Visual Concepts/2K Sports
NBA 2K18 is shaking things up with their commentators with this year’s iteration. 2K Sports revealed in a trailer today that Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett will be joining the commentating team in positions called “Special Guest Commentary” that will be new to this year’s game.
The trailer shows off Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant recording lines and giving some insight on what’s going on. 2K Sports says the two future hall-of-famers will be joining the team on a rotating basis but we don’t know much about what this means. It’s unclear whether the commentators will rotate depending on the game or the teams playing. The trailer did show Bryant giving commentary for a Los Angeles Lakers game while Garnett provided some commentary for the Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves. 2K Sports did play around with with rotating commentary teams for NBA 2K17.
Another thing the trailer gave us a good look at was some of the gameplay from the upcoming game. We got our first look at Kyrie Irving in a Boston Celtics jersey along with some gameplay of Lakers game showing off prized rookie Lonzo Ball. Other marquee players making appearances are Joel Embiid, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett and Steph Curry. Just making a quick glance at the game shows the visuals are far improved over last year’s iteration. Of course we can’t forget about the debut of the Big Baller Brand shoes in the game either.
NBA 2K18 will be introducing an All-Time team for each NBA franchise with this iteration. Each player for each team was carefully chosen but there are some glaring omissions, but this isn’t entirely 2K’s fault. An example would be Rasheed Wallace missing from the Pistons All-Time team but that’s because licensing issues create problems for retired players. As a result, Rasheed Wallace and some other prominent names are missing. You can check out the complete rosters right here.
2K Sports ran into a speed bump earlier this month with the Kyrie Irving trade to the Boston Celtics. Irving, in a Cleveland Cavaliers jersey, was set to be this year’s cover star but the trade through a wrinkle in those plans. The game is still going to ship with Irving on the Cavaliers but will feature him in a Celtics jersey with later iterations of the game. The Canada edition will feature DeMar DeRozen of the Toronto Raptors while the Legend Edition will feature Shaquille O’Neal.
NBA 2K18 releases September 19 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC. Legend Edition owners will receive three-day early access to the game beginning on September 16.