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Meet the basketball-shooting robot that will take over the NBA

Big revelation from the Tokyo Olympics: turns out robots are coming to replace the jobs of NBA sharpshooters, too.

At halftime of the USA-France men's basketball game, a robot rolled out to midcourt and proceeded to start draining long jumpers like some nightmare-future version of Steph Curry. From the logo:

Oh, but basketball robot isn't just a long-range gunner:

Now, granted, there are some limitations. First off, basketball robot appears to be even slower on the free throw line than Giannis Antetokounmpo, and we didn't think that was possible. Plus, mobility appears to be a bit lacking here; Basketball Robot isn't a catch-and-shoot type of machine. A defense could collapse on it with little trouble if it doesn't speed up its release by at least a minute. And we don't know if basketball robot can even dribble the ball once, much less bring the ball upcourt.

On the other hand (claw? strut? pinion?), this is a robot that's accurate from at least half court. And it's definitely more expressive than Kawhi Leonard. The NBA draft is this Thursday, and you've got to figure someone like the Rockets or Magic is moving Basketball Robot up their board as we speak.

(@DanWoikeSports)
(@DanWoikeSports)

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.

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