Every year, basketball fans await the arrival of the newest NBA 2K title to play as their favorite NBA athletes, even when entries like NBA 2K21 provide controversy. 2K Sports announced that NBA 2K22 is set to release on September 10 this year for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Alongside the release date, 2K also revealed the new cover athletes for the year, with some notable choices across the special Anniversary Editions of the game.
NBA 2K22 will have four different editions of the game in the United States this year that fans can choose to purchase. This has been the trend for the series, with 2K sports offering various pre-order bonuses like the game's virtual currency and MyTEAM points to reward players for buying certain editions. Each edition of the game will vary in price, which is standard and will accommodate for the differing pre-order bonuses.
Last year's NBA 2K21 included three different cover athletes for the varying editions, with Portland Trailblazer's star Damian Lillard gracing the cover of the standard edition on last-gen consoles. Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans dunked on the cover of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S editions, while Kobe Bryant was immortalized on the Mamba Forever edition of the game, which released on all consoles. NBA 2K22 continues the tradition of multiple cover athletes with six different players spanning the four editions of the game.
All The Different NBA 2K22 Cover Athletes
2K Sports revealed the cover athletes for NBA 2K22, with Dallas Mavericks player Luka Dončić headlining the cover of the Standard Edition of the game. Dončić is a two-time All-Star after only three seasons in the NBA, and the Standard Edition cover honors the athlete with a blue, white, and red background that represents his home country of Slovania. Dončić also appears on the cover of the NBA 2K22 Digital Cross-Gen Bundle, with a completely different painting of the player than the Standard Edition.
The NBA 2K22 NBA 75th Anniversary Edition includes three different athletes on the cover, featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Durant. This will be the first appearance for both Abdul-Jabbar and Nowitzki on an NBA 2K cover, while giving Durant his third cover appearance after NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K15. The fourth version of NBA 2K22 is the WNBA 25th Anniversary Special Edition, with Chicago Sky star Candace Parker serving as the cover athlete. WNBA athletes were first included in NBA 2K20, and Parker will be the first female cover athlete in NBA 2K history. This edition will only be sold as a physical edition for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S at GameStop and EB Games in Canada.
2K will also release a version of NBA 2K22's Standard Edition in Japan with Washington Wizards player Rui Hachimura on the cover, honoring Hachimura as the first Japanese player to ever be chosen in the first round of the NBA draft. Whatever edition fans choose, the covers of NBA 2K22 this year have great athletes to represent the game.
Source: 2K Sports