The NBA season may be saved all thanks to…esports?
In light of the suspension of the NBA season to the spread of the coronavirus, the Phoenix Suns have taken a unique initiative to preserve the postponed regular season games by having them played out in NBA 2K20 which also being broadcast live on Twitch.
This is a pretty unique solution to the sudden stoppage of the NBA season, and it’ll be interesting to see if other teams follow along with this line of thinking. There is no Twitch link for the channel yet, but it will be announced on Saturday with the first matchup being the Dallas Mavericks versus the Phoenix Suns, replacing the actual game that was supposed to take place.
The likely way this will work is that both teams will be controlled by computer settings, and the camera angle will likely be changed to reflect a genuine broadcast, but these details still aren’t finalized.
The NBA season has been stopped for at least 30 days, at which point they will reassess the situation to see if the season resumes, if it’s pushed back, or cancelled altogether. If even a fraction of the average NBA viewership tunes into this Twitch broadcast, it will mean huge numbers for Twitch.
The Phoenix Suns starting this Twitch train makes sense, as their star player Devin Booker is an avid Twitch streamer, often playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on his channel “dbook.” In fact, Booker found out how about the season being suspended while livestreaming.
Be sure to stay tuned for more news on the NBA 2K replacement season!