When the inaugural NBA 2K League hosts its first draft lottery in New York City on March 13, it’ll be borrowing from the same tactics used by the NBA for its official draft lottery.
The first NBA 2K League Draft Lottery will use ping pong balls drawn in random order from the NBA’s official ball machine. Mirroring the NBA Draft, each esports team will have one dedicated ping-pong ball that features its logo.
The balls will be pulled at random, sort of the way local cash lotteries pull the numbers for winners, to give each team an equal opportunity for the first overall pick. The balls will determine the order of the 17 NBA 2K teams as they pick from a 102 player pool which was cut down from the 250 who made the interview process last week. The candidates were determined from a multi-week tryout process that took place in January.
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The official draft will take place on April 4 in The Hulu Theater adjacent to Madison Square Garden’s Lobby. It’ll consist of six rounds, with each team selecting six players and then the order of picks reversing after each round (the final team will go first in the second round).
“The NBA 2K League Draft is going to be incredible as we watch dreams become reality for our players,” NBA 2K League managing director Brendan Donohue said in a statement. “We cannot wait to introduce the world to the first-ever NBA 2K League professionals and, most importantly, we are eager for our players to meet their teams and teammates for the first time. This will be a milestone moment for our league.”
The NBA 2K League is the first professional sports league-operated esports league. It represents an attempt to use the already robust regional fan bases the NBA has amassed to drum up support for each NBA team’s complimentary esports team. Esports teams are owned by NBA franchises, including the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers.
During the NBA 2K League season, drafted players and their avatars will compete on Take-Two Interactive’s NBA 2K video game, which mimics an NBA basketball game.
The league has said that it hopes NBA 2K will engage the global esports community, which tends to tilt younger compared with the NBA’s fan base.