He may have missed out on being crowned the NBA's best player for the revamped COVID-19 season, but LeBron James has scooped the coveted prize in the virtual realm.
'The King' is the highest-rated player in NBA 2K21 - a launch title for the recently released XBOX X and Playstation 5.
Game designer Mike Yang tells Newshub the current crop of ballers have grown up gaming and take their virtual replicas very seriously, often complaining about how fairly they have been represented.
"Thirteen, fourteen years ago, the players didn't grow up gaming as much as today's players have," Visual Concepts' Yang says.
"All these guys have grown up playing NBA 2K, so they are so passionate about how they are reflected in the game.
"At the end of the day, if they perform on the court and play well it will be reflected in their rating.
"They always give us a hard time because they think they should be rated higher, but we have a real, good relationship with the players.
"It's all a bit of fun."
And that fun is enjoyed by many gamers all over the globe as it's one of the most popular sporting franchises across several gaming platforms.
The NBA, NFL, NHL and AFL all have several registered players on the 2K online community, while the game is also a hit with New Zealand's own All Blacks.
Ardie and Julian Savea, Aaron Smith and Rieko and Akira Ioane are among a cluster of NBA 2K players within the All Blacks environment.
"I hear a lot from the NBA players, there are a huge number of professional football [NFL] players that play the game, but to hear that the All Blacks do it is really cool," says NBA 2K's executive producer Eric Boenisch.
"That's fantastic to hear and it makes us super proud to hear that these random people, who are big-time celebrity sports stars in their own country, play and tweet about our game.
"It's kind of surreal."
According to the NBA 2K formula, Lakers star James is near-perfect, with a game rating of 98. In comparison, Kiwi Steven Adams has an 82.
Yang explains the ratings system is quite complex, but it is based on real stats, trends and on-court performance.
"We have a bunch of algorithms that analyse the stats that are pertinent to all the positions on court," Yang says.
"We feed that into our formula and it spits back a player's value.
"From there, our roster team will kind of massage those numbers based on what they think could happen during the season and the current trends within the NBA."
Top 10 rated players in NBA 2K21 for next-gen consoles:
LeBron James - 98
Giannis Antetokounmpo - 97
Anthony Davis - 96
Kawhi Leonard - 96
James Harden - 96
Kevin Durant - 95
Steph Curry - 95
Damian Lillard - 95
Luka Doncic - 94
Jimmy Butler - 93
