Short answers, pulled from the story.
The NBA 2K League is an esports league built as a joint venture between the National Basketball Association and Take-Two Interactive, run through NBA T2 Media. It is played on a custom version of the NBA 2K video game, with players competing as custom characters rather than as avatars of real NBA players.
The NBA 2K League was announced in 2017, and its inaugural season took place in 2018. That first season ran for 17 weeks, opening with a tip-off tournament from the 1st to the 5th of May and concluding with the NBA 2K League Finals on the 25th of August 2018, which Knicks Gaming won.
The league went on hiatus after CEO Andrew Perlmutter told all remaining players and staff, on a 10-minute video call on the 2nd of July 2024, that everyone was being let go. The league then announced an eighteen-month hiatus to undergo a major overhaul, citing challenges across the esports industry, with the new direction leaning toward influencers and celebrities.
Players drafted in the first round earned a base salary of $35,000 across the six-month season, while later-round picks made $33,000, and retained players earned $38,000. Players could also earn additional money from the league's $2.5 million prize pool and from their own endorsement deals.
The NBA 2K League officially relaunched on the 4th of November 2025, under a revamped, creator-focused format. Only 6 of the league's 25 previous franchises returned, all of them NBA teams, and Jess "Jesser" Riedel was named the league's new honorary commissioner.
The NBA 2K League grew from 17 founding teams in 2017 to 25 franchises by 2023, including Dux Gaming in Mexico and NBL Oz Gaming in Australia. When the league relaunched in 2025, only 6 franchises returned, all of them affiliated with NBA teams.