Candace Parker Becomes First Woman To Cover NBA2K22

Candace Parker is a fucking beast. It always has been.

She was a beast in Tennessee, where she led the team to back-to-back national championships and was aptly named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player for those two wins. She was twice the National Consensus Player of the Year and the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game.

Parker was selected with the first pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks. She would win the WNBA Most Valuable Player award as a rookie and then win it again in 2013. In 2016, she led the Sparks to a WNBA title. She has won every award possible and has been selected to six All-WNBA teams and five All-Star teams.

So it makes sense that the woman who plays like she’s in a video game becomes the face of it, as the Chicago Sky Center will appear on the NBA 2K22 cover marking the special 25th anniversary edition of the game set for release on September 10. Parker becomes the first woman in gaming history to grace the cover.

“I grew up being a video game fanatic, that’s what I did, to the point where my brothers gave me the wrong controller when I was younger where I think I was playing and I didn’t. wasn’t, ”Parker said. ESPN.

“All I wanted was to be like them. Growing up, you dreamed of having your own shoe and dreamed of being in a video game. These are the dreams of an athlete and a child. To be able to experience this, I do not take it lightly.

Parker added that as a seasoned veteran, she has come to appreciate the loot that comes with league domination for years.

“I think when you’re young and going through that stuff you just move on,” she said. “As I got older, I really savored the moment.”

ESPN notes that while the NBA 2K the franchise has never had a woman on the cover, unlike other sports.

“Parker is joining an exclusive group of female athletes to adorn sports game covers. Shawn Johnson was on a Gymnastics by Wii game in 2010, and Jelena Dokic was on a tennis match in the early 2000s.

“I think it’s a benchmark in women’s basketball for sure. I think the most important thing is that it talks about visibility and how important it is and how important the WNBA is, ”Parker said. “Everyone sees it as having an impact on little girls, but it also has an impact on little boys and young men and young women and men and women. I think our game is different from the NBA; now he embraces that fact. More than ever, the fans want to follow the athlete. Through social media, video games, it adds and benefits the WNBA. “

The 35-year-old knows that many players could have been chosen to be the first to cover the cover and she is honored and humbled that her number was chosen.

“It means a lot to me,” she said. “I am a basketball fan. I eat, sleep and breathe basketball. I am a basketball historian. I am a basketball fan. I comment on basketball. I play video games. It really was the perfect storm because there are a lot of other people out there who deserve it, and I know it. “

Parker joins Luka Doncic, who will cover the regular edition of the game and “Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who have been recognized as cover athletes for the 75th anniversary edition of the NBA”,

And don’t tell me that women’s basketball doesn’t have the same physique as men’s basketball, because Parker regularly dunks on Shaquille O’Neal as an analyst for TNT.

Like that: