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NBA champion and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is on a set so huge it makes his 6’6” frame seem small in comparison.
Gilgeous-Alexander, better known as SGA, walks past a massive fur-collared coat hanging on a garment rack and over to a director’s chair, a plastic cup overflowing with Airheads and other chewy candies in his hand. Clad in his full Oklahoma City Thunder uniform, he sits gracefully into the almost comically small chair and gingerly places the candy on the table in front of him.
I jokingly reach for one. “Uh-uh, put that back,” he deadpans, his impossibly deep voice echoing in this huge space. I place an orange Airhead back in the cup. “I’m just playing, take one.” It’s this kind of unexpected, dry humor that keeps SGA fans (and haters) on their toes, and what’s cemented his legacy as one of the biggest stars in NBA history at just 26 years old.
Behind us stands a faux-concrete wall with the NBA2K logo emblazoned on it. Gilgeous-Alexander is here for the legendary video game series’ cover shoot for its annual release, which includes him, the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese, and retired all-star Carmelo Anthony.
It’s an impressive group this year: Reese is still in the midst of just her second professional season, but has already become one of the biggest names in the league thanks to her on-court play and off-court attitude, and Gilgeous-Alexander just nabbed both the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship trophy and the league’s MVP honor. He also just signed a historic, four-year, $285 million “supermax” contract extension.
“I really just want to see what the best version of myself can look like when this is all said ‘n done,” he tells Rolling Stone. “No matter what I achieve, no matter how much money I make, no matter how many fans I have, I just want to see how good of a basketball player I can be before I hang up my shoes.”
Those shoes will likely be his custom Converse sneakers, which are resting on the seat beside him — and are also, of course, in NBA2K26.
From NBA2K fans to NBA2K cover stars
The NBA2K series has been a cultural tastemaker since 1999. It is intrinsically tied to professional basketball, its star athletes, and the fashion and music they prefer both on and off the court. As such, there’s a coolness factor; a vibiness you don’t often experience in the world of video games. This isn’t just a game, it’s a lifestyle, and there’s no one more important to that lifestyle than its leaders — in this case, NBA2K’s cover athletes.
“Basketball, more than any other sport, has an integration into a culture and has actually defined a culture around it,” says NBA2K general manager and senior vice president Zak Armitage. “People know what you mean when you say basketball culture, it’s so ingrained in the sport itself. In our game, you can have the fashion, the music, and the play going on all at once. We have players wearing the clothes they want to wear, listening to the music they want to wear, and dunking on their best friends.”
2K cover stars become long-term partners with the developer, with their fashion, music, and gameplay influences becoming a part of this digital hoop world. “It’s not just putting players on a cover,” Armitage insists. “This may be one of the big misconceptions we get, that we’re just putting a picture of someone on a cover. It’s really a year-long, if not a multi-year-long, partnership with these athletes. They’ve grown up playing and looking at these covers. It’s a milestone for them, and we want to make it feel impactful and celebrate them as much as possible.”
Celebrating them includes ensuring their in-game characters look like the real deal. Reese made sure her famous eyelash extensions (which she does herself) made it into the 2K franchise. Last year, as part of her inclusion in 2K25, Reese worked closely with the team to ensure her in-game avatar had that unmistakable “AR” flair. She was scanned into the game twice: once right after she was drafted, and again a few months later to “make sure it was perfect.”
“They let me have creative control and make sure they have my lashes, my edges, my ponytail, my leg sleeve,” she says, excitedly. “I love that they were able to be super creative and let us identify ourselves. I know a lot of young girls are going to be like, ‘Hey, we can play this game and have our lashes and nails done and be cute and still be dogs on the court’.”
Reese’s enthusiasm highlights just how culturally significant the NBA 2K series is for both players and fans alike. In both the WNBA and the NBA, Black players make up a majority of the league (67 percent in the WNBA, according to a 2019 survey, and 70.4 percent in the NBA as of 2023), and 2K historically courts a much more diverse player base than the average video game.
As such, the series takes its depiction of Black players seriously, by ensuring hair textures look realistic, hair styles are unique (no Killmonger cut here), and skin tones are varied and accurate. Letting the athletes offer feedback on their in-game avatars isn’t just 2K ensuring a celebrity feels accurately portrayed — it’s an unspoken promise that the game will respect its stars and its player base.
“I think we put in new eyelash technology just for [Angel],” Armitage tells me.
It’s that attention to detail that cements NBA2K as a video game series that is as much about the culture of basketball as it is the game itself. And you can’t honor hoop culture without honoring the hoopers, those who define the tempo of every game and the vibes off the court, too.
“Women’s basketball is everywhere you turn, left and right, you see jerseys walking up and down the street. They know who we are, just like they know the men. That’s what it’s supposed to be like,” Reese says. “This is where we belong, and we’re not stopping now.”
A major hoops honor
Putting Reese on the cover is a big deal for such a young player — after all, 2K only just featured its first WNBA star a few years ago, and even then, it was only on the special edition. The 35th anniversary edition of NBA2K22 starred Chicago Sky future hall of famer Candace Parker, who then praised the series for helping prop up women’s basketball.
Since then, a woman player has been on some version of a 2K cover, whether it’s 2K23’s WNBA edition with Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, or A’Ja Wilson on both the WNBA and All-Star versions of 2K25.
“I think it’s long overdue. I think we deserve to be here. These are the spaces that we’re supposed to be,” Reese tells Rolling Stone. “We’ve done a lot of great, phenomenal things. I know these women who have done this before me; they’ve wanted this for a long time, too.”
Reese grew up playing 2K with her younger brother, which brings extra meaning to the occasion for her. “We used to play all the time,” she says. “This is an honor. He doesn’t even know yet. I actually need to tell him today. He’s probably going to ask me for some VC [in-game currency] or something.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, too, has fond memories of playing with his sibling.
“I played 2K with my brother every day after school,” he says. They’d take turns playing My Player, a mode that lets you build your own NBA athlete from scratch, using sliders to adjust everything from speed to ball handling. “We tried to see whose player could be better in a certain amount of time. Sometimes before I got on the game, he would turn his sliders up [to try and mess with me], and I wouldn’t know. 2K was an everyday thing.”
And now, thanks to major gameplay adjustments, Gilgeous-Alexander can play not just as himself, but like himself.
The NBA2K series utilizes a trademarked “ProPlay” animation system, which takes real-world NBA game footage and translates it into in-game movements. NBA2K25 added 9,000 new animations, including 1,100 signature shots for almost all of the rostered players for the 2023-24 NBA season, to make players really feel like they’re embodying the hoop star they’re controlling at any given moment.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s playstyle is defined by momentum shifts and lightning-fast pivots, like a rally car downshifting to take a tight turn. It’s why he’s so difficult to guard (and why he draws so many fouls), but for a while, he couldn’t really play 2K the way he hoops IRL.
“As the years have gone by, they’ve done a better job of getting my movements and my jump shot and like my game style,” he says. “That’s been very cool to see. Before, I just had to go out there and play like Tony Parker, just for example, and shoot floaters. Now I can go out there and play like myself.”
