DeMar DeRozan and 5 other NBA players who hate opinions

2. Hassan Whiteside

There are several honorable mentions in the realm of players bitter over their NBA2K ratings. Andrew Wiggins was not feeling his 82 rating and tweeted that he rather play Call of Duty anyway. Knicks teammates Kristaps Porzingis and Brandon Jennings tweeted their thoughts, while Lakers rookie Ivica Zubac is concerned whether he is even in the game this year. (Answer: he is.)

Still the king of NBA2K rating shading is Hassan Whiteside. Due to his highly irregular emergence as an NBA star – playing sparingly for the Kings in his first two seasons, before emerging as a force for the Heat in 2014 following some D-League and international stints – Whiteside has really had to earn his rating.

Being as low as 49 in NBA2K12, Whiteside was a 59 in NBA2k15, which came out just prior to his breakout 2014-15 season. After a monster triple-double in January of 2015, Whiteside said he was simply trying to get his NBA2K rating up.

And that he did. Whiteside was awarded with an in-season jump from 59 to 77, unprecedented stuff in the history of video game rating tinkering. The following season he was boosted up to 81, and he is now an 85 in NBA2K17. My, how far Hassan has come.

Was the rating justified: No, but of no fault of the brain trust at 2K Sports. No one had any idea Whiteside would come out of nowhere to become one of the league’s premier big men, so the in-season bump was all the justification needed.

Next: Mocking Mamba