As the Celtics buckle down in Cleveland tonight for Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, another group of Celtics is still trying to grapple with how far they’ve come, even in the face of doubts all around them.
But these Celtics, the newest Celtics, are not fighting for their season in the playoffs, but instead are at the beginning of their season, still wondering how video games stopped being their pastime and became their job.
“I just played. My mom would take away my Xbox on the weekdays. She would say, ‘No, you only play on the weekends,’ ” said Albano Thomallari, the star point guard for Celtics Crossover Gaming and the No. 2 overall pick in the draft earlier this year. “My family wasn’t really big on this. They were like, ‘Why are you wasting your time doing this,’ but now that they see their son in it, they’re like, ‘Wow, I love this.’ ”
Thomallari, whose in-game player goes by oFab and has impossible-to-miss green hair, has led the Celtics to a 2-1 record and is leading the league in assists, while Devon Peek, who goes by Arsonal x, is second in the league in scoring.
The NBA 2K league includes 17 teams run by NBA organizations. Two teams of five players, each controlling a different video game player, go head to head. The 2K players travel to New York every week to play games, so competitions can be held without any chance of connection issues.
During a scrimmage last week with the Indiana Pacers, much of the talk was likely the same as on any professional basketball court, save for the high-definition screens in front of each player. Shouts of “Good shot,” “Get back on defense” and “You have to communicate!” are punctuated by the clicks of five video game controllers.
Housed in apartments in Cambridge, the players scrimmage, watch film and work on their skills at least eight hours a day, five or six days a week. And just like the players who run out onto the parquet at the TD Garden, the virtual players play their home games on a digital recreation of the iconic floor.
For the Celtics’ front office, this new venture into esports is a test of how far the team can extend its brand.
“The people who play 2K, the generation of gamers, spend less and less time in front of a TV screen and watching full-length games,” said Rich Gotham, president of the Celtics. “This is a way that allows us to reach that audience.”
Still, this is no marketing stunt. The team is expected to compete for a championship, and many see esports as a potentially significant revenue generator for organizations.
While it’s unclear how competitive esports will fit in with the traditional sports landscape, it’s clear it is becoming a force. A University of Massachusetts Lowell poll conducted earlier this year found a nearly identical level of “fandom” between esports and the NFL among teenagers. Other esports leagues have popped up, including one focused on the game Overwatch, backed by Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
“I didn’t even think this was a possibility. I was just studying, doing classes for human resource management. I thought that was going to be my career,” Thomallari said. “My mom was surprised I put it on hold for this. I said, ‘Just give me until March, I promise, I promise.’ The draft happened, and this is what I’m doing. She loves it.”