Photo: Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty
Candace Parkeris making sports video game history.
On Wednesday, 2K Sportsannouncedthat the 35-year-old basketball player will grace theNBA 2K22cover for the WNBA 25th anniversary special edition, making her the first female cover athlete in the franchise’s history.
Set to be released on Sept. 10, Parker joinsLuka Dončić— who was named the cover athlete for the standard edition — andKevin Durant,Dirk NowitzkiandKareem Abdul-Jabbar, who will star on the cover for the NBA 75th anniversary edition.
“Extremely proud and humbled to be the first female cover athlete in the history of @NBA2K,” Parkerwroteon Twitter. “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.”
Speaking with ESPN, Parker — a self-described “video game fanatic” — said the news of her cover is a dream come true.
“As a kid growing up, you dream of having your own shoe and dream of being in a video game. Those are an athlete as a kid’s dreams. To be able to experience that, I don’t take it lightly,” she told the outlet.
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The sports star also said that she understands there were an array of other players who could have been chosen to be the first to cover the game.
“It means a lot to me. I’m a fan of basketball. I eat, sleep and breathe basketball. I’m a historian within basketball. I am a fan of basketball. I commentate basketball. I play video games,” the former MVP said. “It was really the perfect storm because there are a lot of other people well-deserving of this, and I know that.”
RELATED VIDEO: WNBA Celebrates 25th Anniversary — Watch
All three versions of the forthcoming video game are planned to be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC, perFox News. The WNBA 25th anniversary special edition is available forpre-ordernow.
In an interview earlier this year, Parker told PEOPLE she was proud to be just one of an entire generation of WNBA athletes who are making “strides forward” in ensuring the league is taken seriously on the court – and off.
“We’ve gone from a couple of athletes speaking out to now, an entire league shutting down and demanding change,” she told PEOPLE.
source: people.com
