NBA 2K23 releases player ratings for LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and others

The 2022-23 NBA regular season is fast approaching, and for fans all over the world, that means the impending arrival of the latest addition of the NBA 2K video game series.

With NBA 2K23 set to drop on Sept. 9, some of the ratings of the league’s top players have been revealed.

The revealed ratings include those of Milwaukee Bucks big man Giannis Antetokounmpo, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.

For fans who follow the game, it may not come as much of a shock that to start out the season, Antetokounmpo will be the best player in the game with an overall rating of 97. As for the other three stars, they’ll start out as 96 overall players.

When it comes to James specifically, fans should not be shocked that he still commands one of the best ratings in the game. After all, he averaged 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game last season. It’s easy to forget how incredible that kind of production is from a player that turned 37 years old last season.

James continues to rewrite the rules regarding what a player can do late in his career. What he’s done to extend his prime years will likely be studied and implemented by future professional athletes for many years to come.

However, that is not to say that his age is not starting to show. Perhaps the most noticeable difference has been the fact that nagging injuries have forced him to miss a lot of time over the last few seasons.

He played just 56 games last season and 45 games in the season before. Hopefully, the long offseason he has had as a result of the Lakers missing the playoffs last season will result in a more healthy campaign for the four-time MVP.

With all that in mind, it’s quite likely that James is not worried at all about his own NBA 2K23 rating. Instead, he’s surely focusing on trying to figure out a way to get his Lakers back to the promised land.

Though the franchise won a championship just two years ago, it failed to get out of the first round of playoffs in the 2020-21 campaign and missed them entirely last season.