Chicago Bulls: LaVine rightfully upset about NBA 2K21 rating

The latest release of the NBA 2K21 ratings did pretty severely disrespect Chicago Bulls standout shooting guard Zach LaVine.

The way that the Chicago Bulls rising star 25-year-old 6-foot-6 and 200 pound shooting guard Zach LaVine showed out during the shortened 2019-20 regular season was nothing short of impressive. How much LaVine continues to improve his efficiency and overall play on both ends of the floor is something worth noting for fans all around the NBA.

With the way that the near first-time NBA All-Star selection LaVine showed out during the 2019-20 campaign, most hoops fans would anticipate that he would get the benefit of the doubt for a greatly improved rating for the next NBA 2K release. But that wasn’t the case for NBA 2K21 in terms of the overall rating that LaVine received.

NBA 2K21 gave LaVine an overall rating of 85, which was still tops on the Bulls, in their first edition of the roster release. That could improve if the trajectory of LaVine’s game continues to point up. But it was still pretty disrespectful for the makers of 2K to give LaVine a rating in the mid-80’s.

As a result, LaVine responded in a pretty upset sounding tone on social media to a screenshot that was posted by the NBA 2K Twitter page on Oct. 24. That post by Ronnie on the 2K Twitter page got a response out of LaVine over the weekend, and an additional uproar from his supporters on social media to add more fuel to the fire.

And this isn’t the first time that LaVine had a problem with his 2K rating. This has happened in recent years for the Bulls standout guard and avid gamer.

There is a legit case that LaVine has to get a rating better than 85 in NBA 2K21. Here’s just a few of the players that had higher ratings than LaVine in the first roster release for NBA 2K21: Donovan Mitchell (88), Zion Williamson (86), Kristaps Porzingis (87), and Nikola Vucevic (86).

Some players that held the same rating as LaVine were Ja Morant, De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, John Collins, T.J. Warren, and Andre Drummond. While the value that Fox brings for the Sacramento Kings and Sabonis for the Indiana Pacers is comparable to LaVine for the Bulls, some of those other comps aren’t nearly as valid.

LaVine averaged 25.5 points per game, 4.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.5 blocks, in 60 games played during the 2019-20 campaign. He shot 45.0 percent from the field 38.0 percent from beyond the arc, and north of 80 percent from the free-throw line.