Unlike less dedicated marketing pushes in the virtual world, the NBA wants residents of Second Life to keep coming back, reports Information Week.

NBA hired virtual world consultancy Electric Sheep Co. to develop a multiplicity of interactive offerings. Their virtual NBA Headquarters includes real-time 3-D diagrams of live games, multi-player games like HORSE, online trivia, a slam dunk contest, and a shop full of virtual NBA merchandise. T-Mobile sponsors the virtual NBA arena.

The NBA was attracted to Second Life's massive userbase of 6 million, though Linden Labs, the organization managing the virtual world, set the user retention rate at around 10 percent. Things brings the active population approximately 600,000.

Second Life is just one part of a media push by the NBA to reach basketball fans online. They have also dedicated marketing time to Yahoo, Facebook, mobile phones, and video sharing sites like YouTube.