It’s always fun when one of the major sporting franchises releases the next installment of their video game series.
You can almost guarantee that the sport’s star names, many of whom are big gamers, will have something to say about the attributes they are given by the developers – whether it’s speed, power, shooting, or a questionable 1980s haircut that causes their ire.
Just recently NBA 2K22, the latest edition of the basketball franchise developed by Visual Concepts, has announced the top-10 players in its overall rankings – and, as you might expect, sparks have already flown.
The game will feature four top stars that are tied on an overall rating of 96 – LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant.
The 2020-21 season MVP, Nikola Jokic, has a 95 rating, as does Joel Embiid and Kawhi Leonard, while there’s a trio of players locked on 94. Olympic gold medallist Damien Lillard, Luka Doncic, and James Harden, whose Brooklyn Nets are the favorites to win the title according to the NBA betting on bet365 championship odds, are all tied at that third-tier rating.
??? feel like we do this
every year… y’all ever gonna get it right?!?? #Ca
ntPlayItYet ??? ??? https://t.co/kXbQZ4V8dq— Trae Young
(@TheTraeYoung) August 18, 2021
Basketball fans can and will debate who has been over and under-rated by the game’s rankings, and some of the players themselves have already waded into the discussion. Trae Young, an NBA All-Star in 2020, has been given a relatively paltry rating of 89. He was not particularly pleased with that, and took to Twitter to ask the game’s official account ‘y’all ever gonna get it right?’
Durant was filmed in a TikTok video claiming, in modest fashion, that he should have been handed a rating of 99, such is his excellence in all departments. Meanwhile, Jayson Tatum was quick to voice his displeasure at only being handed a 90, he even went as far as to vent his fury on the official NBA 2K22 TikTok.
“I don’t know how we keep going backwards. I scored 50 in the playoffs twice, four 40-point games, tied Larry Bird’s record, 27 a night…” the Boston Celtics forward commented.
The King Is In Court
LeBron ‘King’ James knows a thing or two about basketball, and as a four-time NBA champion and MVP, he has built himself a platform on which to air his views.
Unlike the others, the LA Lakers star is not bemoaning his own rating on the game, but rather going into bat on the behalf of his NBA colleagues. He too took to Twitter to voice his opinion and gave the ultimate accolade to both Durant and Curry when claiming his belief that both should be 99 rated.
Nah should be 99!
??♂️— LeBron James (@KingJames)
August 18, 2021
The rankings can be used as a guide to the development and fluctuation in elite-level of basketball, and 12 months ago it was James and Giannis who found themselves the highest rated stars on 97. Both have since regressed by one point.
Only one at-the-time active star has ever been given a 100 rating by the franchise – Shaquille O’Neal back in 2002. Five players have been issued with a 99: James, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Chris Paul, and the sadly departed Kobe Bryant.
You can find out which stars of today you think have been rated inadequately when NBA 2K22 is released on all platforms on Friday, September 10.
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