NBA 2K18 Producer Rob Jones Debunks NBA 2K Free Agency Curse

Everybody’s a conspiracy theorist; even video game players.

Remember when everybody said that EA Sports’ Madden Football had a curse on it’s cover athletes?

For example, last year, the New England Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski was Madden’s cover athlete. Gronk underwent surgery to repair a herniated disk, and was placed on injured reserve on December 3, 2016.

Brett Favre was on the cover of Madden’s 2009 game. He decided he wanted to retire as a member of the Green Bay Packers. He later decided that he wanted to return and signed with the New York Jets. While with ‘gang green’ he sustained a right shoulder injury.

Former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was Madden’s 2005 game. Hiis season was cut short that year by a groin injury that sent him to the injured reserve list for the remainder of the season

The NBA 2K franchise has coincidences too except not with injuries. Their calling card is with free agency. Most recently, Kyrie Irving, an NBA champ with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 is now a member of the Boston Celtics. NBA 2K18 had been promoting Irving as the game’s cover athlete, donning Cavs garb.

This is the first time that a player on NBA 2K has been traded before a game has been released, but it’s not the first time conspiracy theorists have put together their theory.

It all started in NBA 2K14 when LeBron James left the Miami Heat to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014. The following year Kevin Durant graces NBA 2K15 and goes to the Golden State Warriors in 2016. Paul George lands on NBA 2K17’s cover and heads over to the Oklahoma City Thunder this summer. “I think it’s coincidental first of all,” NBA 2K’s senior producer, Rob Jones told Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Scoop B Radio.

Click here to listen to the interview in its entirety.

“Secondly I think that free agency in the NBA as we know it has changed dramatically over the last three years and I think you’re going to see more of it.”

Jones thinks that the trend will continue and he likes the real life attention that it brings. “We just happen to be picking the guys who have the most to gain by leaving. For whatever reason they are making these choices, so it’s not a curse. It’s just that the ‘loyalty’ aspect is just no longer the way I came up on it. So I think you’re going to see more players making these choices to go to different teams every year.”