Getting posterized is an insult unique to the sport of basketball. Search the archives here on Dime and there are dozens, if not hundreds, of posts about a player taking another to the hoop and making them pay for attempting to defend it. Plenty of good players have had their nights ruined by a posterization, but no one takes it lightly. Not even in the world of video games.
Lonzo Ball, for example took exception to a posterization that never even happened. On Friday, Atlanta Hawks forward John Collins was pumped about his NBA 2K18 rating, posting it to Twitter on Friday with some excited emojis.
😳😂👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 @Ronnie2K #NBA2K18 #NBA2K #NBA2KFIRSTLOOK pic.twitter.com/9yiHHAgyAO
— John Collins (@jcollins20_) August 11, 2017
Players are sensitive about their rankings in the game, as John Wall made clear earlier this week. But Ball wasn’t a fan for a different reason — the image used to show off Collins’ rating featured him dunking on Ball’s Los Angeles Lakers teammate Brandon Ingram.
Ball quote tweeted the image and threatened not to buy the game altogether unless they changed the image.
2k you got 24 hours to change this pic before you lose a customer https://t.co/GVtj0MrzEQ
— Lonzo Ball (@ZO2_) August 12, 2017
Chris Manning, community manager for the NBA 2K series, did reply to Ball, pointed out that Collins is later getting posterized in Brandon Ingram’s 2K18 ratings release, so it’s not exactly like anyone was getting picked on here.
— Chris Manning 🏀 (@LD2K) August 12, 2017
That got Ball to back down on his proposed boycott, though he did fall back on the common gripe that the player’s rating simply wasn’t high enough.
Fair enough 👌🏽 Still gotta fix the rating tho https://t.co/bEgaNYUvxT
— Lonzo Ball (@ZO2_) August 12, 2017
Collins did get to have some fun with it, subtweeting Ball and posting himself getting posterized right back on Ingram’s ratings release picture.
Since some people take 2k sooo seriously! 😒😂 #NBA2K18 #NBA2K #NBA2KFirstLook @Ronnie2K @NBA2K pic.twitter.com/cqHShLyu5d
— John Collins (@jcollins20_) August 12, 2017
Video games are such a big part of culture these days, but it’s still kind of amazing to see players genuinely get upset about the cumulative talent of their digital avatars. I’m sure if they made a video game simulation for bloggers, though, I’d be just as vocal about getting dunked on in the release of those ratings, too.