The NBA Wants to Use NBA 2K Crowd Noise, and Montrezl Harrell isn't Happy About it
When the NBA season resumes later this summer, one of the most noticeable things will be the lack of fans. A limited number of player families will be allowed to attend some of the later rounds of the postseason, but for the most part, these will be empty, quiet games.
One potential solution to that issue — if you consider it to be one — is piping in crowd noise. And according to The Athletic's Shams Charania, the NBA is considering using in-game audio from the NBA 2K series of games to fill the silence.
LA Clippers star Montrezl Harrell isn't all that fond of the idea.
NBA 2K is known for a lot of things, but crowd noise isn't usually the first thing that fans of the game will point out. It gets the job done, sure, but it's nothing special.
Charania noted that the NBA and NBPA are still discussing creative opportunities, so there is a chance that the league would decide to go another route. That said, one would have to assume that using sounds from 2K is one of the better alternatives to having no noise at all.
The most entertaining option would be to kill all manufactured sound and mic up the players, but that's not exactly realistic considering the NBA markets to audiences of all ages.
Regardless of what the NBA decides to do, it's nice to finally start thinking about basketball again. The LA Clippers were playing their best basketball of the season before the coronavirus pandemic brought everything to a halt, and if the team can keep up its stellar play, it could end up competing for the franchise's first-ever NBA title in October.
