NBA 2K20 has suffered a great deal of criticism since its launch last year, but in the wake of the tragic death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, the game is bringing fans together. All over the Internet are stories of NBA 2K20 players paying tribute to Bryant with their online opponents in-game, and 2K Sports itself has added its own tribute to the star basketball player that appears as soon as players boot up the game.

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Bryant and eight other individuals, including his 13 year old daughter Gianna, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. The group was reportedly traveling to a youth basketball practice in Thousand Oaks, California. At the time of this writing, it's still unclear exactly what caused the helicopter crash, but fog is said to have played a role. Numerous organizations have launched investigations into Bryant's death, but the results of those investigations have yet to be made public.

nba 2k20 kobe bryant tribute
Nba 2k20 kobe bryant tribute

Bryant's unexpected death has had a massive impact. There have been millions of social media posts about Bryant and tributes to him at various sporting events all over the world. Moving forward, it's likely that tributes to Bryant's legacy will continue as his fans mourn his passing.

Bryant's legacy includes numerous video game appearances, including his own series on the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. Bryant has been featured as the cover athlete on many NBA video games, including NBA 2K10 and the Legend Edition of NBA 2K17. Beyond appearing in video games himself, Bryant has also promoted games for Activision, starring in a memorable Call of Duty: Black Ops commercial as well as a commercial for Guitar Hero: World Tour.

It will be interesting to see if this year's inevitable NBA 2K game features a more substantial tribute to Bryant. It will likely release this September, so we won't find out for quite some time.

NBA 2K20 is out now for PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, and Xbox One.

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