The NBA finals are quickly approaching, with the Phoenix Suns earning their ticket Wednesday night demolishing the Los Angeles Clippers 130-103 and the Atlanta Hawks/Milwaukee Bucks matchup currently tied at 2-and-2 games. It's the perfect opportunity to start talking about this year's NBA basketball game from 2K. Coincidentally, a new leak may have leaked some of the NBA stars that will adorn this year's various covers for NBA 2K22.
A Twitter account named 2KIntel shared what looks to be a photograph of a promotional flier for NBA 2K22, likely picked up from a retailer like GameStop. The flier features the NBA 2K22 logo, its release date of September 10, as well as some product info. But what's even more important is that half of the flier features artwork featuring three different NBA players, all of whom most basketball fans would call great players.
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The first player shown is the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, sporting his Los Angeles Lakers jersey and the iconic goggles that he wore due to frequently getting his eye scratched. Second is Dirk Nowitzki, who recently retired in 2019 after spending his entire NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks. The last NBA player, and the most controversial addition, is Kevin Durant. Durant currently plays for the Brooklyn Nets, though he earned his championship rings with the Golden State Warriors.
While the leaked image likely is for a cover for NBA 2K22, what it doesn't confirm is which cover it will be. That's because 2K typically releases multiple versions of its NBA games, each with different levels of extra digital content. It also does unique branding at times. For example, NBA 2K21 featured Mamba Forever Editions celebrating the life of Kobe Bryan, in addition to standard editions featuring Damian Lillard and Zion Williamson. There will likely be a similar special edition featuring these three past and present superstars for NBA 2K22.
What that could mean is that the standard edition NBA 2K22's cover stars have yet to be revealed. Kevin Durant could tentatively be the standard edition cover star, but that's not a certainty. Those hoping that another NBA star would be featured this year, since Durant was featured for NBA 2K15, still have hope.
NBA 2K21's covers were officially revealed in the first days of July last year. If 2K is planning a similar reveal for this year's game, an announcement could be forthcoming within days. Expect to hear more about NBA 2K22 perhaps as soon as later this week.
NBA 2K22 tentatively releases September 10 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.