As the pandemic takes the world by storm, high schools across the country are struggling to balance the livelihood of their sports teams and rampant safety restrictions. A high school situated in the heart of Fremont, California, has discovered a new way of keeping their male basketball players both fit and well-trained. 

At Irvington High School, the team’s coach had gotten exhausted of his players flooding his emails, inquiring about the chances of the team meeting in person and complaining about their boredom. He then thought of the genius idea to use the hot, newly-released game– NBA 2k21– to entertain his players. After hearing the coach’s idea, team captain, LeBron Jordan (12) expressed his excitement:

“Dawg, I was so happy to hear that the team could practice virtually at last. I mean c’mon, we’ve spent the past year pretty much in lockdown. Without basketball and the team to keep me fit, I’ve developed a food baby!” Although Jordan continued to express his gratitude for the coach’s superb idea, our exclusive interview with the star athlete was cut short because he had gotten a call from his pediatrics doctor informing him of the dangers of obesity. 

Luckily, we were able to gain some more relevant information from another player, Stephen Durant (11): “I’m so glad the coach thought of this genius idea. NBA 2k21  will really help the players stay fit from a safe distance and also individually hone in on techniques and strategies that would otherwise be difficult to execute in-person.”

While a large majority of the team agrees with Durant’s statement, a few others have anonymously expressed uncertainty at the chance of the video game efficiently translating actual basketball into a virtual format. However, since this is the most viable option for the time being, the boys’ basketball team will continue to practice once a day for two fifteen-minute segments (as parents were worried their kids would develop poor eyesight as a result of the screen time). Good luck and get those dubs, boys!