NYCs first smart basketball hoop stripped of Net features for this reason

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...