Candace Parker dreamed of having her own shoe line or appearing on the cover of a sports video game as a lifelong basketball lover.
The latter came true for the 35-year-old WNBA legend on Wednesday, July 13, 2021, when it was announced that she would grace the cover of the wildly popular NBA 2K video game.
The first WNBA player on a cover of NBA 2K 🙌
— NBA 2K (@NBA2K) July 14, 2021
Introducing our GameStop Exclusive Cover Athlete @Candace_Parker pic.twitter.com/OKG8nDDRCF
Parker, who now plays for the Chicago Sky and also commentates for NBA games on TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” will be featured on the cover of NBA 2K22, which will be released on September 10 in honor of the WNBA’s 25th anniversary special edition.
With this honor, the future Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee has joined a select group of women who have adorned the cover of video games in their respective sports. Jelena Dokic appeared on a tennis game roughly 20 years ago, and Shawn Johnson was on a Gymnastics by Wii game in 2010.
Extremely proud and humbled to be the first female cover athlete in the history of @NBA2K
— Candace Parker (@Candace_Parker) July 14, 2021
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 💪🏽💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/WJan4YE7Qt