Now they're teaming up with the Jazz from Megaomgchen's blog

They'd go to 2K21 MT college. They would come home. They'd pop-in NBA 2K9 -- the 2009 edition of the NBA-based video game -- and would basketball online. Five-on-five virtual games. On the weekends, the same thing. Perform all weekend. Sometimes they would work 9 to 5. Come home, log into NBA 2K and game. Again and again. Day daily. Week after week.

It turned out to be a competitive time with countless thousands competing online. Shaka, whose speech was"YoungSparks92," watched someone climbing the rankings with him. "YoungKobe3." Both New Yorkers were linked together then. Little did they know that nearly a decade after they'd be competing side by side to the Utah Jazz at a professional league for NBA 2K players.

See, in the moment, it was about rankings. They climbed up the ladder. They jockeyed for position. Shaka had the bragging rights -- always ahead of Lotty. When Lotty discovered both NBA 2K stars climbed up in the Identical neighborhood of Mount Vernon, New York. He knew he needed to battle him. One game to pick bragging rights to town and 2K. They went to different high schools, therefore it wasn't like they could join by themselves.

Shaka wanted the chance to play Lotty one on one. He always knew he was a much better player than himeven though they were constantly neck-and-neck in the competitive positions. He just wanted the moment to establish it. They played with a hard-fought game.

Later that night, the two competitors -- that had never met until that point -- ended up going to the movies. Fast forward over a decade and the two 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 precisely the same neighborhood and Cheap MT 2K21 we're on top of the world, such as, wow, that's mad we will need to begin hanging out and talking about the sport to kind of learn from each other," Shaka said. "And then we just became teammates then."