NBA and video game company to launch new gaming league in 2018
The NBA is taking a major stride into the world of virtual sports with the upcoming NBA 2K eLeague, a partnership with Take-Two Interactive, in whichfive-person e-sports teams will compete for a title and cash prize
Video gamers now have a chance to compete for an NBA title, in an actual NBA arena and get paid by some of the same people who pay LeBron James and Stephen Curry.
That’s right, the NBA 2K eLeague is coming – the first eSports league operated by one of the four major pro sports leagues in the United States.
The NBA and Take-Two Interactive Software announced they are bringing some of the world’s best gamers together to compete while representing actual NBA teams, a competition commissioner Adam Silver hopes will continue to expand his league’s global brand.
“The large part of my mission is to grow the game of basketball,” says Silver. “There’s going to be an opportunity for this first of a kind league to attract a group of gamers who might be playing some other game. Now, they can say ‘Maybe I couldn’t play for the Knicks, because I didn’t have the physical prowess to compete at that level. But I do have the mental and physical prowess to compete as an e-gamer for the eKnicks.’”
