NBA 2K Teases Fans With Mystery Retired Player – And Gamers Already Know Who It Is

This cryptic tweet from NBA 2K really put basketball gamers into light frenzy. The official NBA 2k Twitter account entered the cluttered timeline with an almost completely blurred image of a retired NBA player with the caption-“Drop your guesses for which retired NBA player this is 💭” -and within minutes, the replies were filled with the same response over and over again.

Turns out, the gaming community is sharp-eyed-almost every reply pointed at Metta World Peace (then Ron Artest) as being the one acting suspiciously of late vis-à-vis the NBA 2K platform, even though 2K is not saying much about what they’ve teased.

Looking through the replies was a treat, as they were divided hilariously between inside jokes based on nostalgia and inside jokes based on career. Several gamers made fun of the current famous name-change saga: Ron Artest metamorphosing into Metta World Peace with Los Angeles Lakers. The others ventured into a few of his nastier pasts, including occasions like the “Malice at the Palace,” and maybe even glory in the 2010 Lakers Championship run. One species gave out all his aliases: “Ron Artest/Metta World Peace/Metta Sandiford-Artest/Panda’s Friend,” and that reply went viral.

The voices of some were suspicious, throwing shade upon recent 2K gameplay incidents. Another reply screamed:”Why does 2k get stupid on hall of fame 🤔 2K26 is y’all last chance to make it right before GTA 6 comes out if y’all screw us over again I promise you 2K will lose a lot of 💰.” Another: “Games dead. Ratings through the ground. No wonder why game will be free for ps plus for June 😂😂😂.”

Different from other moments, Lakers fans defended MWP as a “Lakers Legend,” sharing clips of his championship glory days, while Knicks fans began pleading for a “Ron Ron Knicks card” based on his brief yet memorable stint in New York.

So the surprise player cards and special editions releases are always a big thing in NBA 2K around this time of year, which makes it all the more fun to speculate: Is this a tease for a new Metta World Peace card for MyTeam? Or a special edition cover for some kind of impending release? Actually, teasing like this is the way of letting anyone know that this is much more than your usual player model addition.

The NBA2K gaming community has clearly not allowed one of the most colorful characters in the NBA to fade into obscurity. Commonly known by any of his names- Ron Artest, Metta World Peace, or “Panda’s Friend” (yes, oddly enough, that actually was one of his nicknames), everybody would know how his present occupation has been carved out in both basketball and gaming culture. The rest now lies with 2K, and judging by this tease, it is definitely going to get a lot of people talking.

Hence, the NBA 2K gamer community basically forms a posse and gets to work trying to solve the mystery whenever this one drops a nugget or two. And they did solve this one in record time. A bigger question is, what does 2K have planned for one of the most memorable personalities in basketball? Knowing MWP, it’s not going to be boring.