“Oh, you’re from London? Basketball isn’t very popular over there, is it?”
This question is posed to me more often than you’d think, and the reality is that basketball’s popularity in the UK has surged in recent years. This summer, everyone you knew seemed to become a Knicks fan; Air Jordans were the footwear of choice for almost everyone in the early 2020s; and NBA merchandise—from snapbacks to jerseys—is suddenly hard to miss. Even UK rappers, not just their U.S. counterparts, are regularly weaving basketball references into their bars.
The culture surrounding the sport is clearly everywhere—but does that love extend to the game itself, or have we simply fallen for everything that comes with it off the court? The standard of British basketball has improved, with the London Lions heading out to Portland to take on the Trail Blazers as the first British team ever to take on an NBA opponent. However, the quality of the British league still pales in comparison to its American equivalent across the pond. The NBA is the highest level of basketball, the best of the best when it comes to leagues; the only problem is that games usually tip off after midnight in the UK, creating an obvious barrier for those who want to watch the NBA live. So how, then, has the sport’s popularity continued to grow?
A huge entry point that’s not often discussed is video games. In fact, of the millions of UK residents who consider themselves basketball fans, more people actually play NBA 2K than tune in for live NBA games on TV.
I wanted to dive deeper into how a video game has harnessed the culture of basketball and become the perfect entry point for new basketball fans. Last week, I was at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, LA, where NBA 2K were hosting Community Day—an event where content creators from across the globe gather for an early-access look at the upcoming version of the game.
While there, I caught up with a few NBA superstars who were also in attendance to talk about the impact a video game can have on the sport. Jaylen Brown, who won Finals MVP with the Boston Celtics before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers this summer, was there, as was Chet Holmgren, an NBA champion with the OKC Thunder last year, and Stephon Castle, whose San Antonio Spurs just faced off against the Knicks in this year’s NBA Finals.
Chet Holmgren began our conversation with a remark that sports, music and culture are all intertwined. And while I was thinking about how the game has impacted the UK, it’s also had an impact in the other direction too. The 2K soundtrack has played a big part in bridging that gap musically, featuring numerous songs by UK artists and bringing their music to a global audience.
Big names such as Skepta, Stormzy and Aitch have had songs grace the playlist over the years, while other rappers who may not be as well known in the States—such as Frisco and A1 ILLA—have also represented. UK rap royalty Avelino told me recently that he doesn’t watch much NBA, but he knows that one of his songs made it onto the soundtrack. Jaylen Brown told us that there are songs from 2K that he learned through the game, songs he didn’t even know existed outside of 2K, while Stephon Castle linked up with Manchester rapper Nemzzz earlier this year for an early listen of “GEEKIN” featuring Lil Yachty, which will appear on his forthcoming LOCKED IN album. Nemzzz also frequently appears on Chet’s playlist, alongside artists such as Central Cee, Dave and J Hus, and this year’s ‘MyCAREER’ storyline features rapper-turned-comedian Vince Staples as a character.
It’s not just music that NBA 2K uses to bridge the gap between the UK and the States. Players of the game make sure their virtual ‘MyPLAYER’ is decked-out in designer drip, with Trapstar regularly featured as a brand that fans can represent—you’ll see players all over The City wearing the London-based brand. Back in NBA 2K21, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC even shocked the world by becoming the first Premier League football club to make its jersey available to purchase within NBA 2K.
For young basketball fans in the UK, dreams of making it to the NBA can seem almost impossible. We’ve seen more British talent make it to the league in recent years, but that’s a conversation for another day. For many of us, living out our NBA dreams through NBA 2K is as close as we’ll ever get to hearing our names called by the legendary Adam Silver on draft night. And it’s not just fans like us who live out their dreams through the game: the new ‘MyNBA Legacy’ mode allows you to re-live the career of any player from NBA history, while the current stars are getting involved too. Stephon Castle said he’d love to gain the ability to shoot like Stephen Curry, while Chet joked about being unhappy with his 45 strength rating and said he wanted to add some Shaq-type strength to his player in the game.
The ratings of players in-game can sometimes even affect the product that fans watch on the court. Hassan Whiteside gained notoriety on the world stage when he proclaimed, “I’m just trying to get my NBA 2K rating up,” after dropping 14 points, 13 rebounds and 12 blocks in just 25 minutes off the bench for the Miami Heat against the Chicago Bulls. Chet told me that if he knew when 2K were adjusting their ratings, he’d try to step up his game even further, knowing that it was his chance to improve his rating. Overall, though, what the video game does—aside from culturally bridging the gap across the Atlantic and allowing fans to learn about the sport—is remind us that we all share the same experience. Whether you’re a casual fan of the sport or an NBA superstar, we all sit down and play the same game, living out the same basketball dreams through NBA 2K.
Jaylen Brown finished his conversation with us by summing up what makes 2K so unique: “2K is a big part of the culture. Me and my friends grew up playing 2K, the one with Ben Wallace (NBA2K5), which was a long time ago. Staying up and playing against my older brother and my friends… Great memories. You win the game, your brother shuts off the whole console, throws the controller. I’ve also broken some controllers [laughs]. I think everyone has similar life stories and 2K shows you how passionate people are about the game itself and how embedded in the culture 2K really is.”
Basketball continues to grow in popularity in the UK, and video games play an integral role in that growth. The question now is: how long until we see a British player on the cover of the world’s biggest basketball game?
