Pickleball, crazy as it sounds, has been hot. Now, the space has two new high-profile entrants — sports manager Rich Kleiman and NBA superstar Kevin Durant. The co-founders at Thirty Five Ventures, also called 35V, announced Thursday that they've bought a team in Major League Pickleball (MLP).

"I love the sport," Kleiman told Yahoo Finance. "I love the culture around the sport and the fact that we're at beginning of the development of a professional sports league, at a time when the sport itself is exploding in popularity."

While pickleball dates back to 1965, the racket sport exploded in popularity so much in the pandemic that now it's going pro. The MLP has become an unexpected hotbed of competition for some of the biggest names in sports. Former NFL quarterback Drew Brees and NBA superstar LeBron James — in a deal that included fellow NBA champions Draymond Green and Kevin Love — have both recently acquired teams. Just last week, seven-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady joined the pickleball rush. For Kleiman, getting into pickleball goes beyond the spirit of competition.

At its core, pickleball is an area where Kleiman — who previously helped launch the sports practice at Jay Z's Roc Nation — believes he and Durant can be hands-on, and have an impact quickly. The move, among other things, also aligns with the goals of Boardroom, the media network that Kleiman and Durant founded in 2019. The zeitgeist moment surrounding pickleball is exactly the type of access Boardroom wants to offer its audience.

“I want to create 'Vanity Fair' for ‘the culture’ right now, and for sports,” Kleiman said. “The platform covers the business and lifestyle around sports and entertainment, and it started from the idea that what I was seeing in other outlets wasn’t a real indication of what was going on.”

And, in case you've missed it, pickleball is definitely having a moment. The sport's grown rapidly, gaining popularity throughout the pandemic. In 2016, pickleball had 2.8 million U.S. players. In 2021, that number had become 4.8 million, according to a Sports & Fitness Industry Association report.