The Sixers are the proud owners of two eSports teams and they might be about to have a third: The NBA is partnering with Take Two to run an NBA2k eSports league. Unique to this? Each team will be run by a corresponding NBA franchise and it’s the first time in history that “a competitive gaming league will be operated by an American professional sports league.”

The league will launch in 2018. The teams that will partake will be announced in the coming months – if the Sixers aren’t involved I’d be jaw-on-the-floor shocked due to their eSports involvement already – and each will consist of five professional eSports players.

The league will follow your regular NBA format: Regular season, playoffs, championship, and even a draft. A DRAFT!

https://twitter.com/NBA2K/status/829703773807210496

A DRAFT! I can’t get over that there will be a draft.

According to Silver, all 30 teams have expressed interest in being a part of this, and live matchups could even take place in NBA arenas. The league will essentially work as these gamers’ full-time job for five months, and knowing how eSports usually work, the players will make some kind of money with a large grand prize being split among the winning team.

This has the potential, with the backing of the NBA, to be enormous. Now would be about that time for Josh Harris to call in that favor he was offered for letting the NBA take over his team.