SALT LAKE CITY -- Shaka Browne and MT 2K21 Lytel Martin had the same routine growing up. They'd go to school. They'd come home. They had pop-in NBA 2K9 -- the 2009 edition of the NBA-based video game -- and could ball online. Five-on-five digital games. On the weekends, same thing. Perform all weekend. Rack up stats. Sometimes they would work 9 to 5. Come home, log into NBA 2K and game. Day after day.

It was a competitive period with hundreds of thousands competing on the web. Shaka, whose speech has been"YoungSparks92," watched somebody climbing the ranks with him. "YoungKobe3." Both New Yorkers were connected together afterward. Little did they know that nearly a decade after they'd be teammates, competing side by side for the Utah Jazz at a professional league for NBA 2K players.

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

Shaka wanted the opportunity to play with Lotty one on one. He always knew he was a much better player than him, even though they had been constantly neck-and-neck in the competitive positions. He simply wanted the moment to establish it. They played a hard-fought game. Lotty chose the Los Angeles Lakers -- a group touting a prime Kobe Bryant -- and Shaka chose the Rockets, which had Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming in the time.

Later that night, both opponents -- who had never met until there -- ended up going into the movies. Fast forward over 10 years and both are still side by side, teaming together on Jazz Gambling, the Utah Jazz affiliate for its NBA 2K League. "When we found out that we were from the same neighborhood and we were on top of the planet, like, wow, that is crazy we need to begin hanging out and Cheap NBA 2K Coins talking about the sport to sort of learn from each other," Shaka explained. "And then we only became teammates after that."