Chris Paul Named Cover Athlete

- Press release by 2k Sports

Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 20:16:24 EST

2006 NBA Rookie of the Year to be official spokesman for NBA 2K8

New York, NY - July 19, 2007 - 2K Sports, the sports publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., announced today that Chris Paul, starting point guard for the New Orleans Hornets and one of the most exciting young stars in the NBA, has been named the cover athlete and official spokesman for NBA® 2K8.

"It's a great honor to be a part of the best NBA video game title, let alone the guy on the cover," said Chris Paul. "I'm a big time video gamer and it's a dream come true to be on the cover and represent the next NBA 2K game, NBA 2K8."

Chris Paul has made an immediate impact in the NBA. Following two All-American seasons at Wake Forest University, the Winston-Salem, NC native was the fourth overall selection by the New Orleans Hornets in the 2005 NBA Draft. During his rookie season, Paul led all rookies in points, assists, steals, and minutes en route to earning Rookie of the Year honors, receiving the most votes (124 of 125) since David Robinson in 1990. The only unanimous selection for the 2005-2006 NBA All-Rookie First Team, Paul continues to evolve as one of the most exciting players on the USA Basketball Senior National Team that represented the United States in the 2006 World Championship of Basketball, playing in all nine of the USA's games, and averaging 7.0 points and 4.9 assists per game. The 2007-08 season looks bright for Paul as he will lead the Hornets' return to New Orleans and continue to prepare for his expected participation on Team USA at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

"Our success with our NBA 2K series has been greatly due to our philosophy for innovation and our ability to introduce new and unique features every year," said Greg Thomas, President of Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio. "There's a lot of anticipation for NBA 2K8 and it was only natural to select Chris Paul, one of the most exciting rising NBA stars, to represent it."

The NBA 2K series is the top rated* NBA simulation game series over the past three years and includes NBA 2K7, the best selling next generation NBA title. As the newest offering of this elite series, NBA 2K8 will elevate the game of basketball to new levels never experienced before for the next generation systems. NBA 2K8 will also continue to build and expand the groundbreaking Signature Style feature that will include hundreds of new shooting, passing, and dribbling animations.

NBA 2K8 will be available this fall for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems. More new next generation features will be detailed in the near future.

For more information, log onto http://www.2ksports.com.

*According to GameRankings.com average scores of 2005-2007 NBA video games.