It’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s world and we’re all just living in it. The 26-year-old superstar was officially announced as the cover athlete for the upcoming NBA 2K26 video game, joining a rare club that cements a player’s status as a pop culture phenomenon.
Shai’s On Top
Within the last month, the Canadian point guard wrapped up an MVP season with an NBA Finals victory (and Finals MVP, too) before signing a $285 million contract extension to secure his future with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now, with his face adorning the cover of the most popular basketball video game franchise of all time, Gilgeous-Alexander’s stock has reached an all-time high.
Gilgeous-Alexander shared the cover with the world himself on Instagram, using fellow Torontonian Drake’s new single “What Did I Miss?” as a soundtrack.
SGA announced himself as the NBA 2K26 Cover Athlete using Drakes ‘What Did I Miss’ pic.twitter.com/5YiZr5t0Ix
— ALMIGHTEE. (@realalmightee) July 8, 2025
“Checking things off my checklist,” Gilgeous-Alexander captioned the post. “What did I miss? #NBA2K26 Cover Athlete!”
Cover History
Gilgeous-Alexander becomes the first reigning MVP to grace the game’s cover since Stephen Curry was one of three main cover stars alongside Anthony Davis and James Harden on NB2K16. Giannis Antetokounmpo was announced as the cover star of NBA 2K19 in the Summer of 2018, before going on to win the next two NBA MVP awards.
SGA still has five more cover appearances to go if he wants to reach one of his idols, Kobe Bryant, for the all-time record with six different covers (counting various special editions). Allen Iverson and Michael Jordan are tied for second with five cover placements. Iverson has actually made the most appearances on the main cover of the game, as he was featured exclusively on the cover from the original NBA 2K to ESPN NBA Basketball, which was effectively NBA 2K4.
Shaquille O’Neal is third on the list with four appearances, followed by Kevin Durant‘s three. Durant has been featured as the main cover athlete, once on his own and once alongside Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin on the iconic NBA 2K13 cover. Like Gilgeous-Alexander, both of Durant’s main cover appearances came as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Surprisingly, LeBron James has only made two appearances on the cover of the game, once on the main cover for NBA 2K14 and again on the Championship Edition for NBA 2K19.
More To Come
2K is also expected to announce a WNBA cover star for that side of the game. A’ja Wilson got the honors alongside Jayson Tatum last season. This year, it feels like a two-way toss up between Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier for who will get the nod, with Clark being the prohibitive favorite. Wilson could hypothetically earn her second straight cover appearance as well, but it’s hard to imagine that 2K wouldn’t spread the love around, given the limited history of WNBA cover athletes.
The generational run continues ⚡️
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is your #NBA2K26 Standard Edition Cover Athlete!
Pre-order NBA 2K26 starting tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/1pQTtWOUh2
— NBA 2K (@NBA2K) July 8, 2025
As SGA pointed out on Instagram, the game is now available for preorder on your preferred platform’s store. 2K hasn’t released any sort of trailer yet, of course, so there’s no information on whether the game has made any notable improvement from what ended up being quite a down year with NBA 2K25. With any luck, EA’s recent announcement of that a college basketball game is being developed will at least put some fire behind the NBA 2K developers.
