WNBA star Candace Parker became the first female basketball player to appear on the cover of a video game and is making history. The Chicago Skystar will be the spokesperson for the WNBA 25th Anniversary Special Edition of “NBA 2K22”, which will be released on September 10.
Parker is one of three different covers for NBA 2K22. Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic has a cover. The cover of the NBA 75th Anniversary Edition includes Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant and NBA legends Karim Abdul-Jabbar and Dirk Nowitzki.
“I’ve been a video game fan since I was a kid, and this is what I did, so much so that my brothers would give me fake controllers when I was young. I thought I was playing but I didn’t,” Parker said. Associated Press“What I want to do is to be like them. As a grown-up child, you dream of owning your own shoes and dreaming of playing video games. That is the athlete your children dream of. In order to experience this, I will not take it lightly.
NBA 2K22 cover: Luka Doncic, Candice Parker and Karim Abdul-Jabbar/Dirk Nowitzki/Kevin Durant. Parker became the first female cover athlete in the history of the 2K franchise. pic.twitter.com/A25op6IaWu
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 14, 2021
Very proud and humble to become the first female cover athlete in history @NBA2K
I am honored to work with a company that invests in women and bets on our success. I hope that more bad women will follow ____ pic.twitter.com/WJan4YE7Qt
— Candace Parker (@Candace_Parker) July 14, 2021
Parker was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks with the first overall pick in the first round of the 2008 WNBA Draft. She was named Rookie of the Year and WNBA MVP in the first season of her career. Parker won two MVPs and a championship in 13 seasons with the Sparks.
As a member of the US team, Park Geun-hye won Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012. The 35-year-old athlete, along with Olympic gymnast Sean Johnson and former tennis player Jelena Dokic, became the only female athlete to appear on the cover of a sports video game.
“It means a lot to me,” Parker said. I am a basketball fan. I eat, sleep, and breathe basketball. I am a historian in basketball. I am a basketball fan. I comment on basketball. I play video games,” she said. “It’s really a perfect storm, because there are so many other people who deserve it, and I know that. “
Parker is not a member of the women’s Olympic team that will participate in the Tokyo Olympics. In the 2021 WNBA season, she averaged 13.3 points and 8.8 rebounds for the Sky team.
Photo: Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
