Few things in sports mean more to an athlete than being on the cover of your team’s annual video game franchise. Sure, they may win championships and MVPs, but being featured on 2K establishes that player as one of the league’s faces. It recognizes the league’s most marketable player and puts them front and center. Not to mention that it likely reaches a larger audience than conventional NBA awards.
Having said that, it’s clear to see why the cover athlete receives so much attention each year. With so many marketable players in the NBA—young guns like Anthony Edwards making headlines, veterans like Kevin Durant still putting up big numbers, and All-Stars like Luka Doncic sporting dazzling new jerseys—the choices for the NBA 2K26 cover were limitless. Ultimately, there was only one option.
This is the second consecutive year that NBA 2K has featured a freshly crowned first-time NBA champion on its cover, with Boston Celtics player Jayson Tatum joined by A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces on the cover of NBA 2K25.
If the legendary video game series attempts to depict the current moment in the NBA each year, SGA was the obvious pick on the cover.
All he did from there was turn his spectacular regular season into an unstoppable playoff run that culminated with him winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy as champion and NBA Finals MVP.
Gilgeous-Alexander was at his best in the most crucial moments, which was precisely what the Thunder needed from their MVP when their title aspirations were on the line.
