NBA 2K covers trace the sport’s stars, legends, and future icons

NBA 2K’s cover art has always done more than dress up the menu screen. It tells you who the series believes defines basketball right now, who carries the legacy, and which names are about to drive preorder chatter, edition upgrades, and year-one expectations. If you play for MyPLAYER, MyNBA, or the WNBA modes, the cover is the first clue about where 2K is putting its energy.

The stars that set the template

The franchise’s modern cover history starts with a simple idea: attach the game to personalities strong enough to frame an era. Allen Iverson established that early run, and the pattern kept evolving as the NBA changed around it. Kyrie Irving became the NBA 2K18 cover athlete, then Giannis Antetokounmpo became the first international player on a standard NBA 2K cover with NBA 2K19, a clean marker that the series was tracking basketball’s global reach as closely as its American center stage.

NBA 2K20 sharpened that approach with Anthony Davis and Dwyane Wade. 2K announced the game on July 1, 2019, called Davis a “generation-defining talent,” and noted that he was on his second NBA 2K cover. Wade got the Legend Edition cover as he was closing out his NBA career, which turned the reveal into a farewell marker as much as a sales beat. That is the useful part of the franchise’s cover strategy: it does not just choose stars, it chooses moments.

Present and future got paired on purpose

NBA 2K21 made the theme even clearer by pairing Damian Lillard, Zion Williamson, and Kobe Bryant. 2K framed that trio as the present and future of NBA superstardom, and that framing mattered because the cover no longer felt like a single-player coronation. It was a statement about the league’s timeline, with Lillard representing established excellence, Zion representing the next wave, and Kobe anchoring the whole reveal with the weight of a modern icon.

That same year, 2K introduced The W as the first-ever WNBA MyPLAYER experience. The move mattered because it tied representation to a playable system instead of leaving it at the level of packaging or special-edition art. In other words, the cover was no longer only telling players who mattered, it was starting to show them where the game was prepared to spend design attention.

The canon widened to include women’s basketball as core identity

NBA 2K23 pushed that expansion further. The game’s WNBA Edition featured Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, and 2K announced it on July 6, 2022. That edition was the franchise’s second cover showcasing WNBA legends, and it came with a concrete commitment: 2K partnered with Bird and Taurasi to donate $100,000 to Every Kid Sports to help expand youth basketball access.

The rest of the 2K23 package kept the same logic. The game offered four editions, including a Michael Jordan Edition and a Championship Edition with a 12-month NBA League Pass subscription. Jordan’s presence kept the brand tied to the sport’s highest standard, while the WNBA Edition showed the series had moved from symbolic inclusion toward a broader, more deliberate canon.

Kobe, then Kobe again, then a broader global pitch

NBA 2K24 leaned into legacy with Kobe Bryant on the Kobe Bryant Edition and Black Mamba Edition. 2K said the game would release worldwide on September 8, 2023, and the 25th Anniversary Edition included a 12-month subscription to NBA League Pass. 2K also said the game would feature crossplay compatibility for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, which turned the reveal into more than a cover story. It became a statement about how the yearly release was supposed to connect across platforms as well as across generations of fans.

Kobe getting another dedicated cover was not just nostalgia. It was the franchise using a singular legacy to keep the annual release anchored, especially in a year when the value proposition also included crossplay and a premium anniversary bundle. For players, that combination set a very specific expectation: this was a headline edition built to feel bigger than a standard roster refresh.

NBA 2K25 made the dual-cover era explicit

NBA 2K25 was the first NBA and WNBA dual global cover, and that choice made the series’ priorities impossible to miss. The cover athletes were Jayson Tatum, A’ja Wilson, and Vince Carter, with 2K tying the reveal to the growth of basketball’s popularity worldwide. Tatum brought current NBA championship credibility, Wilson brought two-time WNBA MVP status, and Carter supplied Hall of Fame stature that bridged eras without freezing the game in them.

The launch plan backed up the positioning. 2K said NBA 2K25 would launch worldwide on September 6, 2024, with New Gen versions using ProPLAY technology. Players who pre-ordered got early tip-off access starting September 4, which made the cover reveal part of the actual buying decision, not just the marketing cycle. In March 2025, 2K Foundations and A’ja Wilson unveiled a new basketball court at the Boys & Girls Club of Southern Nevada with the A’ja Wilson Foundation and Play With Purpose, and 50 local kids took part in activities on the floor. That kind of community tie-in made Wilson’s cover placement feel connected to real-world basketball access, not just promotional art.

The latest cover keeps tracking the sport’s next public faces

NBA 2K26 carried the formula forward on July 9, 2025, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Angel Reese, and Carmelo Anthony. The global launch followed on September 5, 2025, and early access began August 29 for Superstar and Leave No Doubt editions. The mix is telling: Shai represents elite current production, Carmelo brings established star power, and Angel Reese points squarely at the internet-era charisma and cultural pull that now shape how basketball stars are received.

That is the real thread running through the whole cover history. NBA 2K uses its annual reveal like a canon update, moving from Iverson and Kyrie to Giannis, Davis, Wade, Kobe, Jordan, Bird, Taurasi, Tatum, Wilson, and Reese. Each box tells players what kind of basketball the game thinks matters most this year, and by the time the cover lands, the expectations for the season are already set.