Los Gatos, California - Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin subtly honored his real-life hero, Kobe Bryant, in the new season of the hit Netflix series.

NBA legend Kobe "Mamba" Bryant received a touching tribute in the newly released season four of Stranger Things by one of the hit show's leading stars, Caleb McLaughlin.

McLaughlin's character Lucas Sinclair is a member of Hawkins High's basketball team. He subtly honored Bryant by wearing the legend's digit on his basketball jersey in the show.

Netflix revealed that the 20-year-old, who heralds Bryant as his real-life hero, came up with the idea for his on-screen character to wear Mamba's digit as a special tribute.

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"The #8 jersey Lucas wears is a nod to Kobe Bryant's first jersey number," Netflix tweeted. "@calebmclaughlin is a huge fan and had the idea to pay tribute to Kobe through his character's jersey."

Despite the number being factually incorrect, since high-school players could only wear numbers ending in 0 through 5 in the 1980s, the show producers loved the plan to honor Mamba and let him don it for filming.

Bryant famously wore the number 8 for the first 10 years of his career before changing it to number 24 at the start of the 2006-2007 season.