Do you believe in miracles? Heat’s Derrick Jones upsets top-seed KD in ‘NBA 2K tourney
The United States national hockey team over the Soviet Union.
The UMBC Terriers over the Virginia Cavaliers.
Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson.
Derrick Jones Jr. over Kevin Durant.
In the first ever game of the “NBA 2K20” “Players-Only” tournament, Jones, the No. 16 seed, joined the ranks of the biggest upsets in sports, knocking off the No. 1 seed on ESPN. Jones guided his Milwaukee Bucks to a 78-62 win against Durant’s Los Angeles Clippers in the first game of the 16-player tournament to raise money for COVID-19 relief.
The high-flying Miami Heat forward advances to the second round, where he’ll face either Indiana Pacers post player Domantas Sabonis or Clippers post player Montrezl Harrell on Tuesday. Players were seeded by their overall rating in “NBA 2K20.”
“I don’t like to brag about my game,” Jones said earlier in the day, “but I’m pretty good at 2K.”
The tournament is a first-of-its-kind showcase for esports on a national stage. With the NBA season suspended indefinitely because of the coronavirus crisis, 2K, the developer of the NBA 2K games, recruited a group of some of the best NBA players at the game to play in a tournament televised on the ESPN family of networks. The winner of the tournament will choose a charity to receive a $100,000 donation from the NBA, National Basketball Players Association and 2K.
Jones said 2K marketing director Ronnie Singh, better known as “Ronnie 2K,” reached out to him on Instagram because he was aware of Jones’ prowess. Jones, who already won the Slam Dunk Contest earlier this year, immediately loved the idea.
“I told him it was a great idea because you get to have the players out there interacting with each other again and especially, like I said with this point and time going on, it’s something that’s going to be good for everybody just to be able to watch us again doing something, just not us being at the house,” Jones said. “They get to see us playing 2K, playing video games, being kids and just enjoying our time.”
For the tournament, 2K sent each player an Xbox One and a webcam, so they could film themselves playing the game. The two players talked to each other on the in-game voice chat, discussing the ongoing pandemic, the nuances of the game and how they’re spending their time away from the court. At one point, Durant even mentioned the rumored proposal to have the entire NBA move to Las Vegas, Nevada, and play games in isolation.
“You heard what they said?” Durant said. “They might send everybody to Vegas.
“That’d be dope,” Jones responded. “That’s my stomping grounds. I went to school there.”
Jones ultimately leaned on his stars and a little bit of virtual “Heat Culture.”
Khris Middleton led the way for Jones with 22 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo added 20, but reserve guard Donte DiVincenzo chipped in 11 off the bench with three three-pointers. He led by double figures for most of the second half.
Mostly, the tournament is just an opportunity for NBA players to get their competitive juices flowing and give fans an opportunity to watch some sort of basketball.
“I’m very excited, just being able to compete right now at this time and point,” Jones said. “With everything going on — you can’t go out the house that much, and just got to be isolated from everything and everybody — it’s just good being able to go back and just have fun again, basically play basketball, have fun.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 8:52 PM.
