ESPN iScore Basketball Scorekeeper Review

ESPN iScore Basketball has a hefty price, but it actually has a good reason for it. This isn't a typical score tracking app; it's the most detailed sports tracking app I have ever seen outside of watching SportsCenter. I honestly thought it would be a cute app for youth basketball or something, but this is a little overkill for a youth or junior league. It will work just fine for such basketball games, but using it to keep scores for those types of leagues would barely scratch the surface of what iScore can do.

With iScore, scorekeepers can keep track of actual stats and play-by-play for the entire game. Track who has the ball, who is attempting to make what type of shot, whether that shot is made, who committed a foul, etc. Of course, to do so, one has to enter in each team's entire roster. How detailed the roster can be is entirely up to the user. The roster can be a list of names, and it can include jersey numbers, height, weight, and offensive positions. But without the player names, the scorekeeper cannot enter in a scoring play. To enter in a 3-pointer, the player must be named, and it's the same for regular buckets or free throws.

With as fast as basketball gameplay is, this could be a bit of a problem for those who aren't that quick with the hands. They may find it tons easier and faster to use a more traditional method of paper-and-pencil score tallies. Then again, with all of the stats one can record for their team and/or league as a whole, it may be worth it to learn how to speed up the finger tapping.

It's difficult to recommend this app to a casual fan or a manager of a youth league, but team managers or league managers for high school basketball teams or club teams may find a huge benefit to everything iScore has to offer. Even serious—and I mean SERIOUS-—NBA fantasy players may enjoy everything it can offer outside of stats from the fantasy league.

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