At just 22 years old, it’s incredible what Victor Wembanyama has already accomplished in his brief NBA career. Just this past season, he was unanimously named Defensive Player of the Year, finished third in MVP voting, and helped guide the Spurs to the NBA Finals.
Of course, in those NBA Finals, San Antonio fell in five games to the Knicks. Unfortunately for them, the games were 48 minutes long, not 46. New York fans truly started to show their disdain for Wembanyama after he grabbed and shoved Jalen Brunson by the back of his neck in Game 3 and somehow wasn’t called for a foul.
On Wednesday, Shams Charania of ESPN tweeted that Wembanyama will be the cover athlete for the upcoming NBA 2K27 video game. As much as Knicks fans dislike him at the moment, they also certainly would much rather have a championship than a video game cover athlete.
San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama is the NBA 2K27 cover athlete, per sources.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 22, 2026
Brunson's Finals MVP > Wemby's video game cover
Most of the Knicks' fanbase likely believes that Jalen Brunson should have received the honor of being the cover athlete. Video games—not just NBA 2K—often aren’t going to put someone who just won a championship on the cover of their game. Last year, they did put Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the cover, fresh off a year in which he was named MVP and Finals MVP and won a title. The year before that, it was Jayson Tatum, who was also coming off a championship season. Enlisting Wemby as the cover star ends a brief two-year streak of reigning champions receiving the honor.
Wembanyama is obviously already one of the game’s great players at such a young age. Still, the NBA Finals saw his Spurs somehow blow a 29-point lead in the third quarter of Game 4. Facing a deafening Madison Square Garden crowd, Wemby had an 0-2 trip at the line late in the blown defeat. In Game 2, Wembanyama missed several shots in the final 30 seconds, including a would-be game-winner at the end, as the Knicks won by a point.
A video game cover is nice, but a championship is much sweeter. Keep in mind that Brunson's Knicks also beat Wemby's Spurs in the NBA Cup Finals. Wembanyama still has plenty of time to win a title, but for now, Knicks fans are still too overjoyed to let it bother them all that much that an NBA Finals rival will be on the cover of the upcoming 2K game.
Don’t expect Knicks Nation to congratulate Wemby for the accomplishment, just as Wembanyama refused to congratulate or shake hands with any Knicks after Game 5.
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