From NBA 2K11 to NBA 2K23: How video game sparked NBA journalist's career and continues to be conduit for league's global growth (2024)

A dozen years ago, a young sports journalist who was intending to watch more basketball walked into a high street store (remember those!) and purchased a video game.

The rest is history, as the cliché goes.

Prior to purchasing NBA 2K11 in the midst of my sports journalism degree, I had already been thinking it was time I made an effort to watch more of the NBA as part of my sporting palate – and I know for a fact it was immersing myself in that video game which drew me into a sport that has become one of my greatest passions and part of how I make my living.

I have subsequently been fortunate enough to cover the NBA for Sky Sports during all four seasons so far, as we prepare to enter our fifth consecutive season as the home of the NBA in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

It all started with buying the game though and I've been an acolyte of the franchise ever since, recently purchasing NBA 2K23, the latest instalment of the smash-hit franchise developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K.

Don't get me wrong, I'd flirted with basketball at different stages of my life, and funnily enough, my fandom was always associated with video games. In the mid-90s, aged just six, it was the Sega Mega Drive and NBA Live 95. Incidentally, that's also the reason I'm an Orlando Magic fan. I selected them because the players at the position 'C' were listed at the top and some fella 'S. O'Neal' had the highest number. I then remember playing the game and noticing that the court (parquet floor, in 16-bit console form) was different to all of the others – and also that some guy Hardaway was actually scoring all my points. That made me a Magic devotee, and I've never wavered.

In the next generation of consoles, it was Kobe Bryant's NBA Courtside (R.I.P. Mamba) for my Nintendo 64, playing with my cousin Stevie who is also sadly no longer with us – then I grew up, did my degree and became a journalist lucky enough to cover what I believe to be the greatest sports league in the world. I've been very lucky. But I don't think I could've made the plunge to become a bonafide NBA journalist without the help of the 2K video game.

The truth is, that even for a relative beginner, you can quite quickly get a handle on the teams, the players and their styles just by virtue of playing the game and looking through the menus and screens. It served me in the beginning to understand who all the players in the league were and things like the individual skill badges and grades players have for different aspects of their game, meant that even prior to becoming one of the UK's ever-growing number of late-night NBA devotees, I already had a strong understanding of which players were good at what.

Unparalleled realism

The game, for the uninitiated, goes much further than that, though. Every individual player's characteristics in the NBA and WNBA from facial features and body type to the way they dribble and shoot the ball and even their tendencies on court, are true to life. Essentially, this is a video game simulation, which outstrips the competition by a long, long way – hence, the thousands and thousands of hours me and my homeboy Sean have spent building and rebuilding teams to compete against each other in every single iteration of the game since that initial purchase.

Quite simply, it's true to life. Prior to joining the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, LeBron James said he used NBA 2K19 as a utility for practicing matchups, running plays and hypotheticals to give him an idea of what it might be like to play with the team-mates he was about to join and also see what it would be like playing as a Laker against competitors.

Obviously, LeBron is one of the greatest players to ever hoop and will, barring injury, pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and set a new record for points scored in the NBA at some point this coming season. For the game to act as a useful resource for someone of his stature is testament to the accuracy of the game as a sports simulation.

But it also works as a gateway at the complete other end of the basketball spectrum for total beginners as Alfie Brody, vice president of global marketing strategy at NBA 2K, explains.

"I've heard from people that they were introduced to the game of basketball via our game," said Brody. "We heard about a couple of young people in Europe who wanted to play basketball but didn't understand the fundamentals, so it was very intimidating to go out into a basketball court and play. Then, they played our game and learned the basic fundamentals, and that empowered them to actually go and physically play, which is pretty cool."

So it would appear it's not just me who began my basketball journey by playing 2K, far from it, in fact. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban perhaps put it best when he said in an interview, "you are informed on the NBA now because of NBA 2K."

Myself, LeBron and these kids (and maybe even Cuban) are just part of the 30 million-strong body of people who buy NBA 2K every single year and the power of the game extends beyond just basketball itself. It's now a cultural phenomenon in its own right.

A competitive yardstick for basketball's elite

Every year, the league's top players eagerly await to see how they are rated in the game and react accordingly. In fact, it's one of the most entertaining periods of the NBA offseason. Reigning back-to-back league MVP Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant, LeBron and reigning NBA Finals MVP Stephen Curry are all rated at 96 in the latest version of the video game, one point behind Giannis Antetokounmpo's 97.

Unsurprisingly, it was Durant, the most outspoken of the group, who took to Twitter to dispute his rating with the game's creators.

"This has become laughable," he wrote, in a tweet aimed at Ronnie Singh (a.k.a. @Ronnie 2K), digital marketing director at 2K.

