EA and the developers over at EA Canada are pleased to announce Andrea Bargnani’s selection as one of the cover athletes for their international copies of NBA LIVE 09.

EA Canada has a rich tradition of creating some of the best sports games on the market, so it is only fitting to see that we see a little bit of Italian-Canadian content grace the annals of EA’s sports gaming empire. Fittingly, the announcement comes at a good time as Toronto has a huge Italian community that was cheering ever so hard for their national team during the Euro Cup. Come this fall however, they will get a chance to cheer again as they see hometown favourite, Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors, featured on the cover of an EA Sports game in Italy.

Bargnani is not the only international star to show up on the cover of NBA LIVE 09. Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs), Pau Gasol (LA Lakers), and Luol Dong (Chicago Bulls), will also be appearing on the cover of the game. Parker was announced as the Worldwide cover athlete, while Gasol was announced for Spain, and Luol Dong was announced for the UK.

Parker himself is no stranger to being a cover athlete as he has appeared on the cover in France multiple times over. “I have a long history with EA SPORTS.  I’ve been on the cover in France for five years straight and I’ve been playing NBA LIVE for as long as I’ve played basketball,” said Parker. “It’s a real honor for me as a European player to now be represented on the worldwide cover.” The honor is even greater as three of his fellow NBA brethren join him to make this year’s NBA LIVE 09 more recognizably international than ever before.

Along with having brand new cover athletes, NBA LIVE 09 will also sport several features. Several of these features are brand new to the series and include things such as Pick and Roll Control, Defensive Lockdown Control, Signature Playcalling and Quickstrike Ankle-Breakers.

Here in Toronto’s Little Italy, people can rest easy knowing that their country is being well represented off the sports surface, and maybe they can erase that sour taste of the Euro Cup away by playing some NBA LIVE 09 as Andrea Bargnani this fall.

NBA LIVE 09 will be released for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, and PSP systems. Stay informed at player1.ca for more information on NBA LIVE 09 and other EA Sports titles launching in the not too distant future.

-Rick Hawthorne