Angel Reese To Be Featured On Cover of NBA 2K26

Come to LSU, end up on a video game cover

Angel Reese’s stardom continues to grow and on Wednesday morning her on the court and off the court personas combined to reach new heights.

Reese will be the cover athlete of the WNBA edition of 2K26. She will join the cover alongside Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning league and NBA Finals MVP, and NBA Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony. SGA will be the cover athlete for the standard edition, Anthony will be the athlete on the superstar edition, and all three will be featured on what 2K’s calling its “leave no doubt” edition.

This is a really cool honor for Reese. The 2K game only recently started making a WNBA edition, and Reese will be the sixth player to be on the cover. Candace Parker was the first cover athlete for 2K22, which coincided with the WNBA’s 25th anniversary. Since then Dianna Taurasi and Sue Bird shared the cover for 2K23, Sabrina Ionescu was on 2K24, and A’Ja Wilson was the cover athlete for last year’s game.

Reese said being this year’s cover athlete is “a statement” and that “it’s about representation and showing young girls they can be confident, bold, and take up space unapologetically. To be cemented in NBA 2K history is a special honor that reflects not only my journey, but also all the veteran WNBA players who have paved the way before me and the growing impact of the league as a whole.”

Reese also revealed that her first ever signature shoe, from Reebok, which she will be wearing on the cover of 2K26, is dropping soon.

Since being taken seventh overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2024 WNBA Draft, Reese has become one of the league’s best players. She just earned her second straight All-Star selection and might already be the best rebounder in league history.

This season Reese is averaging 12.94 rebounds per game. That’s the second most in a single season behind…herself. Last season as a rookie, Reese set a WNBA record with 13.12 boards per game. Over her last five games she’s averaging 19 points and 16 rebounds, and has grabbed 15 or more rebounds in six consecutive games.

On a related note, LSU as a whole is on a pretty impressive run of producing video game cover athletes. Paul Skenes was one of three cover athletes for this year’s edition of MLB The Show, Garrett Nussmeier is on the deluxe edition of CFB 26, and Odell Beckham was LSU’s first Madden cover athlete back in 2016. Speaking of Madden, I’d be shocked if Jayden Daniels, Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson, or Ja’Marr Chase don’t end up gracing the cover of a future game. As far as I can tell, all we need now is one of our soccer Tigers to one day grace the cover of FIFA or whatever they’re calling it these days to have all of the sports games infinity stones.