James Harden may have finished as the runner-up to Russell Westbrook in the NBA MVP race this past season, but the Rockets’ star is having himself a great summer despite not having an extra bit of hardware for his trophy case. Harden is now teammates with Chris Paul after a trade sent Paul to the Rockets from the Clippers and Harden is the proud new owner of a massive $207 million contract extension.
Now, Harden has earned another honor as he was announced on Thursday as the cover athlete for EA Sports’ NBA Live 18 video game. Harden joins Kyrie Irving as the two cover boys for this year’s two biggest NBA video games, as Irving graces the cover of NBA 2K18.
Along with the announcement of Harden on the cover, we also got some first looks at NBA Live 18 gameplay, featuring Harden as a member of the Rockets and playing in the famed Drew League — where the real life Harden makes regular appearances in the Los Angeles pro-am summer league.
.@JHarden13 did it his way. Your time is now… #NBALIVE18 pic.twitter.com/KoGQYZcDGt
— EA SPORTS NBA LIVE (@EASPORTSNBA) August 10, 2017
Along with the addition of the Drew League to the game this year, NBA Live 18 also added all 12 WNBA squads to the game for the first time ever this year as part of the WNBA Play Now mode. As part of the announcement of Harden as the cover athlete, EA Sports also revealed that the game will be released on Xbox One and Playstation 4 on September 15, four days prior to NBA 2K18 (but the same day as the 2K18 pre-order release).
