By Vincent Ng

2K Games announced Wednesday that Candace Parker will become the first woman featured on the cover of the popular NBA 2K basketball video game. Candace Parker is currently in her first season of WNBA’s Chicago Skys after 13 with the Los Angeles Sparks. She is an amazing player that has earned National Player of the Year accolades and Final Four Most Valuable Player honors while leading the Lady Vols to back-to-back NCAA championships in 2007 and 2008.

She will appear on special editions of “NBA 2K22” marking the 25th anniversary of the WNBA. They are available for preorder in North America only, ahead of a Sept. 10 release. The version will be sold exclusively through GameStop and EB Games, 2K publisher Take-Two Interactive Software said in a news release.

“The cover of NBA 2K is such a pivotal platform to inspire young ballers, and I wanted future WNBA stars to know that they can become cover athletes too,” Parker, 35, said in a statement. In another statement she states “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. All I wanted to do was just be like them.” Both of these statements show how important Candace Parker thinks the cover for video games are and how she believes that her being on the cover of a very popular game will inspire many young female athletes to pursue their dreams to be a basketball player.

Sports-related video games have rarely had women on their covers. NBA 2K did not start including WNBA teams and players in its iterations until 2019. This is a huge benchmark for women’s basketball, it not only inspires young women and girls but it also allows the athletes on the covers to gain popularity which then helps increase the popularity of the game. This means a lot for many people and also allows new ways to rise as a baller.