"Ultimately, we're trying to be authentic to what the game of basketball is and how their game on the floor represents what their rating is," said Singh. "The conversation is a whole other thing, the fact that it's become this phenomenon. We released our first set of ratings this year and the conversation about that was off the charts. But when the players get involved, that's a whole other thing, because then you're seeing the authenticity of how much this game really matters to them.

"You see it with all the rookies coming in. This is our 24th instalment in the 2K franchise, a lot of these kids that are coming to the league are younger than 24. So basically, they've been playing 2K their entire lives and, when they get drafted, it's one of those moments like, 'Oh, I'm in the NBA'. But the next thought is always, 'Oh, I'm in NBA 2K, I'm also in a video game', it's crazy.

"I think that that's really incredible – and the fact that this rating, this number that they actually have full control over with how they perform on the court, means so much to them. It's this point of contention, and it's a lot of discussion. To me, personally, it's just fun, you know, being part of that conversation and seeing these guys get really happy or really down about it or really competitive about it. These guys are competitive on and off the court and that rating is just another thing to be competitive about."

'The year of greatness'

The makers of the game have said that this is "the year of greatness" for the 2K franchise, hence making Michael Jordan one of the cover athletes. The current NBA player emblazoned on the cover is Devin Booker, who as well as being a superstar playing with one of the league's best teams, also happened to win the 2K tournament among the NBA players which was hosted during lockdown.

Singh admits "it'd be fun" to host another, but says that the calendar doesn't really lend itself to doing so as the best time to do it would be during the season when the players happen to be, well, rather busy. The choice of Booker was a deliberate one, given his skill on the hardwood and with a controller in his hand – but so is the nod to history.

A really fun addition to the game this year is the MyNBA Eras, which allows you to play in the Magic (Johnson) vs (Larry) Bird era, the MJ and Kobe eras as well as the modern NBA.

"Jordan was put on the cover, because we were trying to make a statement about the year of greatness, and that this is the greatest 2K of all time, so it needs to be represented by the greatest basketball player of all time," said Singh. "But I also think that it's a great educational device to remind you of some of the greatest moments in NBA history.

"Re-learning about these moments like the 'double-nickel game' and 'the flu game', these moments that mean so much to the fandom of basketball, especially for that generation – but I do think that we have a responsibility to inform and give that history lesson to young basketball fans to see what these moments that took basketball to a whole another level were like and MJ was a big part of that."

The presentation, as you go play through those eras, emulates the epoch as if you're watching a TV broadcast from back then, with changes to the camera filtration and the commentary, for example.

"I think that seeing it in the lens of the game shows how much the game itself, the NBA, has changed over those generations," Singh added.

The addition of the Eras is yet another example of innovation in a video game series which is always looking to "push the envelope", as our friends across the pond say.

The main individual game mode, MyCareer, had Spike Lee write and direct the accompanying story in 2016, then Michael B. Jordan starring in the next iteration and then a collaboration with LeBron's SpringHill Entertainment company in NBA 2K20.

More than just a sports simulation

MyCareer is just one mode within what is a thriving video game ecosystem which acts as a cultural nexus for all of the elements orbiting the NBA and wider basketball culture: fashion, music, technology and much more besides.

One of the most prominent basketball-playing rappers, J. Cole, was also featured on an alternative cover for the game this year, underlining how the series has evolved from being the most authentic sports simulation on the planet to an all-encompassing "lifestyle brand".

This was part of a deliberate strategic shift by the 2K crew.

"I remember vividly, it was a conscious decision amongst Ronnie, myself, several people in our management at 2K," said Brody. "We said, 'Look, the NBA, the actual league, has embraced the culture around basketball and empowers the players to build their own identities and embrace fashion, sneakers, music, tech and all of the elements outwith the basketball. Let's do the same thing, we can authentically play in that space. We make a simulation game, but we can absolutely integrate these elements in the game'.

"We started with sneakers, we went to Nike and said, 'Look, we have this thriving digital ecosystem, let's introduce your new shoes via our game. We have a platform for discovery and it's very authentic because they're going to see those same shoes on the feet of NBA players'. They loved it, we started doing that and it was kind of the catalyst for using our game as a platform to introduce these products to our community.

"Then we started using clothing, thinking about how we leverage our platform again but for streetwear brands that are very authentic to the game of basketball, very authentic to the NBA. We started working with tomorrow's supreme, the next up-and-coming lifestyle brands. At first, it was six, then the next year it was 15 and now we have over 100."

But it's not just clothes and sneaker culture.

"The same thing applies to in other areas," Brody continued. "In 2K16, we had Spike Lee, he directed MyCareer and wrote it – Hollywood into the mix, writing a script and producing, basically, a movie in the game that is authentic to basketball and culture, and he did that. Then it applies to music as well. We'd always had the soundtrack, 50 songs or so on the disk (curated by the likes of Jay-Z, Pharrell, LeBron and Travis Scott among others), it shipped and that was it.

