From Thornwell to A’ja, here’s every Gamecock’s NBA 2K19, NBA Live 19 rating

Early Friday morning, the two biggest basketball video games in the world — NBA 2K and NBA Live — released their 2019 editions.

NBA Live 19, produced by the same company behind the wildly popular NFL “Madden” series, already made headlines earlier this year when it announced its create-a-player feature would allow users to create a female athlete for the first time.

NBA 2K, meanwhile, officially partnered with the NBA this past year to form a new esports league.

Just like Madden, players are assigned a numerical rating in both games from 1 to 99 to indicate how good they are, though most players made it into the 50s or 60s just by making the league. For many pro athletes, these ratings can either be badges of pride or signs of disrespect.

Live streams and screenshots posted to social media on Friday quickly revealed the ratings of almost every player available in both games, and for South Carolina basketball fans, that meant a glimpse into how the experts behind each game rated every former player — NBA Live 19 includes the WNBA, while NBA 2K19 does not.

The top-rated player in both games is, of course, LeBron James — the new Los Angeles Laker checks in at 98 for 2K and 97 for NBA Live. In the WNBA, the top player in NBA Live is Maya Moore of the Minnesota Lynx, with a mark of 93.

For South Carolina players, it was a bit of a down year in the ratings — Of the seven former Gamecocks in the pros, three saw their number decline from last year, two went unchanged and two made their video game debut.

This list will be updated as numbers are confirmed and added.

SOUTH CAROLINA BASKETBALL VIDEO GAME RATINGS

Sindarius Thornwell — 72 overall in NBA 2K, 75 overall in NBA Live

P.J. Dozier — 66 overall in NBA 2K

A’ja Wilson — 88 overall in NBA Live

Allisha Gray — 82 overall in NBA Live

Tiffany Mitchell — 78 overall in NBA Live

Alaina Coates — 76 overall in NBA Live

Kaela Davis — 73 overall in NBA Live

This story was originally published September 7, 2018 at 1:15 PM.