In case you haven’t heard, the NBA will be hosting a tournament starting on Friday, April 3rd. However, this tournament will be held in the virtual world. Sixteen NBA players will compete against each other in NBA 2K20 in a bracket-style competition. You may be asking why is this important to you as a Bulls fan? Well, Zach LaVine will be participating in this tournament.

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine will be playing in the players-only NBA 2K tournament. He is the 7th seed and will go up against Deandre Ayton in the first round.



The tournament will be aired on ESPN this Friday. — Daniel Greenberg (@ChiSportUpdates) March 31, 2020

The seeding for the tournament is based on the player’s overall rating in NBA 2K20 and then on their tenure within the league. Based on that criteria LaVine found himself as the #7 seed. This number is familiar to Bulls fans, in back to back years the Bulls have found themselves in the #7 spot in the draft. Not much is known about LaVine’s skills when it comes to NBA 2K20 but he has a first-round matchup against Suns big man Deandre Ayton.

It’s happening! Introducing The NBA 2K Players Tournament. 16 players will go head to head in the ultimate 2K tournament aired on @espn. We finally get all the trash talking NBA players to face off to find out who’s truly the best.. pic.twitter.com/pLv6ihtpoY — Ronnie 2K 2K20 (@Ronnie2K) March 31, 2020

The first two rounds of this tournament are single elimination style games. The semifinals and championship games will be best of three series. Each player pre-selected a pool of eight NBA teams to choose from during the tournament, using each team only once. Though the pre-selected pools haven’t been released I don’t think anyone would fault LaVine if the Bulls didn’t make the cut.

The winner of the tournament designates a charity to receive $100,000 to aid in the ongoing coronavirus relief efforts. You can catch the start of the tournament this Friday through April 12th.

🎮 NBA 2K Players Tournament coming to ESPN! 🎮



Tune-in on Friday, April 3 at 7 PM ET! #NBA2KTourney https://t.co/XroixYy5RX — NBA (@NBA) March 31, 2020

The NBA is back… kind of.

We all wish the season would start back up. In light of the ongoing pandemic, this is a safe and entertaining way to get basketball back in our lives. This will also be a good opportunity to hear some of LaVine’s trash talk that we normally don’t get to be a part of. Be sure to tune in and support LaVine, even if it is just a virtual win, it’s still not something we saw often this season. Treat this as a warmup for when the NBA season does return and enjoy.