Candace Parker

Chicago Sky forward, Candace Parker, is the first female cover athlete on the popular video game 2K22 special edition in honor of the WNBA’s 25th anniversary.

She joins Luka Dončić, who was named the cover athlete for the Standard Edition, and Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who will all be featured cover athletes for the NBA 75th Anniversary Edition.

Parker is a six-time All-Star, one-time WNBA champion, one-time WNBA Finals MVP and two-time Olympic gold medalist, she is a regular on NBA on TNT and has established herself to be a brand throughout her career on and off the court. 

She celebrated by posting on her twitter: 

“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.

Shaquille O’Neal also Reacts to Candace Parker

“I think it’s a benchmark of women’s basketball for sure. I think most importantly it speaks to visibility and how important it is and how important the WNBA is,” Parker said, via ESPN. “Everyone is looking at it that it’s impacting little girls, but it’s also impacting little boys and young men and young women and men and women. I think our game is different than the NBA; now it’s embracing that fact. Now more than ever, fans want to follow the athlete. Through social media, through video games, it’s adding and benefiting the WNBA.”

Parker, the two-time Olympic gold medalist will be commentating the medal rounds at the Tokyo games. 

WNBA players weren’t included in the annual video game franchise when it premiered in 1999 and she will be the first female and hopefully not the last to grace the cover. 

Parker will join the rest of the futures athletics on the NBA 2K22 cover for the WNBA 25th anniversary special edition when it’s released on Sept. 10, 2021.