The NBA draft was Thursday, but for virtual basketball fans, all the big news dropped Wednesday night.

That’s when NBA 2K — the 24-year-old franchise that simulates a professional basketball court on your PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, computer, whatever — announced the new characters being added to the game, including many of the best incoming rookies.

Almost immediately, fans celebrated the idea of playing as Victor Wembanyama, the French center who was snapped up first by the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday. He’s basically a cheat code with his eight-foot wingspan, glitchy dribbling skills and uncontestable shot.

But a refrain soon went up across social media: “Where’s Scoot?”

Fans pressed pause when they realized that the much-hyped Scoot Henderson — picked third by the Portland Trail Blazers — will not exist in the game’s new season.

Brendan McGuire, a 21-year-old NBA 2K fan, was among the disconcerted. “I think it’s odd considering he’s a top prospect,” he told The Washington Post.

And odd it does seem — considering “NBA 2K23” is marketed as essentially the next best thing to getting signed yourself. Squint at one of the trailers and you might think you’re watching shots from a live court.

That’s why it’s so important for the game to include upcoming stars such as former Alabama guard Brandon Miller (the No. 2 pick by the Charlotte Hornets) and Wembanyama, who can be unlocked in random lootboxes or sometimes purchased instantly for in-game currency. It’s kind of an immersion breaker when someone like Henderson is nowhere to be seen.

There is, of course, a very mundane explanation. The reason Henderson isn’t in the game is that he hasn’t signed a partnership deal with 2K, the video game publisher that produces the franchise. Every other rookie included in the game’s latest “draft pack” did, according to a spokesman for the G League, an NBA subsidiary.

It’s unclear whether Henderson will be added into the game now that’s he’s been drafted, though he will presumably appear in the next version of the game, “NBA 2K24,” expected out in September. All current and active NBA players are automatically included because the National Basketball Players Association has a licensing agreement with the game.

When asked about its plans, 2K Games did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Henderson.

This isn’t the first time continuity between the video game and reality has broken down. Henderson joins an exclusive list of popular NBA players who aren’t in the game, including Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller.

Barkley did make a cameo in “NBA 2K17,” but it was only in connection with his time on the Olympics with the 1992 Dream Team, according to Forbes. But Barkley told Sports Illustrated in 2016 that he wants 2K Games to give money to the National Basketball Retired Players Association in exchange for regularly using his likeness.

NBA 2K has become such an institution that it’s rare for a high-caliber player to not agree to be in the game, said Scott Rochelle, president and chief executive of the National Basketball Retired Players Association, which signs licensing agreements with retired players as a first step toward adding them into the game. They get paid for being digitized, too.

“NBA 2K has been really, really … aggressive about adding players,” Rochelle said. “That shows there’s a demand, there’s a global demand.”

The game recently added Nat Clifton, Earl Lloyd and Chuck Cooper — some of the first Black basketball players in league history. Other veterans such as former Indiana Pacers player Bob Netolicky and former NBA Rookie of the Year Terry Dischinger (now a retired Lake Oswego orthodontist) have become fan favorites among 2K players, even if they didn’t become superstars in their heyday.

Tacko Fall, a former NBA player who most recently played for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in China, is widely considered one of the best players in the game.