Jaylen Brown may need to play like a 99 with his 2K rating for the Boston Celtics to be a championship contender next season.
Unfortunately, the actual makers of the 2K video game series don’t view Brown nearly in that light. In fact, Brown has taken a small tumble after a rough end to his season in the Celtics’ playoff letdown against the Knicks.
The official social media accounts for the “NBA 2K” series are rolling out the top 100 players for the 2025-26 edition of the game, and Brown checks in at No. 22 overall with a 90 rating. That’s down from a 92 rating and 15th overall rank in “NBA 2K25.”
It’s unclear whether there are more 90-rated players in the top 20, as that has yet to be officially revealed. But for now, Brown is tied with the 21st-ranked Jalen Williams from the Thunder. He’s also tied with former teammate Kyrie Irving and the Hawks’ Trae Young.
Realistically, are there 20 NBA players better than Brown? The makers of “2K26” certainly think so. One of them will be Brown’s teammate Jayson Tatum, whose cover curse was a year late, as he’ll be out to recover from a torn Achilles (look out, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander).
According to 2KRatings.com, two more players are projected to land with 90 ratings, the Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton and the Suns’ Devin Booker. So, one could argue that Brown ranks at the top of the 90s and thus is 19th overall.
Among the more controversial choices expected to rate higher than Brown in “NBA 2K26”: the Pistons’ Cade Cunningham, the Grizzlies’ Ja Morant, and the Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns. But it’s hard to argue once you get into the Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić, Steph Curry area.
Bottom line: Brown will hopefully use this as the latest piece of motivation to prove his doubters wrong. Because that’s the only hope the Celtics will have of being more than a middling team.
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Matt, a North Andover, Massachusetts native, has been with The Sports Hub since 2010. Growing up the son of Boston University All-American and Melrose High School hall-of-fame hockey player Steve Dolloff, sports was always a part of his life. After attending Northeastern University, Matt focused his love of sports on writing, extensively writing about all four major Boston teams. He also is a co-host of the Sports Hub Underground podcast and is a regular on-air contributor on the Sports Hub. Matt writes about all New England sports from Patriots football to Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.