21 Legitimizing and institutionalizing eSports in the NBA 2K League

Abstract

Launched in 2018, the NBA 2K League is a National Basketball Association eSports subsidiary centered on the popular NBA 2K video game series. The 2K League enables the NBA, an organization that has more aggressively embraced trends in emerging media than its North American peers, to infiltrate new markets and platforms through investing in eSports. Meanwhile, the 2K League helps to legitimize eSports by attaching the niche activity to an established sports brand. This chapter uses the 2K League to explore how eSports’ development and institutionalization are changing sports organizations’ relationship to media while preserving – and even strengthening – sports’ significance and role in commercial media culture.