Jayson Tatum adds another honor to his 2024 resume

Over the past few weeks, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum has won his first NBA Championship, signed the biggest contract in NBA history, and later this month will be one of the top players on Team USA at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. It's safe to say the 'Summer of Jayson Tatum' is off and running.

On Friday morning, Tatum received another big honor. It was announced that he will be one of the cover athletes for the latest game in the NBA 2K franchise, NBA 2K25.

Tatum will feature on the cover of two of the four versions of this year's game, which will be released on September 6. He's on the standard edition of the game, and is joined by two-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson on the All-Star edition. Wilson also has her own standard cover, while Vince Carter is on the cover of the Hall of Fame edition.

“It’s an honor to be named a cover athlete for NBA 2K25,” Tatum said in a statement from 2K. “I’ve been playing NBA 2K since I was a kid and it’s been a dream to one day be on the cover. Even after coming off an NBA Championship, it’s humbling to see this come to life.”

Tatum shared more about finding out he was the cover athlete on an episode of The Old Man & The Three podcast with Sue Bird. "When I was younger, I had so many dreams and goals and things I wanted to check off," he said. "I’m experiencing those things in real time."

This will be the third or fourth time a Celtics player is on the cover of the 2K games, depending on how they're counted. Kevin Garnet was the first Celtic to get the honor on NBA 2K9. Larry Bird was part of a trio of legends who were the cover athletes of 2K12. For 2K18, Kyrie Irving was announced as the cover athlete while he was still a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but was traded to the Celtics before the game came out, with the cover art being changed to reflect that.

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