NBA2K17 Will Feature Extensive Acting From Michael B. Jordan

Michael B. Jordan will play the Klay Thompson to your player's Stephen Curry.

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Michael B. Jordan will play a young NBA player in the MyCAREER mode of NBA 2K17, the video game franchise announced on Facebook today. Jordan’s character, Justice Young, partners up with your character in the career mode and serves as a friend, the Klay Thompson to your Stephen Curry.

Together, your player and Young even have a nickname: “Orange Juice.” Visual Concepts Senior Producer Ben Bishop wrote of Jordan in the Facebook announcement that “having an actor of his caliber was amazing.”

“NBA 2K17 was the perfect platform to connect with a new, unique audience and challenge myself to expand my abilities as an actor,” Jordan said. “I’m humbled at the opportunity to help influence a franchise that I’ve been a passionate fan of since its first release.”

The 2K franchise has made a concerted effort to implement entertainment into the game. Last year, Spike Lee directed the MyCAREER mode. Jordan seems like a natural fit, considering his emergence as an actor and his athletic pedigree (Vince Howard in Friday Night Lights, Adonis Creed in Creed).

Visual Concepts chose to implement Jordan’s character because “one of the ideas that resonated most with us was the concept of a dynamic duo.”

“He’s a second-round pick on your team that comes in with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, having been passed over and second-guessed for most of his basketball career,” Bishop wrote. “But Justice is a hard-worker and a great athlete, and if you show the same devotion to practice and working on your game that he does, he soon becomes an important figure in the fast-moving NBA world that’s opening up in front of your eyes.”

Hannibal Buress will also act in the game, portraying Ice the Barber. Yes, there is a barber—and a beat reporter, girlfriend, and agent, among other characters.

This game looks very dope. It will officially release Sept. 20.

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