See, in the time, it was all about rankings

Browne (who goes by"Shaka") and Martin (who goes by"Lotty") increased the NBA 2K22 MT worldwide rankings of their NBA 2K9 online community. It was a competitive period with countless thousands competing online. Shaka, whose speech was"YoungSparks92," watched someone climbing the rankings with him. The two New Yorkers were linked together then. Little did they know that nearly a decade after they'd be competing side by side for the Utah Jazz at a professional league for NBA 2K gamers.

See, in the time, it was all about rankings. They climbed the ladder up. They jockeyed for position. Shaka had the bragging rights -- always ahead of Lotty. When Lotty found out the two NBA 2K stars grew up in the same area of Mount Vernon, New York. He knew he had to fight him. One game to pick bragging rights for the town and 2K. They went to different high schools, so it wasn't like they could join on their own. But they had mutual friends, so the game was put up.

Shaka wanted the chance to play Lotty one on one. He knew he was a much better player than himeven if they had been always neck-and-neck at the competitive rankings. He only needed the moment to establish it. They played with a hard-fought game.

After that night, the two opponents -- that had never met until that point -- ended up going to the movies. Fast forward more than 10 years and both are still side by side, teaming together on Jazz Gaming, the Utah Jazz affiliate to its NBA 2K League. "When we discovered that we were out of the exact same area and we were both on top of the planet, such as Buy MT PS4, wow, that is crazy we will need to start hanging out and talking about the sport to sort of learn from each other," Shaka said. "And we only became teammates after that."