The NBA’s Sacramento Kings have joined forces with the Australian Catholic University (ACU), in a sports technology partnership.

This partnership sees the Kings given access to ACU’s ‘Sports Performance, Recovery, Injury and New Technologies’ (SPRINT) Research Centre, in an effort to better understand the science behind risk and performance management.

Links between athlete performance, recovery and sleep to the prevention of injuries is at the heart of the research centre.

Kings vice president of health and performance, Teena Murray, said the Kings are excited to team up with a world-leading sports science institution.

“From specialised training methodologies and individualised prevention and nutrition strategies, to the use of predictive analytics to manage fitness and fatigue, virtual reality for neurocognitive training, and wearable sensors for all types of real-time performance monitoring, we can all agree that science is quietly revolutionising sport,” Murray said.

“The Kings and ACU are a natural fit.

“Both share a vision for leading edge research and practice, and a passion for developing the next generation of high-performance talent,” she said.

ACU’s Faculty of Health Sciences is currently ranked in the top 25 universities worldwide for sport science, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020.

In other NBA news, there is a new push to change the NBA logo silhouette from Jerry West to Kobe Bryant.

Brooklyn Net’s star, Kyrie Irving, reignited the discussion, stating he embodies the African-American history of the league.

“Black kings built the league,” Irving said to reporters.

“It’s just a refresher that this is the guy for us, he’s the guy for me.

“He’s my mentor more than just an inspiration.

“I took a lot of knowledge and wisdom from that guy,” he told reporters.

The current logo has been in place since 1969.

ESPN analyst, Stephen A. Smith, believes six-time NBA champion, Michael Jordan, is also an option.

“Considering everything Michael Jordan has meant for the league, considering the global iconic figure he still is today, Michael Jordan still hasn’t been eclipsed, not even by Kobe, not even by LeBron James,” Smith said.

“I’ve been saying that Jordan should be the logo for years,” he said.