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Kyrie Irving To The Celtics Has Created A Big Problem For 2K Sports

By Dustin Gunter
Published on: 09:09 PST, Aug 23, 2017

Last night’s megatrade between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics was the biggest of the offseason. Matter of fact, it’s the first time in league history that two players have averaged at least 25 points per game and been traded for each other the following offseason. (Cleveland received Isaiah Thomas, along with Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 first-round pick.)

While the league is still shook by all of the drama that unfolded, the virtual side of basketball seems to have a dilemma on their hands.

On August 7th, NBA 2K announced that Kyrie Irving would be the cover athlete on the newest version of their hit game. The organization’s Twitter handle even went as far as tweeting out a picture of Irving’s virtual self sporting his Cavs gear. The decision was odd considering that Irving requested a trade from Cleveland in late July.

Now that LeBron’s beloved sidekick has made his way to Boston, many people are wondering what jersey he will be wearing on the cover. The release date for NBA 2K18 is set for September 19. That gives the folks at 2K a little under four weeks to replace all of the covers, if they wish to do so. This seems unlikely. 2K Sports has yet to respond to all the buzz. Instead, they have taken a more casual approach.

According to GameSpot.com, the cover shouldn’t affect the the game’s sales.

“Whatever happens, Irving is one of the biggest names in professional basketball and is among the league’s standouts. And no matter who Irving plays for, NBA 2K18‘s dominance in the NBA video game market is not likely to be materially affected by this.”

This isn’t the first time video game developers have had to deal with a situation like this one. Brett Favre was traded from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets during the production of Madden 09.

The Favre trade took place on August 6, 2008, while Madden 09 was set to release on August 12, 2008. EA Sports was never able remake the covers before release, however, they did feature a downloadable cover on their website. This cover featured Favre in his new Jets attire. Could NBA 2K possibly offer a download cover? I’m sure Boston fans would love to have one. It will be interesting to see how they handle this next month, and accommodate these changes.

For those who haven’t seen it yet, here’s a look at what an updated cover could look like:

The Cavs and Celtics will face off on opening night of the NBA season. It should be an entertaining season in the Eastern Conference.

[Featured Image by Elsa/Getty Images]

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