Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s NBA 2K19 cover officially unveiled

Following leaks of the image in recent weeks, Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was officially confirmed as the NBA 2K19 cover star on Monday.

Although it was far from a surprise considering an image leaked just over a week ago, Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was officially confirmed as the cover star of the standard edition of NBA 2K19 on Monday morning.

Antetokounmpo was in attendance at a special event to confirm the news, where the big unveil came via a video narrated by his mother, Veronica, which played into the “They Will Know Your Name” theme of this year’s game.

https://twitter.com/NBA2K/status/1013815553809633280

Antetokounmpo’s cover was also officially revealed to include a number of key names, words and phrases chosen by the 23-year-old, notably including the Bucks’ “Fear the Deer” slogan.

Antetokounmpo also fielded questions from moderators on-stage and audience members, with some of the highlights found below:

Giannis on learning he was going to be on the 2K cover:

"“I was really excited. At first I did not believe it. I talked with my agent and he said you’re going to be on the cover and 2K wants you to be on the cover. I told my friends, I told my family, and I was excited. I couldn’t wait for this moment when people would find out about the 2K cover.”"

Giannis on being the first international player ever to grace the franchise’s cover:

"“It’s a great honor. I’m just happy that I can show a path for a lot of international players. You can be from Europe, you can be from Africa, Asia or wherever all over the world, but it can be done. It had never been done before, I was the first guy who did it, but hopefully there can be other kids who follow that path, follow my lead and do it as well.”"

Ronnie Singh, the franchise’s Digital Marketing Director better known as Ronnie 2K, on why Antetokounmpo was chosen for the 2019 cover:

"“The first thing we look for is a fan of 2K. Giannis has actually asked for his rating the last two years and we’ve got to know him as somebody who was interested in 2K. And then, his play style is so like the prototypical video game player. When you try to build your guy in MyCareer, you think of Giannis’ game, so it just made a lot of sense to have this guy on our cover.”"

Giannis on choosing the words that make up his cover’s design:

"“First of all I could start with my family and put my brothers’ names in there, because this is a part of history being on the 2K cover. I always wanted my family to be there. You can see it talks about my Dad, talks about my country, Greece. It talks about a lot of things that have to do with my family and where I’ve come from, and I think it’s pretty unique.”"

Giannis on what his rating should be in 2K19:

"“Of course, my rating should be 99. Not 99…101. Never been done before! To be honest, I would like my rating to be around 94 or 95 because I always feel I can get better. I think that would be the perfect rating for me.”"

Immediately following the event, Antetokounmpo shared the cover image on social media, along with a pre-order link to the game.

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