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Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic and WNBA legend Candace Parker were revealed Wednesday as cover athletes for NBA2K22.
Shams Charania of The Athletic shared the images of Doncic and Parker, along with a vintage, special NBA 75th anniversary edition that has all-time NBA leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, another Maverick in Dirk Nowitzki and Brooklyn Nets scoring machine Kevin Durant:
Doncic tweeted his thanks to 2K Sports for featuring him, and Parker is obviously the first woman to be on the cover, although Parker’s cover variant of it is exclusive to GameStop, according to NBA 2K’s official Twitter feed.
It’s hardly a surprise that Doncic is the main man here. Still only 22 years old, Doncic has carried Dallas to the NBA playoffs over the past two seasons, and performed like a legitimate Hall of Famer. His postseason averages are 33.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 9.5 assists in 13 contests against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Thriving to that degree against the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the Clips, with not much of a supporting cast to speak of, shows how great Doncic already is and how deserving he is of a max contract this summer. It’ll be scary to see what he can do with better pieces around him in the coming years.
Parker was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft and won a championship and Finals MVP in 2016. Even after turning 35 in April, Parker is still playing at an elite level, and even last year, she won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year honors.