Boyd—better known as Dimez and the point guard for team Still Trill, which took home $250,000 after winning an NBA 2K17 Pro Am over All-Star Weekend—for his thoughts on player ratings, and let the pontificating begin.

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"The ratings reveal on Twitter is cool," Boyd says, while voicing his anticipation at finding out what LeBron James will be rated in NBA 2K18. "The ratings are mostly accurate, and the game improves every year."

But press Boyd a little further for a deeper opinion on those ratings, and one of the best NBA 2K point guards in the world doesn't hesitate.

"LeBron is rated high, but he need to be better in the game. He's too easy to be guarded," Boyd says. "And as far as constantly underrated? I'd go withDevin Booker."

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There are parallels between the growth of Whiteside and NBA 2K since that wintry afternoon in 2015. Though the video game franchise was by no means an unknown, its popularity has skyrocketed through revamped graphics, smoother gameplay and a killer My Player mode. Whiteside has gone from a deer in headlights to one of the NBA's premier big men and something of a social media maven.

As the game that helped both Stauffer and Manning turn their passions into a career continues to blossom, sometimes they like to kick back and take it all in.

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"I don't envy the guys that have to do ratings, Mike's team and the developers, because I think it's such a tough thing," Manning says. "But it's always fun when