The NBA 2K Players Tournament will tipoff Friday night at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN as the top-seeded Kevin Durant is set to face No. 16 seed Derrick Jones Jr.
The first two rounds of the tournament are single elimination while the semifinals and finals are a best-of-three series. The winner will be crowned the ultimate NBA 2K20 champion and select a charity beneficiary to receive a $100,000 donation from 2K, the NBA and the NBPA in support of ongoing coronavirus relief efforts.
Players were seeded first by NBA 2K rating, second by tenure in the league. Every player will choose eight of today’s NBA teams, each of which can only be used once. If a mirror match is set, the away team is awarded the first choice of team.
The first slate of matchups were released on Friday morning:
SINGLE ELIMINATION. Round 1 starts tonight at 7pm ET on ESPN #NBA2KTourney pic.twitter.com/VpxINSYpUt
— NBA 2K20 (@NBA2K) April 3, 2020
Several sportsbooks have posted the players’ odds to win the tournament, with Devin Booker and Durant emerging as the two favorites, according to SportsBetting.ag.
Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. and Washington Wizards forward Rui Hachimura are the two players set to represent the rookie class in the tournament. They each will play on Sunday between 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. ET with the exact time to be determined.
Porter, the 12th seed, is set to play No. 5 Booker in the first round while Hachimura, the 13th seed, will play Donovan Mitchell, the fourth seed. Should the Porter and Hachimura emerge victoriously, they would face each other in the second round.
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