The final of three NBA 2K21 cover athletes was revealed on Thursday, and that athlete is the great Kobe Bryant.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar, who died in a tragic helicopter crash along with his daughter, Gianna, and seven other people in January, is even receiving his own edition of the game. He will be gracing the cover of the Mamba Forever edition, which is replacing the Legend edition. Bryant appeared on the cover of the NBA 2K17 Legend edition.
The cover of the current generation game features illustrations from Bryant of his 81-point performance in 2006, wearing number 8.
The cover of the next generation game features Bryant artwork a decade later, after scoring 60 points in his last NBA game while wearing number 24.
The artwork on the covers are both paintings, and NBA 2K21 released a video of their creation at intervals.
NBA 2K21 had already announced Damian Lillard as their current generation cover athlete and Zion Williamson as their next generation cover athlete. Adding Bryant to the mix means NBA 2K21 will represent three generations of basketball stars.
“Each of our cover athletes represents different times of the basketball game: Damian Lillard dominates the court today, Zion Williamson is a standard-bearer for the next generation of NBA superstar and what more could be said about Kobe?” Alfie Brody, vice president of global marketing for NBA 2K, said through the Bleacher Report. “Three athletes representing the current, future, and historical history of the game. Today’s exciting announcement is just the first of many for NBA 2K21; it will be a great year for basketball fans and NBA 2K players.”
The game will launch worldwide on September 4.
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