and pageantry surrounding the NBA when visiting the NBA Experience—which makes it stand out among a wealth of attractions on hand in Disney Springs.