The social media crew of the NBA 2K game has made a very fun interaction with the hidden challenge on the official NBA 2K Twitter account, where the fans were to guess the name of a past NBA All-Star and the clue was a picture of the career of the player with the logos of the teams he played for. The tweet together with the image, which included the logos of different teams, was really a conversation starter and the communities of gamers and basketball fans were already in the talks. This kind of interaction is quite typical of the app’s social media team who not only connect with the players but also test their basketball knowledge through this type of interaction.

The NBA 2K way was putting up this image with a thinking emoji and guessing the answer. No mention was made; just a range of team logos. It is very nice brainteaser, isn’t it? But, on the other hand, replies come in the form of all sorts of answers and even some tech support requests, and no less than that. A classic Twitter scenario for gamers!

Almost everyone who got it right indicated that the answer was Zach Randolph. What a trip he had. His journey was depicted: starting with Portland Trail Blazers, then one year with New York Knicks, followed by LA Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies where he was most famous and lastly he finished up his career with Sacramento Kings. Randolph was elected to the All-Star team twice, he was very strong around the basket, and the Grizzlies retired his number 50. So, for the basketball aficionados, it was probably quite an easy one. Users such as ‘Cris’ and ‘Rob Patterson’ recognized it right away.

But this is where it starts to be really funny – AI chatbot Grok appears to be among the replies but without being noticed. Every time someone asked “who is this,” Grok would come up with the long description: “This is Zach Randolph. His career started with the Trail Blazers, then he went to the Knicks, next the Clippers, and then the Grizzlies, and finally the Kings. He was a 2x All-Star.” It is like there is a basketball information source in the thread that just lays there waiting to be asked the questions. It is quite useful, but also a bit strange.

And then… the chaos. Because no NBA 2K tweet can be only about that tweet. It brings up all the negative and positive aspects that the community is experiencing or discussing at the moment. One user, ‘GOATetokounmpo’, was quick and immediately took over the thread to express his disappointment with the PC version: “Nothing is worse than fixing the bugs in 2k on pc the last patch destroyed the game. My graphics card is working at 100% but I am getting only 13 fps; it was smooth before the patch.” A very precise and painful problem indeed. Another user, ‘respectda_boy’, asks very upfront: “Can you guys please release a patch.” The demand is very much there.

People are also asking for things in a humorous way like the one asking for a cheaper Becky Hammon WNBA card for the game. Another user, ‘Jcole24’, just tells his frustration in a relatable way through the tweet: “2K has been posting any random stuff these days.” Which, let’s be honest, is quite a common feeling. Sometimes the social media team does need content, and a “guess who” post is low-effort but still engages people.

Z-Bo. It is such a cool and small shoutout to a player who, especially in Memphis, was a fan favorite. For a game that is all about the ups and downs of basketball history, these kinds of trivia moments are really appreciated. They not only make older players reminisce but also possibly teach younger ones something about the legends of the past who they never got to see. However, it surely acts like a spotlight and once the light is on the players are going to shout out everything they think is wrong.

The whole situation perfectly represents what it is like to manage the social media of a major game. You want to post something that is fun and engaging – an easy riddle about a retired star. But for the player community, it is just the nearest available megaphone. It opens up the door for them to voice their concerns about performance issues, make requests for new content or patches, or just have a general conversation with the developers. The identity of Zach Randolph is revealed in no time, but the talk immediately goes to the state of the real game. Players do appreciate these community interactions, but their main concern is always the gaming experience itself, and they will seize every opportunity to directly communicate their needs or complaints to the NBA 2K team.