7 players who can win the ‘NBA 2K’ players-only tournament

Basketball is coming back — in video game form, at least. In lieu of the NBA season being put on indefinite hiatus over the coronavirus pandemic, 16 players across the league are set to compete in an NBA 2K20 tournament. The event will be aired on ESPN and streamed on Twitch, Twitter, and Facebook. It runs from April 3-11, with the winner getting to donate $100K to charity for virus relief efforts.

Kevin Durant, Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell, and Devin Booker are the biggest names in the field. It’s a single-elimination tournament. Here’s how the teams work:

The games will all be played on an Xbox One in knockout, single-elimination style for the first two rounds. The semifinals and finals will be a best-of-3 series. Each player chose eight teams to play with, and can use them each once along the way. We already know that Durant chose the Nets, Bulls, Mavericks, Warriors, Rockets, Clippers, Thunder and Jazz, and Jones Jr. chose the Celtics, Nets, Mavericks, Clippers, Lakers, Heat, Bucks and Sixers

Yes, you can gamble on this: there are already detailed odds on who’s going to win. Here’s what the bracket looks like:

Some of those bets are better than others. After exhaustive research, SB Nation has identified seven players who have a real shot at winning the whole dang thing. Let’s get it.

LaVine has the second-worst odds to win the tournament, but he sure seems like a serious gamer. He was playing video games when he heard about the NBA season being suspended. He was also once put in a motion capture suit for the 2K series to get his exact moves in the game.

As someone who has played many games of 2K with the Bulls, I can tell you LaVine’s video game character is pretty great. He’s super fast, can drain threes, and dunks everything. Defense matters a lot more in real life than it does in video games. He also won’t be dragged down by his head coach like he is at his day job. Does virtual Jim Boylen call senseless timeouts, too?

The only issue is the Bulls are one of the worst-rated teams in the game. LaVine is going to have to score almost all of the points with his own guy if he’s going to win. It’s like he’s back at work again.

In researching this story, I checked the social media channels of every participating player to see if they were practicing. Whiteside was the only guy posting about getting work in on his Instagram stories. Seems like a good sign.

2K somehow has Whiteside’s character rated as an 87 overall — which is as high as Mitchell and a point better than Booker. What? I guess telling reporters you’re trying to get your 2K rating up has its perks.

While Whiteside’s avatar might have a high rating, he’s more a defense-first player and not exactly someone you can run an offense through. Will Whiteside try to score all the points with his own guy rather than let Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum cook? That’s what worries us.

Ice Trae is the second highest-rated player competing in the tournament at 90 overall. This is a portrait of a hardcore gamer:

Young also did the motion capture thing for 2K, and told The Undefeated one of his dreams is to be on the cover of the game. That’s dedication.

Young’s video game character is deadly from three-point range, but it can also be hard to score with him consistently going to the basket. That makes for a high degree of difficulty when playing. The Hawks are also terrible in the game, so he won’t have much help. He’d rank higher on this list if he was running with a better team.

Ayton has the second-best odds to win the tournament, and for good reason. A profile from Ayton’s college days in 2018 spelled out his love for video games and particularly 2K:

“It’s a ritual. I have to do it,” Ayton said. “Every little opportunity I have. As soon as I wake up, Fortnite or 2K. Breakfast? After film? I’m playing it. I’m playing it.”

That sounds encouraging, but here’s where I start to question his gaming ability: Ayton admitted he played with the Durant-Warriors, AKA the best video game team ever assembled, and also that he turned off fatigue!

When Ayton plays 2K, he chooses the Golden State Warriors, which obviously makes the game a little easier. Then he turns off the “fatigue” setting, meaning his virtual Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson never get tired.

To a 2K purist, those choices might appear far too easy. Unfair even.

But maybe Ayton just wants to wipe everyone out, every time.

“Yes, I play with the Warriors. I don’t care,” Ayton said after lighting up the Pac-12 tournament semifinals with 34 points and 14 rebounds against UCLA last Friday, generating laughter among a small group of reporters. “And fatigue is off, so nobody can stop me.

“I don’t care. I make big shots.”

Are Ayton and Booker both allowed to be the Suns here? Is Ayton going to try to take LeBron James and the Lakers if not? How will he respond if fatigue is on and he’s forced to make subs? These are the questions that need to be asked before placing a wager on Ayton.

The odds-on favorite to win the tournament at +350. No one else’s odds are particularly close.

Booker has quite the resume as a gamer. He has competed competitively before. Fans watch him play video games on Twitch and he has already raised $100K for pandemic relief through his streaming. He was playing video games when he found out the season was canceled. His first-round opponent, Michael Porter Jr, acknowledged that Booker is “hardcore” about gaming.

Here’s the problem, though: most of the stories about Booker’s gaming ability focuses on either Call of Duty or Apex Legends. I have no doubt this man knows his way around a set of joysticks, but talent in shooting games doesn’t necessarily translate to talent in 2K.

There’s also the issue of Booker’s character being underrated by the game and him not having a great roster to work with as the Suns. No one will be surprised if he wins the tournament, but he doesn’t feel like a lock to do it.

Some positives for Durant: at 96 overall, he has the highest-rated player of anyone competing in the game. He’s also had a lot of free time to play video games as he recovers from an Achilles injury.

Cons: He hasn’t seemed to figure out transition defense.

Much like real life, Durant is so good that any team who has him will have a chance to win it all. He also has a great co-star on his virtual Nets with Kyrie Irving. He’s a threat to go all the way, as long as he can figure out how to stop a fastbreak.

How serious is Porter about 2K? He once took the literal shoes off a man’s feet by beating him in the game.

Here’s a quick recap: After posting a tweet looking for challengers, a man said he’d be willing to put up his $800 pair of Jordans in a game, and Porter invited him over to his apartment. Porter couldn’t even wear the shoes — because they were too small for him and because he had signed an endorsement with Puma — but he still took them from the guy.

Our own Denver Stiffs talked to the man and he sounded like he was a serious gamer: “I’m really, really really good at 2K, enough to have maybe lost five times all year so I was extremely confident going in.”

Porter still beat him, then he mocked him on Twitter for the world to see:

Straight savage. Here’s a prediction: whoever wins the first round matchup between Porter and Booker is going to win the tournament. We’ll go with Porter.