The NBA 2K League announced that four NBA franchises would join the NBA 2K League for the 2019 season as expansion teams. Those franchises are the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers, and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Here’s everything we know and can reasonably assume about each of those teams, and here are the teaser trailers for all four teams. The expansion draft will take place at 6pm on September 26th.
Atlanta Hawks
- The team announced on the same night as the league press release that its team would bear the name Hawks Talon GC.
- The team has yet to reveal a logo or team court. Several Twitter users have taken a stab at designing some cool options.
- The Hawks have posted two team-specific jobs online, for—essentially—a GM/business manager and a coach.
- Samir Mayur is be responsible for NBA 2K League-related personnel and hiring. The business manager position refers back to his position, and his LinkedIn profile specifies, among other things, NBA 2K League development as part of his role.
- UPDATE: The Hawks are no longer listing the Business Manager, Esports position.
- Former NBA2KLeague.com staff writer Jonathan Raber is serving as the Hawks’ expansion draft consultant, DIMER reports.
Brooklyn Nets
- Nets Daily, SBNation’s Brooklyn Nets site, pointed toward “Brooklyn Gaming” as being the far-and-away likeliest name for the team, citing a trademark filed by BSE Global (the Nets’ parent company) for that name earlier this year. I can confirm that.
- No official logo or court has been officially unveiled, though Twitter user @madkidpalmcity, whom the Nets and Nets Daily follow, claimed to have heard that the team would use a certain logo.
- The Nets revealed their team twitter handle, Nets Gaming Crew (GC).
- MPBA leader OGKINGCURT announced that the Nets had added him as NBA 2K consultant, and DIMER reported that the Nets had added ngartrelle in a similar role.
- Here’s the full story on the Brooklyn hirings.
Los Angeles Lakers
- The Lakers are all but officially to be named Lakers Gaming.
- The team posted a job online (under “Lakers Gaming Jobs”) for an eSports Operations Manager.
- UPDATE: The team has since removed the position.
- No logo or court has been officially unveiled.
- The official Twitter handle is @LakersGaming
Minnesota Timberwolves
- No logo or court has been officially unveiled. Here’s another creative Twitter design. The team seems likely, however, to be named Timberwolves Gaming.
- The team’s official Twitter handle is @TWolvesGaming
- The man in charge of hiring for the Timberwolves appears to be Ted Johnson, the team’s Chief Strategy Officer.
- The team added Aaron Groshong and 2k_Analytics to serve as their expansion draft consultants. Its unknown whether those relationships will continue into the 2019 regular season.
It’s likely that we’ll hear more about these teams as the NBA 2K League expansion draft draws even nearer.