NBA Reportedly Plans to Launch Players-Only NBA 2K Tournament on Friday

With action on the court on hold indefinitely, the NBA is devising a new way to provide fans with their basketball fix.

Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes reported the league is considering a players-only NBA 2K tournament that would feature "some big-name players." The event may launch as soon as Friday on ESPN.

According to Haynes, DeMarcus Cousins is one of the 16 competitors taking part, and the tourney will carry out over 10 days.

The NBA brought the 2019-20 season to a halt March 12 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported some around the league consider Labor Day weekend as the latest completion date for the 2020 Finals. Wojnarowski added that nobody "wants to limit the possibility of the NBA salvaging something of a season," so a firm deadline remains unknown.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was optimistic about a June 1 return.

That still leaves a lot of time between now and a possible restart, and setting up a 2K tournament would be a natural way to fill some of the void.

The Phoenix Suns' Twitter account has used NBA 2K20 to play through what would be the team's normal schedule:

NASCAR also set up the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, which involves a handful of active drivers virtually competing on the track. The first race on March 22 had about 900,000 viewers on FS1.

Especially if the NBA can convince some prominent stars to take part, there will likely be a large group of fans eager to see something resembling live basketball again.