Candace Parker Comments on Being NBA 2K's First-Ever Female Cover Athlete

Earlier today, 2K Games revealed the cover athletes for NBA 2K22, and one of them will be Candace Parker. Parker is a six-time WNBA All-Star and WNBA Champion, as well as the first female cover athlete in the history of the series. Parker will appear on a special standard edition of the game, which will be available exclusively at GameStop and EB Games locations in North America. Following the announcement, Parker took to social media to share her thoughts on the appearance, as well as her hopes that it will lead to more women gracing the cover in the future.

The Tweet from Parker can be found embedded below.

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 💪🏽💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/WJan4YE7Qt

— Candace Parker (@Candace_Parker) July 14, 2021

Parker was drafted into the WNBA in 2008 by the Los Angeles Sparks. Parker remained with the team for 13 seasons, but signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Sky earlier this year, after becoming an unrestricted free agent. Throughout her career, Parker has won numerous awards, and also represented Team USA in the Olympics. Given her impressive career, she truly seems like a great candidate for this honor!

It will be interesting to see if Parker's appearance on the cover paves a pathway for other female athletes. WNBA players have been appearing in the series since NBA 2K20, and this will hopefully open the door for other women to be similarly featured. The WNBA has a number of other potential candidates, including A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, and more. It's impossible to say what the future may hold, but this certainly seems like a nice start.

NBA 2K22 will release September 10th on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. You can check out our previous coverage of the game right here.

Do you plan on picking up NBA 2K22? Are you happy to see Candace Parker as a cover athlete for this year's game? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!