DeMar DeRozan is the first athlete to ever be on ‘NBA 2K18’ Canadian cover

For the first time in the franchise’s history, NBA 2K will have a Canadian cover for NBA 2K18. DeMar DeRozan is the featured athlete on the cover.

NBA 2K team member Ronnie Singh announced DeRozan would be the cover athlete of the game’s Canadian edition on Twitter.

DeRozan will join the likes of Kyrie Irving and Shaquille O’Neal as cover athletes for 2K this Fall, with Irving gracing the standard edition and O’Neal on the ‘Legends’ edition.

In an interview with The Score, DeRozan, who has played his entire eight-year career with the Raptors, called it “an honor” to have a place on the cover and the 2K roster.

“I remember being a kid, creating a player in the video game, and being excited just doing that. The next thing was being in the college basketball game, and then the next thing, being in the NBA game. Seeing your face, seeing yourself evolve in the game, and looking even more real, to hearing your voice in the game, to now, being on the cover. It’s something that’s extremely awesome and definitely mind-blowing.”

DeRozan is the perfect choice for the Canadian edition of the game. No, he’s not the best player in Raptors history. Many will argue that he’s not the best player on their current team. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a player who has represented a city in the NBA quite like what DeRozan has done for the Raptors.

When he hit the free-agent market last season, he almost immediately committed to re-signing with the team despite the Lakers’ attempts to woo him away from the team that originally drafted him.

And who could ever forget DeRozan’s tweet almost immediately after news broke that Chris Bosh signed with to the Miami Heat in 2010.

Sure, 2K could’ve taken a different route and gone with Vince Carter for an OG-themed cover, despite Toronto’s conflicting feelings toward him. They could’ve picked Kyle Lowry, who is one of the best point guards in the NBA. But they did the right thing here.

DeRozan has always had a lot of love for the city of Toronto and the Raptors. If it’s up to him, he’ll probably play his entire career in a Raptors uniform. Gracing this cover means a lot for basketball fans in Canada.

Down the line, 2K will have to get creative with their cover choices for their Canadian cover. But DeRozan’s loyalty to the team earned him this, and it’s very well deserved.