- The draft lottery will be held next Tuesday, March 13, to decide the draft order
- Out of the 72,000 who qualified, just 102 players will be drafted onto a team
- The league’s managing director has denied claims of the qualifiers being rigged
The NBA 2K League announced today that the inaugural NBA 2K League Draft will take place on Wednesday, April 4 at 1pm ET (6pm GMT). The event will be held in The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden’s Lobby in New York.
The Draft order for the 17 teams competing will be decided at the first-ever NBA 2K League Draft Lottery next Tuesday (March 13) at 1pm ET (6pm GMT).
There will be 102 players available in the draft after the league hosted a rigorous tryout process, which was open to everyone and as a result found 72,000 players who qualified.
The first NBA 2K League Draft is taking place in April and pick order will be drawn randomly
The league’s Managing Director, Brendan Bonohue, was forced to defend this qualification process earlier this week after unhappy players claimed that the league had rigged who was picked.
The draft will consist of six rounds with each team selecting six players in a snake order, with the order of picks reversing after each round. This means that the team who has the last pickin the first round, will have the first pick in round two and the last pick of the third round.
Putting the controversy behind him, Donohue says he is looking forward to the draft: ‘The NBA 2K League Draft is going to be incredible as we watch dreams become reality for our players.
‘We cannot wait to introduce the world to the first-ever NBA 2K League professionals and, most importantly, we are eager for our players to meet their teams and teammates for the first time. This will be a milestone moment for our league.’
The draft lottery will be conducted by randomly drawing ping-pong balls with the team’s logos. The draft order will be revealed on the league’s Twitter account, @NBA2KLeague, beginning with pick 17 and counting down to the first pick. Additional details on the draft and how you can watch it are yet to be announced but the league says that information is on the way.