Candace Parker Makes History As NBA 2K22 Cover Athlete, Joins Luka Doncic On Video Game

WNBA star Candace Parker is making history by becoming the first female basketball player to grace the cover of a video game. The Chicago Sky star will be the face of NBA 2K22’s WNBA 25th Anniversary special edition, which is set to be released on Sept. 10.

Parker is on one of the three different covers for NBA 2K22. Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic has one cover. The NBA 75th Anniversary edition cover features Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant, along with NBA legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dirk Nowitzki .

“I grew up a video game fanatic, that’s what I did, to the point where my brothers would give me the fake controller when I was younger where I think I was playing and I wasn’t,” Parker said, via The Associated Press. “All I wanted to do was just be like them. As a kid growing up, you dream of having your own shoe and dream of being in a video game. Those are an athlete as a kid’s dreams. To be able to experience that, I don’t take it lightly.”

NBA 2K22 covers: Luka Doncic, Candace Parker and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/Dirk Nowitzki/Kevin Durant. Parker becomes the first female cover athlete in the history of the 2K franchise. pic.twitter.com/A25op6IaWu
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 14, 2021

Extremely proud and humbled to be the first female cover athlete in the history of @NBA2K

I’m honored to work with a company that’s investing in women and betting on us to succeed. I’m hopeful there will be many more badass females to follow ____ pic.twitter.com/WJan4YE7Qt
— Candace Parker (@Candace_Parker) July 14, 2021

Parker was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft. She was named the Rookie of the Year and the WNBA MVP in her first season as a pro. Parker won two MVPs and one championship in 13 seasons with the Sparks.

As a member of Team USA, Park won Olympic gold medals in both 2008 and 2012. The 35-year-old joins Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson and former tennis player Jelena Dokic as the only female athletes to appear on the cover of sports video games.

“It means a lot to me,” Parker said. I’m a fan of basketball. I eat, sleep and breathe basketball. I’m a historian within basketball. I am a fan of basketball. I commentate basketball. I play video games,” she said. “It was really the perfect storm because there are a lot of other people well deserving of this and I know that.”

Parker is not part of the women’s Olympic team that will compete at the Tokyo Games. She’s averaging 13.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game for the Sky in the 2021 WNBA season.