The latest edition of the 2k series is almost around the corner. Usually hitting the markets in the first week of September, 2k recently revealed their cover athletes for NBA 2K25. While 2K Sports decided to go with Vince Carter as their cover athlete for the Hall of Fame edition, Shaquille O’Neal went in a different direction instead.
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NBA 2K25 features three players on the cover. Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum will feature on the regular version of the game whereas A’ja Wilson will be gracing the WNBA edition of the physical copy. And Vince Carter will be plastered over the Hall of Fame edition of the game.
Jayson Tatum and A'Ja Wilson are the cover athletes of NBA 2K25!
Vince Carter is the Hall of Fame cover athlete pic.twitter.com/nBzyCipO8E
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) July 10, 2024
While 2K Sports already have their pick of stars as cover athletes for NBA 2K25, the official Instagram page of the Orlando Magic had something else in mind.
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Coming out with their own ‘Orlando Version’ of the game, the Magic’s Instagram page decided to go with Shaquille O’Neal as their cover athlete for the upcoming game. The Magic decided to replace Vince Carter with Shaquille O’Neal in a Magic jersey.
This edition that the Orlando Magic made caught Shaquille O’Neal’s attention. The Big Aristotle went ahead and shared the post on his Instagram Stories, promoting his cover over Vince Carter’s instead.
G̵o̵d̵'̵s̵ ̵P̵l̵a̵n̵
Shaq's Plan pic.twitter.com/YdweM25c0d
— What are (W)NBA Celebs Upto? (@NBACelebsUpdate) July 14, 2024
It has been a while since Shaquille O’Neal has been on the cover of a 2K game. The Los Angeles Lakers legend has been the cover athlete for the 2K series three times in the past. His first appearance came on the cover of NBA 2K6.
He followed it up with the cover athlete of NBA 2K7, making it back-to-back appearances for Shaq Diesel. The last time O’Neal was on the 2k cover was on the NBA 2K18 edition. The 2K18 edition had two versions of Shaquille O’Neal on its cover.
One was labeled as the ‘Legend’s Edition,’ which had O’Neal in a Miami Heat jersey. 2K made another edition called the ‘Legend Edition Gold’ which featured O’Neal in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform instead.
So, it has been a while since fans have seen Diesel on the cover of an NBA 2K. As for his recent post on Instagram, Shaq was not throwing shade at Vince Carter.
The four-time NBA champion has immense respect for the man who is known as ‘Half-Man, Half-Amazing.’ But to feature on an NBA 2K cover is something players and even legends always love. So, Shaq just might be missing that spotlight and the Orlando Magic edition helped him reminisce some of those glory days of his.
