Like many creators out there, Basketball Forever is attempting fill the void of live sports content caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Basketball Forever’s plan is to simulate a portion of the NBA season digitally in NBA 2K20.
Unlike some of the other creators, though, Basketball Forever is going to focus on the NBA playoffs. Starting in April, the Australian social media publisher will be simulating the first two rounds of the playoffs as if they would have happened from where the season ended. Meaning the current, incomplete season seedings will be used for each conference, regardless of how many games a team has played.
Here are the standings that Basketball Forever will be using.
| Western Conference | Eastern Conference |
| Los Angeles Lakers | Milwaukee Bucks |
| Los Angeles Clippers | Toronto Raptors |
| Denver Nuggets | Boston Celtics |
| Utah Jazz | Miami Heat |
| Oklahoma City Thunder | Indiana Pacers |
| Houston Rockets | Philadelphia 76ers |
| Dallas Mavericks | Brooklyn Nets |
| Memphis Grizzlies | Orlando Magic |
The first two rounds will be simulated and then compiled into short highlight videos that fans can watch to understand how the Western and Eastern Conference Finals were reached. Once the conference finals are decided for both sides, Basketball Forever will live stream anywhere between 12 and 21 games (depending on how long each series lasts) in real-time to decide which team is the theoretical 2020 NBA Finals Champion.
All of the WCF and ECF games, as well as the NBA Finals, will be streamed across Basketball Forever’s social channels.
“Here at Forever Network we have also been hit (by the coronavirus,) postponing upcoming activities and evolving our processes and practices,” Forever Network Co-Founder Alex Sumsky said. “We are all in this together. Initiatives like our NBA live stream are designed to keep spirits high and optimistic. Together we can come out on the other side of this even stronger.”
Fans will be able to participate by submitting a playoff bracket prior to the simulation beginning to try and predict the outcome of the playoffs and try to win a few prizes. More details about this and the weekly guessing competitions for each individual series will be revealed soon.
