Kobe!
As the NBA regular season wraps up today with the Golden State Warriors playing for a chance to beat Michael Jordan’s Bulls for the best single-season record all time (and Steph Curry is 8 away from 400 three pointers; previously no one had even made 300 in a season), 2K has announced the latest iteration in its basketball games, NBA 2K17.
It’s coming to PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One in September. The cover athlete will be revealed in June (last year there were three cover variants: James Harden, Steph Curry, and Anthony Davis) and it should just be the entire Warriors team.
On the other hand, there is also a Legend Edition that will be graced by Kobe Bean Bryant. Kobe, a name long invoked after school yard shots, however, is no longer a good basketball player and hasn’t been for a few years. Even when Madden put a Packers’ Brett Favre on the cover (before he un-retired and went to the Jets), it was after a combined great career and 13-3 season. Kobe’s Lakers are 16-65 in what has been a ceremonial goodbye tour. Even though his last NBA game ever has been moved to ESPN 2 so ESPN can focus on the Warriors quest for an unprecedented 73 wins.
But it makes sense for 2K to join the ceremony given the name recognition Kobe still has, especially among more casual basketball fans. People will gladly scoop up the Goodbye Kobe edition of 2K17 the same way they held onto that weird “Dear Basketball” letter.
You can only get the Legend Edition for PS4 and Xbone One. Pre-order it to get:
Physical items
- Limited-edition Kobe poster
- Two Kobe Panini playing cards
- Black Mamba game controller skin
Digital content
- 30,000 Virtual Currency
- MyTEAM Bundle (includes 3 packs with guaranteed Kobe limited use card)
- Nike Kobe 11 retirement shoes
- Kobe #8 Mitchell and Ness jersey
- Kobe hoodie
