Aliyah Boston blasts NBA 2K26 likeness, says her model looks too young

Aliyah Boston’s NBA 2K26 face scan has become the latest test case for how seriously 2K handles WNBA likenesses. On a recent episode of Post Moves with Candace Parker, Boston reacted to her in-game image and said the model did not resemble her well, then joked that the version on screen looked much younger than she expected.

The timing made the comment land even harder. The podcast segment aired on May 15, 2026, the same day NBA 2K26 Season 7 launched, putting Boston’s critique in the middle of a fresh wave of WNBA updates. That matters because 2K has spent the cycle promoting The W as a bigger part of the game, with more rivalries, more attention and more hoops, while also expanding WNBA content across modes.

Boston’s complaint also cut into a broader question about how polished those additions really are. She said she had already done face scans, which turned the mismatch into a problem of execution rather than a missing scan altogether. She also compared her avatar with teammate Lexie Hull’s and said Hull’s model looked even worse, giving the discussion a sharp but playful edge that will sound familiar to anyone who has watched yearly sports games stumble on player likenesses.

The issue matters in NBA 2K because visual accuracy is not just cosmetic. In MyCAREER, The W and MyTEAM, the first impression comes from how close a player model looks to the real athlete on the court. NBA 2K26 now includes fully playable WNBA players, past and present, in MyTEAM for the first time in franchise history, and 2K has also added WNBA Player Cards to the mode. When the company is making that kind of commitment, the face scans have to hold up too.

Season 7 showed that 2K is still actively tuning the WNBA side of the game. The patch notes added the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo as playable teams in WNBA Quick Play, and updated uniforms and court floors for all WNBA teams with the latest 2026 changes. The companion app also continues to push face scan functionality for MyPLAYER, which only raises the stakes when a player like Boston says the likeness misses the mark.

Boston is not a fringe name inside the league. She was selected as a starter for the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game, her third straight All-Star nod, and the Fever listed her as an All-WNBA Second Team, All-WNBA Defensive Second Team and WNBA All-Star after the 2025 season. Indiana also signed her to a multiyear extension through the 2029 WNBA season under the EPIC provision. That makes her criticism more than a throwaway joke. It is a reminder that if 2K wants WNBA representation to feel real, the faces have to look like the players fans already know.