Dallas Mavericks to Participate in New NBA2K ESports League

The Dallas Mavericks are one of 17 teams in the NBA that will be participating in the new NBA2K Esports League.

Back in February, the NBA announced its first partnership with the developers of the NBA2K franchise, Take-Two. The partnership would consist of the creation of a new NBA eLeague that will run very similar to the actual league itself.

NBA franchises will have a choice to be in the league or not, but with the rise of eSports around the world, it sounds like the smarter move to go ahead and jump on board.

As far as what the team names will be called, it looks as if it will mirror the actual team name in a similar fashion.

"“Silver said that the teams-of-five competing in the league would have names similar to the teams they are competing under, except with an “e” prefix. So we could be seeing the Boston eCeltics taking on the Philadelphia e76ers next year.” –Kelen Beck from Mashable said. “Teams will have the opportunity to pick up players from around the globe at a draft, or they can sign players outside the draft.”"

So who is ready for some eMavericks right?

Up until today, nobody actually knew how many teams or what franchises would actually be a part of the inaugural season. Now, the NBA has released the full slate of teams.

You actually think that Mark Cuban would let a business opportunity like this slip away?

For Mavs fans, there really wasn’t any suspense as Cuban admitted back in February that Dallas would be one of the first teams to be in the league.

Cuban told the Dallas Morning News that it “has a chance to be a very competitive league” and that he thinks “there is significant upside for fans and 2K players”.

In the same DMN article, they detailed some of the logistics to the league and how exactly it will be running starting in 2018.

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“Gamers will be chosen through a recruiting process by NBA teams and Take-Two. They’ll go through a virtual version of a combine and be selected in a draft, which Silver says will either be televised or streamed online. Each NBA franchise will select five gamers to represent its team.” –Melissa Repko from DMN says.

As far as the length of season goes, it will be shorter than an actual NBA season, but still take place over a five month span.

“From there, the team of gamers will play in games over a period of five months.They’ll advance to a playoff and the top teams will compete for a championship, which most likely will take place at an NBA arena, Silver said. The number of games has not been set.” –Repko from DMN says.

The rise of eSports is one of the more intriguing things to track and it looks like the NBA is once again staying ahead of the curve.

We actually sat down with the digital marketing directer for NBA2K, Ronnie2K, to talk about the NBA2K franchise, player ratings, and more about the game. CHECK OUT THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.

Next: Could Dallas Chase Jimmy Butler or Paul George?

But hey, maybe the Knicks can actually win in this league…