NBA 2K19 has a long way to go to make good on 2K18's many missteps. One area it looks to have already improved on, though, is the game’s cover.

In the latest episode of Bleacher Report’s fantastic Game of Zones series, in which the modern NBA is projected onto a Game of Thones-like setting, a gang of rookies are huddled around a ye olde game of basketeballe. And even in this fictional universe, the microtransactions are ruining it.

Today’s playoff bracket pit the Utah Jazz and the Cleveland Cavs’ 2K squads against each other. Brandon “Hood” Caicedo, a small forward for the Cavs, ended up being the game-runner for his team, scoring over half his team’s points.

MANHATTAN, N.Y.—Despite the drumbeat insisting that Adam Silver is the hip young teen of sports commissioners, he looks the part of a curious Old. His inquiring wide eyes, dark wire-framed glasses, and ready avuncular smile: Silver looks well-suited to hunch inquiringly over kids’ shoulders and try to make sense of…

NBA 2K18's custom shirt storefront is flooded with shirts with that look like designs from Supreme or soccer player jerseys. 2K has been removing shirts containing copyrighted material, and some players are not happy about seeing them go.

Lang Whitaker, a fun and good NBA writer, announced yesterday that he is going to work for the Memphis Grizzlies. The announcement post contains more than its fair share of Players’ Tribune-ese:

The latest game in the NBA 2K series is frustrating to play if you don’t want to spend any additional money on top of the $60 you have to shell out to get the game.

NBA broadcaster Kevin Harlan should be famous for his work on actual live basketball games. Turns out for a lot of people he’s known as being the only voice they ever hear coming out of a video game.

Didn’t we only just go through this with PES? Now it’s NBA 2K’s turn to have its already-anointed cover athlete screw things up by changing teams before the game is even out.

Ronnie Singh, aka Ronnie2K, is the social media face of 2K’s NBA series. Because he deals with players a lot, he’s become friends with many of them, to the point where he was at a wedding recently and found himself up in front of the whole gathering explaining how the game’s player ratings work.

The Timberwolves signed veteran point guard Jeff Teague today. In days of old, this would mean Teague was about to embark on a journey of discovery, but in 2017, Minnesota is going to feel like home thanks to the magic of video games.

The announcement of the NBA 2K league was huge—17 NBA teams will be investing in esports teams which will be contracted to compete in a regular season running concurrent with the NBA season. It was enough to pique many people’s curiosity, including our own, but when we went looking for references to any existing 2K…

Today the NBA and Take-Two Interactive announced the 17 NBA teams that have agreed to participate in the inaugural NBA 2K league. The NBA teams that will let their virtual logos and jerseys appear in the esports league are:

On the right, actual footage from Demar DeRozan’s clutch game-winner the other night against the Knicks. On the left, the same play recreated by Shady00018 in NBA 2K17.

Today, the National Basketball Association announced plans to partner with publisher Take-Two Interactive for an official NBA 2K esports league, which led NBA commissioner Adam Silver to deliver this fantastic quote to the Wall Street Journal: “Think of eBulls against the eKnicks.”

Cincinnati doesn’t have a team, so Cleveland it is.

It really was that easy.

The curtain comes down on Kobe Bryant’s 20-year NBA career tonight, and nothing makes you realise just how old this guy is like seeing the gulf between the first and last video games he made an appearance in.