With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic only escalating in recent weeks, people have been forced to stay at home and turn to things like video games to pass the time.
In recent years, the NBA 2K series has soared in popularity as the game allows fans to play with their favorite teams in several different modes and against others online. The current iteration, NBA 2K20, features Los Angeles Lakers All-Star Anthony Davis on its cover.
While NBA 2K has become the basketball gamer’s choice to play, EA competed with its own NBA series, NBA Live. Back in 2010, EA planned on releasing NBA Elite 11, but the demo for the game was met with plenty of backlash as it was full of bugs and glitches.
Although EA ultimately decided to pull the release of the game, footage has surfaced via Operations Sports’ YouTube channel:
The video features footage of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant playing against Vince Carter, who was with the Orlando Magic at the time. The two shooting guards exchange a few baskets, with Orlando ultimately taking a 26-22 victory.
NBA Elite 11 was originally slated for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but was only released for mobile on iOS. Despite EA canceling the game’s release, a few copies were somehow made available and are now considered to be collector’s items.
EA’s halt in production would be one of the few hiatuses it would take regarding its NBA series, and eventually resurfaced after coming out with NBA Live 14. Plans for NBA Live 20 were in the works before it was ultimately cancelled in 2019.
With EA out of the way, NBA 2K has dominated the space and has been proactive about getting the game’s biggest and brightest to grace its covers. In a recent announcement for their upcoming NBA 2K21, 2K Sports revealed there would be three athletes gracing the covers, those being Damian Lillard, Zion Williamson and Bryant.
Lillard and Williamson will be on the standard editions of the current generation and next-generation consoles respectively, while Bryant is featured on each generation. The current generation version will have Bryant wearing his No. 8 jersey, while the next-gen version has him donning his No. 24 jersey.
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Los Angeles Lakers(96) - Minnesota Timberwolves(103)