PHOENIX — "Spartan” aka Josh McHatten is a professional gamer for the Memphis Grizzlies. Well, kind of — more like the digital version.
“So how am I to explain it? It's like the NBA and NBA 2K the video game combined and created a league,” Mchatten told ABC15. “And so like the Memphis Grizzlies, they have an esports team called Grizz Gaming who I play for and I'm the center.”
The NBA partnered with the NBA 2K video game in 2017 to create an esports league, called the NBA 2K League. The inaugural season was in 2018, with 17 NBA franchises adding an esports team to their franchise — now there are 23 NBA teams and one international.
While the Memphis Grizzles have NBA all-stars Ja Morant, Steven Adams and Desmond Bane, Grizz Gaming has some stars of their own, including Spartan, ReeseDaGod and Dimez.
“We have our own facility like in FedEx, where the real Grizzlies play. I will say we have top five facility in the league man, just how it's set up,” McHatten said. “So, we have our own spot where we can come in 24/7 and just come and play.”
McHatten’s journey to the pros started when he was a kid, where his love for video games all started.
“My parents hated games and like everything to do with it,” McHatten said. “I had a strict time limit for like 30 minutes. Of course, I would sneak on the game at night when asleep.”
The more he played, the better he got.
“I finally found out okay, I can hook up ethernet to this and get online and start playing people I don't know. Then I got good at that and started winning some online tournaments and realized I was pretty good,” McHatten said, adding that he heard about the NBA 2K league from a friend, and that’s when he decided to try out.
First, McHatten had to win 50 games before qualifying for the combine, which is where you load in as an individual player and play five-on-five game mode against thousands of other players.
“They condense that into like 250 people and then from there, we did like the interviews with the 2K League and then from there, they cut that down from 200,” McHatten said. “Then we did interviews with actual teams that were interested in you.”
From there, it was off to the draft in hopes you get selected by a team. McHatten was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks esports team, Mavs Gaming, with the 63rd pick in the fourth round. He was dropped after the season but picked up by Memphis and Grizz Gaming.
“When I got drafted, I think just walking up picking up that hat it was just a surreal moment, because like I said I worked for it and it was actually happening,” said McHatten. “So, it was trying to try to make sure I stay in the moment, soak it all in.”
Playing for Grizz Gaming is McHatten’s full-time job. Players are paid a base salary of around $39,000, but the real money, McHatten says comes during the in-season tournaments with a $2 million prize pool.
“They kind of break it up, that $2 million prize pool and the six tournaments throughout the season,” said McHatten. “Then obviously, like the playoffs and championship is the biggest prize pool and that's that's what we're all here for.”
Turns out, it pays to play video games.
The NBA 2K League season begins on February 28.
