He was the youngest player to have a game and cover his name.
The world of sports met Sunday, January 26 with an unexpected and shocking news: Kobe Bryant, a world basketball legend, was dying in a helicopter accident with his daughter and other companions. Everyone in the sport and outside of it have shown their condolences, and naturally also in the world of videogames, where Bryant was as premature as in his breakthrough in the NBA. The game NBA 2K20, current reference in the world of virtual basketball, wanted to remember the figure of Kobe Bryant in the title with a simple but emotional memory: the loading screen appears Bryant's name with a black and white image.
In the official Twitter account of the game you can also read the following message: “Thank you for everything you have contributed on and off the track. We miss you so much". EA Sports, in charge of the NBA Live saga has also published a message in which they report being “deeply sad” for the goodbye “of the great Kobe Bryant”. In fact, Bryant was so premature on his arrival in the NBA that we could find him already in the EA saga on 16-bit consoles in the mid-nineties.
On a personal basis, also different members of the 2K team have shown their sadness and memories linked to Bryant. Chris Manning, from the Visual Concepts team, has published a tweet saying it was "one of the worst days of my life", and later an image next to the Lakers legend. In the same sense Ronnie 2K expresses: "He was the great reason why I and many 2K fans grew up loving basketball." Several players of the title have also organized themselves within the 2K game for a small virtual tribute.
Courtside: The youngest with a game in his name
Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside came out in 1997 exclusively for Nintendo 64 and made the Lakers player the youngest to have a cover and a game to his name, demonstrating the expectations that were around him and that he fully met, with his five rings achieved during his 20 year career. Two years later, the sequel came with Courtside 2 and in 2002, for Game Cube, a delivery in which his name was no longer but was still the title page of the title.
The player continued to appear in other outstanding installments of the most successful saga in the world of basketball. In 2010 he starred in one of the best covers of the series, celebrating one of his many impossible baskets. The last time he was on the cover was in NBA 2k17, the delivery after his withdrawal as a claim of the Legend Edition. He was the second retired player to have a cover, only behind Michael Jordan (2011) and the first to win a ring (2010) the year he was the cover of a 2K.
Cover in the Sony NBA series
Beyond 2K, Kobe Bryant also appeared on the cover of other basketball games. He was never in the EA Live saga, but in the NBA saga created by Sony San Diego for his Playstation consoles. Bryant appeared on the cover of NBA 07 in the year that went from number 8 to 24. He was also present in NBA 09: The Inside, in a collage with other players such as Anthony, James, Pierce, Boozer and Wade.
