Victor Wembanyama is the new face of NBA2K27, and that decision says plenty about how the game’s cover spot gets decided.
On Wednesday morning, it was announced that the Spurs center will be the main cover athlete for the next edition of the video game. For plenty of players, that kind of recognition is the sort of thing they picture long before they ever reach the league.
Jalen Brunson was the name many expected to hear instead. He just led the Knicks to an NBA championship this past postseason and picked up NBA Finals MVP honors for his work. New York beat a talented and young Spurs team that had been chasing a historic playoff run after knocking off the Thunder in the WCF.
San Antonio made that series a fight. A lot of the NBA Finals games were close, but the Knicks handled the clutch moments better and won more of them, ending the Spurs’ bid for another title.
Even with that postseason success on Brunson’s side, Wembanyama got the nod for NBA2K27, and that raised eyebrows.
Recent playoff results have mattered in these cover selections before, but they are not the only thing that counts. The last two years back that up: after winning a title with the Celtics in 2024, Jayson Tatum landed the NBA2K25 cover, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got the NBA2K26 honor after winning NBA Finals MVP with the Thunder in 2025.
Wembanyama’s global profile likely helped too. He has quickly become one of the league’s biggest faces in only his first few seasons, and the numbers show the reach. He has 6.2 million Instagram followers, while Brunson has 2 million.
He also had the stronger regular season overall and drew far more MVP votes than Brunson.
So while the case for Brunson is a fair one, this probably won’t be his last shot at the cover. He’ll be in the mix with players like Nikola Jokic and Anthony Edwards in the seasons ahead.
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