The history of video game covers and Boston athletes

Boston athletes and video game covers go way back. Probably further back that you're imagining.

Basically, they go back to the very beginning of video game history. The rise of home console systems converged with the emergence of Larry Bird as a superstar player for the Boston Celtics, making it a logical choice to plaster No. 33's face on the newest game covers.

And it wasn't just about putting Bird's face on the box. Bird was the game. He and "Dr. J" Julius Erving, and later Michael Jordan, helped sell the earliest basketball video games to consumers in the early 1980s. More than 40 years later, Boston athletes have graced video game covers more than a dozen times. It's a tough group to break into, but you could say Boston sports teams have had some success in recent years.

Here's a look at the history of Boston athletes on video game covers, beginning with the one that started it all...

The Madden franchise typically gets the credit for Electronic Arts' rise to prominence in sports gaming, but this simple little basketball game featuring two of the game's biggest superstars was the real breakthrough. In fact, "One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird" was a breakthrough for sports video games as a whole.

Originally released in 1983 on the primitive Apple II computer, "Dr J vs. Larry Bird" was an immediate hit, and later got released on early video game consoles like Atari and ColecoVision. EA founder Trip Hawkins told Vice in a 2017 interview that the game gave him and his company the confidence to further develop sports-based games.

Fast-forward to 2024, and EA Sports remains a gaming behemoth. But, interestingly enough, they've ceded the top of the basketball mountain to 2K Sports. You'll see more of them below.

The 1988 sequel to "Dr. J vs. Larry Bird" incorporated future GOAT Michael Jordan into the mix, three years before he even won his first NBA championship. Bird had won his three titles with the Celtics by this point, making this game the latest clash of megastars. "Jordan vs. Bird" was the first Nintendo NBA game, released on NES and Game Boy, and later Sega Genesis.

This EA Sports title is widely considered one of the greatest hockey games ever made, and still holds up to this day. And it just so happens to feature a Bruins player on the cover, goaltender Andy Moog. That's not Wayne Gretzky coming in on him, but his Kings linemate at the time, Tomas Sandström. Moog was coming off a 1992-93 season in which he finished fifth in Vezina Trophy voting.

Poor Antoine Walker. He became the butt of the joke for a ClickHole article in 2018, two decades after gracing the cover of EA Sports' "NBA Live '99." But to be fair to the makers of the game, Walker was coming off an excellent 1997-98 season for the Celtics, averaging 22.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game and finishing 12th in MVP voting. He DID have a pretty good career, maybe just not the Hall-of-Fame run that Boston and EA Sports were hoping for at the time.

Now we're talkin'. Interestingly enough, Brady had just one Super Bowl title to his credit by the time he appeared on this video game cover. But he was coming off a 2002 season in which he led the NFL with 28 touchdown passes - a hilarious thought in itself. Bet many NFL fans thought Brady and the Patriots were a fluke at this point in time.

Only four NBA Inside Drive games were ever made, and exclusively for Microsoft/XBox systems. But Paul Pierce managed to make the cover of the 2002-03 edition, after scoring 26.1 points per game, earning his first career All-Star nod, and taking the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals the previous season.

A staple of the PlayStation 2 era, "MVP Baseball 2005" features former Red Sox slugger and reigning World Series MVP Manny Ramirez on the cover, just after the Sox had finally broken their curse. This is widely considered one of the best, most replayable baseball games ever made.

The "MLB" video game series became "The Show" in 2006, and who better to kick off the festivities than Big Papi, himself? David Ortiz was just two years removed from helping the Red Sox break the curse and establish himself as one of the greatest clutch players in the history of sports, and he'd go on to only reinforce that legacy in the years to come. "The Show" is still going strong as a video game franchise, and Ortiz helped launch it.

Dustin Pedroia made the cover of "MLB '09: The Show" after delivering an MVP season in 2008. He won Rookie of the Year and helped the Red Sox win the World Series the year before. The game featured a classic commercial with Pedroia polishing his MVP trophy.

This one is almost self-explanatory. Garnett came over to the Celtics in the 2007-08 season and immediately made them the top team in the NBA, going on to win his first career championship. Unless they wanted to give Paul Pierce the nod after winning NBA Finals MVP, Garnett was the clear choice to grace the 2K cover the following season.

When Adrian Gonzalez made the cover of "MLB '12: The Show", along with the Blue Jays' Jose Bautista, he was coming off an outstanding first season in Boston: he batted .338, smashed 27 home runs, drove in 117 runs, and led the majors with 213 hits. Unfortunately, that happened to be the infamous "Chicken & Beer" season for the Red Sox, who collapsed out of the playoff race. Gonzalez would end up traded to the Dodgers by the middle of the 2012 season. But at the time of making this video game cover, Gonzalez was a bright star in the Boston sports world.

The Bird's back! For "NBA 2K12," 2K Sports decided to lean in on legends, rather than current stars. The game featured the "NBA's Greatest" mode, which included several playable classic teams and players from bygone eras, including Larry Bird's Celtics. Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson were also available cover athletes for this game.

The Bruins went over 20 years without a prominent cover athlete, until Bergeron broke the curse. He was coming off a 62-point season in 2014, as the Bruins won the Presidents Trophy (they unfortunately flamed out in the second round of the playoffs). And, of course, Bergeron also won the Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward.

It's fitting that "Gronk" would be the first tight end to ever land on the "Madden" cover. He was easily the best TE on the planet at the time and had recently won his first Super Bowl with the Patriots, having long established himself for his elite football skills and famed "Gronk Spike." Unfortunately, Gronkowski fell victim to the "Madden Curse" in the ensuing 2016 season, in which he played only eight games. The Pats went on to win the Super Bowl without him, anyway.

Brady was coming off the famed "28-3" Super Bowl comeback win over the Falcons when this game was released. He had to be the cover athlete. So, he went 15 years without making it. EA Sports did have to mix it up with their covers over the years, because Brady was worthy of it every season. But they finally gave him his due for "Madden NFL 18."

Boston went seven years without one of its top pro athletes making a video game cover, but leave it to Jayson Tatum to break that drought. Tatum won his first career NBA championship in 2024, and closed out the series strong. He's been a little more marketable than teammate Jaylen Brown, and the Celtics are poised to rule the NBA for a few years, so Tatum was a logical choice to grace the "NBA 2K25" cover.