The NBA Finals start tonight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles with Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic going head-to-head against Kobe Bryant and his Los Angeles Lakers. Although major advertisers had been hoping for a Kobe-LeBron James match-up, the Magic had to go and beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, forcing an all Disney theme park home Finals. The big story now is Kobe going after his fourth NBA championship ring, and his first without Shaquille O'Neal; which has become something of a mantra in the major sports talk arenas. Although no one disputes Kobe's greatness, it seems that no one is willing to call him all-time unless he can lead a team to the title alone. 2K Games has decided to name Kobe as one of the best of the current crop of players, and will be placing him on the cover of NBA 2K10.

But not content to simply name a cover athlete, 2K has decided to take advantage of peoples' interest with the internet (a fleeting interest I tells ye!) and is putting it to fans to decide which cover is the best. To help with the ad campaign, 2K has enlisted the help of Spike "It's Gotta Be the Shoes, Money!" Lee, who as we all know, is a lifelong Knicks fan. Apparently Spike got to make some demands to come on board, otherwise I am at a complete loss to explain this:

Yeah, that's the Lakers' #24 Kobe Bryant (or #8, depending on when you bought your jersey) wearing a New York Knicks uniform, and sporting the #17. I follow sports pretty closely and I can tell you that this is the first I've heard about Kobe going to New York. Sure, he has an option on his contract at the end of this season, but a) I can't see the Lakers letting him go and b) I can't see him going from a team that made the NBA Finals to a team that lost 50 games last year.

I have a feeling that 2K is banking on the hope that people love Kobe too much in purple, gold and white to let NY fans outvote them. I, for one, would love to see this blow up in 2K's face and watch them have to ship millions of games featuring Kobe wearing a jersey he'll never wear.

Here are the other viable cover options. Voting begins tomorrow. Oh, the Staples Center is about 1500 feet from the LA Convention Center, which is where E3 is. And you thought I'd go a whole article without mentioning it...