Fansided

Kobe Bryant is getting a special Mamba Forever edition of NBA2K21

By Josh Hill

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 2: Kobe Bryant #8 of the Los Angeles Lakers dunks the ball against Michael Jordan #23 of the Washington Wizards on April 2, 2002 at the MCI Center in Washington, DC NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 2: Kobe Bryant #8 of the Los Angeles Lakers dunks the ball against Michael Jordan #23 of the Washington Wizards on April 2, 2002 at the MCI Center in Washington, DC NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) /
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Kobe Bryant is the final NBA2K21 cover athlete in a move that you could see coming a million miles away. 

Mamba Forever has been further immortalized in basketball lore.

Kobe Bryant was named as the third and final

It’s a move that you could see coming from a million miles away, as not putting Kobe on the NBA2K21 cover would have been an unconscionable sin of omission. It’s not pandering nor is it exploitative to put the late Kobe on the cover of the game, rather it’s the least that could be done to honor a legacy that means so much to basketball.

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Kobe’s time with the game of basketball was criminally short, his impact is still being felt, and it’s a legacy that will guide the game for as long as it’s played. Whether it’s generations of players being influenced by him or the way that he was a transcendent talent away from the game, Mamba truly is forever.

A video game is the least that can be done to honor everything Kobe means to the game.

It’s not the first time that a legend of basketball has been honored with their own edition of NBA2K, but this one hits different for obvious reasons. Michael Jordan, Dwayne Wade, and LeBron James have all graced special edition covers of the game to honor their role in the story of basketball.

This is actually the second time in three years that Kobe will grace the cover of NBA2K (and his third time overall after first gracing the cover in 2010). He was given the Legacy Edition cover back in 2017 to commemorate his retirement from basketball. That only hardens the gut punch that just three years later Kobe is gracing the cover as a tribute to his life.

The death of Kobe Bryant is always going to come as a shock whenever the thought drifts into one’s head. That he was such a larger than life figure to the game of basketball and that his story ended well before we all thought it would will never cease to be an unbelievable tragedy. But this NBA2K cover isn’t meant to dwell on the fact that Kobe is dead and his story is done being told — it’s meant to remind us of how much he meant to the game and that while he may not longer be here his story is far from being finished.

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