"Now, we have literally thousands of songs in the game, because we can add it dynamically now due to the hardware and the tech. Now, record labels come to us proactively, and say, 'Look, we have this up-and-coming artist, big 2K fan, we'd love to get them in the game'.

"We're a licensee of the NBA but just think about the NBA landscape, it's not just about basketball, what happens on the court, anymore. NBA is influencing culture across the board, sneakers and music… every rapper wants to be an NBA player, every NBA player wants to be a rapper!

"It's amazing, because now we're launching clothing brands, we're launching musicians and it's really impactful for the community. Again, it's that through the lens of authenticity, we never deviate from that kind of objective."

It certainly works, too. I purchased a top for myself a couple of years back, simply because I liked how it looked on my player I'd made within the game. Full-scale meta, VR-type stuff if you think about it...

Growing the global audience

Sky Sports NBA pundit Mo Mooncey features in the game too, as one of the journalists on the in-game social media feed, and was also scanned into the game this year, as just one demonstration of how 2K is – again, like the NBA itself – reaching out to the global audience to grow the game.

The fact the MVP conversation last year was dominated by two Europeans (Jokic and Giannis) and an African (Joel Embiid) shows how former NBA Commissioner David Stern's mission to globalise the game is yielding benefits for the league on the floor – but I believe stories like my own and that of the kids who were afraid to pick up a ball before playing a video game is evidence of 2K's role in growing the game throughout the world.

It's a mission they take seriously. The organisation's charitable arm 2K Foundations is involved in all sorts of projects to grow the game to a global audience.

They've built courts in the hometowns of European luminaries such as Luka Doncic, Pau Gasol and Tony Parker and introduced coding curricula for young students in a variety of locations. Here in the UK, meanwhile, the benefits can be seen on the ground at the City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball Club, which received 2K Foundations funding in order to completely refurbish its facilities and offer more community programmes.

The refurb included two improved training courts, a show court enabling the club to host home games with a full audience, as well as improved lighting, new nets and scoreboards.

They also launched an extensive local school and community programme, with transport support for those who need it, as well as sessions for players of all abilities.

"From a grassroots level here in the UK, interest in basketball is certainly growing," said Rob Palmer, CEO of the City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball Club. "We have seen a lot of players getting into basketball via its rich culture – the fashion, the community, the music and undoubtedly, the NBA 2K gaming series. If communities can find the facilities and secure coaching support to ensure we foster that interest and celebrate the sport, we should see a continuation of its growth and popularity."

And that is exactly what's happening. Brody explains that year-on-year, they are seeing growth in the 2K player base within the UK – so that conduit to basketball fandom which I benefitted from continues to grow. They have a three-pronged strategy to continue that increase: getting people who are basketball fans into gaming; converting gamers that might not be basketball fans (such as FIFA players) into 2K players; and partnering with other sports entities and stars in the UK, such as focusing on footballers that are NBA 2K fans, having them appear in their creative efforts as well as bringing them to events.

"Ultimately, it's about celebration of sport, but we know that there's an affinity. Even if you're a soccer fan, you might have an affinity for basketball, let's introduce them to NBA 2K," Brody said. "And the last thing I'll say is: culture. The UK has a thriving subculture around fashion and sneakers and music that's authentic to NBA 2K. So leveraging the power of that culture to introduce our video game, and our experience inside the game, it's something we're hyper-focused on, specifically in the UK."

What's next?

Every year, the game wows me and many others with the sheer scope of ambition and boldness from the team behind it and even more so with the fact they're able to achieve what they set out to do, time and time again. It doesn't happen by accident though, it's part of a long-term strategy and the team are always thinking years ahead when it comes to deciding what is the in the pipeline for future versions of the game.

I would be cheating our audience (and my own journalistic curiosity), therefore, if I didn't ask what we can expect in NBA 2K24 and beyond.

"I think we will let 2K23 breathe for a while but I would love the consumer to know that we're always thinking ahead," Singh said. "I represent 500 of the most hardworking people at 2K. It's amazing how far this game has come and to be a small piece of it is very cool.

"I'm very proud of how we've shifted the culture with what should be a simple basketball video game. I am very proud of the work that we've done there to become that lifestyle brand. I'm just so blessed to represent a really good group of just the most talented developers and some of the most extraordinary marketing professionals that the industry has to offer.

"Obviously, we're already talking about 2K24 and even the years ahead, you don't build a lifestyle brand without thinking about the past, present, and future and what that path is, so I'm definitely thinking about 2K24. I don't really have anything to share yet but I'm sure we're just going to take it to a whole another level, like we always do."