From Your Console to Real Life! 🏀
For this experiment from TNT, you can expect NBA 2K features to overlay on the screen…
There has been plenty of NBA news in recent years about changes the league has made to spruce up excitement for the regular season and the NBA All-Star Game. The addition of last year’s NBA In-Season Tournament was one of the biggest changes in years, and the NBA is now banking on technology to sweeten the experience for its second tournament this year.
TNT Sports is going to partner with the NBA 2K25 DataCast crew to air alternate telecasts during the knockout rounds of the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup. Think of the ManningCast for the NFL but if it used Madden graphics that gamers are used to seeing from the video game series.
For this experiment from TNT, you can expect NBA 2K features to overlay on the screen like the shot meter, 2K badges, player names, and the shot probability and shot distance calculators. They will also use alternate commentators like Vince Carter, Candace Parker, and Channing Frye.
TNT Sports x NBA 2K25 brings the DataCast to NBA Cup knockouts: shot meters, 2K badges, player tracking, and the iconic 2K camera angle.
Basketball just leveled up! 🎮🏀 #NBA2K25 #NBACup pic.twitter.com/jyF0javG3R
— LockerRoom RAW (@LockerRoom_RAW) December 4, 2024
Not Everyone Is Happy About It
Do we like this? Is this the route things are going with alternate telecasts like when the NFL did a Toy Story game in London since that’s what it takes to watch the Jaguars these days? But if it means I can listen to NBA games not called by Reggie Miller, I might be down for checking it out. But it also didn’t take long for the jokes and negativity over this to fly on Twitter/X.
Not one fucking person asked for this
— Streameast News Network (@StreameastNews) December 3, 2024
I feel like this might work better with normal courts instead of the very colorful ones used in these NBA Cup games. I turned on Warriors-Nuggets last night and the court looked like bright piss, so adding all these graphics to the screen and making them legible could be difficult.
Guy ordering the color for Nuggets United Emirates NBA Cup court:
“Yeah, diabetic piss with a little bit of asparagus – exactly” pic.twitter.com/cllxPmBDoI
— Sam (@SamPrestiGM) December 4, 2024
The knockout stage will begin December 10, so we can see this in action next week.
How Is the 2024 NBA Cup Going?
The final games in the in-season tournament last year were pretty good with the Lakers winning over the Pacers, a nice way to see LeBron James against a team that looked to be on the rise behind Tyrese Haliburton.
But for this year’s NBA Cup, neither the Lakers nor the Pacers have qualified to the 8-team knockout round. Group play concluded on Tuesday, and we know these are the final teams left with their NBA in-season tournament standings for the quarterfinals:
- Western Conference: No. 1 Thunder vs. No. 4 Mavericks, No. 2 Rockets vs. No. 3 Warriors
- Eastern Conference: No. 1 Bucks vs. No. 4 Magic, No. 2 Knicks vs. No. 3 Hawks
It’s funny that the Cleveland Cavaliers are 19-3 but not here because they were 2-2 in their Cup games. You know it’s not a predictor for NBA Finals success when the Atlanta Hawks are bumping the likes of Cleveland and Boston here.
The Knicks are a favorite to win the Cup, and if they can get past Atlanta, they’ll have a good shot. When they lost to the Hawks this season, No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher had 33 points, 15 more points than he’s had in any other game. Let’s see him do that again as the Knicks are playing better ball a month later.
Knicks vs. Thunder would be an ideal Cup Finals, but we’ll see how it turns out.
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