BBelieve it or not, the recent accusations from television personality Nick Wright against Michael Jordan’s NBA 2K23 99 rating make a lot of sense. If you are among the lucky people who have followed the former Chicago Bulls star’s career, you know how competitive he can get. Given that EA Sports wanted him to grace the new game’s cover in 2023, they would have to agree to some specific terms.
Even though we have no proof of how those negotiations happened, we can picture it perfectly if we know Michael Jordan’s legendary competitive spirit. Despite repeatedly stating calling a single player the ‘GOAT’ is unfair, you can be sure he believes he is the greatest of all time.
Michael Jordan, the sacred cow
Where this controversy gets more interesting is when you take a look at the best active players in the game. Michael Jordan’s 99 rating is followed by Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 97 with no player at 98. Other stars such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic or Joel Embiid are all at 96. KD already expressed his discomfort for not having 99.
However, Nick Wright was very vocal about it in one of his podcast episodes: “Giannis should be, but why are they all bunched up like that? And the answer is because they have to protect the sacred cow that is Michael Jeffrey Jordan. He’s on the cover, so he’s a 99. And we can’t even have anyone at 98 because nobody’s even close. So, now the top is 97, and then it’s all bunched.”
More than being right, Wright is asking the same question a lot of people are asking. Did EA Sports agree these ratings with the cover boy? Getting Michael Jordan himself to agree on this was probably not cheap at all, it’s not wild to think he did have some strong opinions about the other players’ ratings.
.