History was made on Wednesday when – after an opening that featured NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, NBA 2K League Managing Director Brendan Donohue and Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick addressing the press – Artreyo “Dimez” Boyd became the first-ever player drafted into the league. Overall 102 players were drafted across six rounds to 17 teams, as Silver told reporters that the NBA would treat the new entity as the “fourth league in our family,” with the longevity of the NBA, WNBA and G League and that, by year three, he expected all 30 teams to be participating, along with potential international teams as well.
“We view this the same way as those other leagues,” Silver said at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden. “It’s something that we’re going to develop over a very long time, and we’re building this league as something that’s going to be around forever.”
He noted that one early concern was the lack of women players in the draft pool and was already looking to improve that situation, noting “What I’m concerned about — and this is a much larger issue in the gaming community that Strauss and Brendan and I have talked a lot about — is that something is going on in the gaming community that either is not attracting women or is repelling women from wanting to be part of it.” A task force has already been created to change that trend.
With players now assigned to teams, 10 of them will now take part in the first-ever NBA 2K League Draft Clash presented by Alienware, an exhibition tournament on Friday at PAX East 2018 in Boston. The event will be available live on Twitch through the PAX East stream and NBA 2K League stream.
