On what date was the NBA 2K League founded?

The NBA 2K League was founded on February 9, 2017.

The league began as a joint venture between the National Basketball Association and Take-Two Interactive, the company behind the NBA 2K video-game series. The announcement laid out plans for a professional esports competition built around NBA 2K, linking real NBA franchises with competitive gaming teams.

The founding date is sometimes confused with the league’s first competitive season. The inaugural season did not begin until May 1, 2018, more than a year after the partnership was announced. Seventeen NBA teams participated in that first season, and Knicks Gaming won the inaugural championship on August 25, 2018.

The league’s later history also adds potential confusion: it expanded beyond its original format, introduced remote competition during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was relaunched in 2025 with a more creator-focused structure. Those developments do not change the original founding date.