He is young and entering his fourth season in the league. Those trends bode well for a player like the Suns’ Devin Booker. That is six players who made their 2K cover debuts in the last four iterations, and none of them had more than six years of NBA experience. Stephen Curry, James Harden, and Anthony Davis had six, six, and three respectively before getting individual variants of 2K16. Paul George also had six before he got the nod for 2K17. Before him, Kyrie Irving had six when he got the cover of 2K18. Antetokounmpo, the cover athlete for the new 2K19, has five seasons under his belt. It’s the digital version of assembling a team “full of potential.” Cover athletes are skewing younger than they used to, and games are shying away from having athletes appear on covers in consecutive releases, preferring fresh blood with their yearly offerings. Games are moving away from adorning their boxes with well-established players from big markets and trending towards players with emerging cachet. Michael Jordan is in it and so is a cybernetic Vince Carter and, you know, just click here. Barkley also stars at the main protagonist in Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, a 2008 freeware RPG that serves as a tongue-in-cheek sequel to both Barkley Shut Up and Jam! and the film Space Jam, wherein Barkley has performed something called a “Chaos Dunk” in a game that killed everyone in attendance and caused basketball to be banned. He later featured in Barkley Shut Up and Jam! 2, released for Sega Genesis in 1995. He was the star of Barkley Shut Up and Jam!, released in 1993-94 for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo consoles when players were little more than dribbling, dunking 16-bit blobs. In fact, the most prominent Sun at headlining video games is Charles Barkley. Stephon Marbury was on the cover of NBA Ballers in 2004, but he was traded to the New York Knicks a couple months before the game’s release so probably shouldn’t count. Boris Diaw co-covered the French versions of NBA Live 07 and NBA Live 08 with Tony Parker.
Those with a sharp eye will notice there weren’t any Phoenix Suns mentioned, and any video game aficionado can tell you Phoenix players don’t have an esteemed history headlining games.Īmar’e Stoudemire was on the cover of NBA 06 and NBA 08 before that property went belly up. Joel Embiid is on the cover of EA’s NBA Live 19, but he might as well be on a milk carton. This year, Giannis Antetokounmpo graces the cover of the NBA 2K19 standard edition, and LeBron James is featured on the cover of the 20th Anniversary Edition that retails for a $99.99 premium. (Speaking of traditions, the tradition of players not knowing or caring what their NBA Live ratings are is going strong into its second decade.)īut there is another component to video games that gets people talking, and that’s cover athletes.
For those wondering, Deandre Ayton’s rating is a 79. It’s become a time-honored tradition for players to call out Ronnie 2K on twitter about their ratings, and it’s a dry day in Portland when they approve. And they can get downright ornery about their in-game ratings. (I can’t stress the August angle enough.) While no news has broken about any players diagnosed with Fortnite addictions, the vast majority of the NBA plays video games routinely, especially the NBA 2K series. NBA players and video games go together like peanut butter and video games. Really, that’s a pretty accurate summation of what’s happening across the NBA.īut the lack of anything consequential does leave time for other things, like video games. It’s also the time of year when the league’s 30 front offices hold their collective breath for 31 days in the hopes their superstar doesn’t injure himself in some stupid pickup game. August is the month where motivation goes to die.
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