Game recognizes game. And Kobe Bryant and Colin Kaepernick sitting — and cheering — in Naomi Osaka’s box at the U.S. Open on Thursday showed just how much her stardom has grown since winning last year’s title.

“I don’t know; it’s just funny to me. You know, last year compared to this year there is no way, like, Kobe would sit in my box,” giggled Osaka, who followed her 2018 U.S. Open title with another in the Australian Open in January. “Yeah, Kaepernick, too. It’s just crazy who you run into in life.

“For me [having Bryant and Kaepernick in my box] wasn’t pressure. It was just like I really didn’t want them to sit in the sun too long, honestly. That was the thing that was on my mind. I was, like, I don’t really want to play a third set.”

Osaka didn’t need a third set to dispatch Poland’s Magda Linette, 6-2, 6-4, at Louis Armstrong Stadium, setting up a third-round showdown with American phenom Coco Gauff.

After a protracted first-round match, the Long Island-bred Osaka was hardly tested in dominating the second.

“For me, I think one of the biggest things when I play her is just sort of knowing that she likes to play consistent, and she moves pretty well,” said Osaka, who spent her childhood in Valley Stream. “So I just try to, like, get her moving and sort of … assert myself.”

Osaka didn’t have any problem asserting herself despite a brace on her sore left knee. She looked to be moving well, excelled from the baseline and had all of her usual powerful strokes. And she clinched the win with a volley on match point.

It brought cheers from both Bryant and ex-49ers quarterback-turned-activist Kaepernick.

“I mean, I know Kobe; this is actually the first time I have ever met Colin, and it wasn’t even through me,” Osaka said. “So, yeah, everybody knows Kobe gives me real-life advice. He’s someone I look up to as an athlete and also as a person. I’m really grateful that I even have the opportunity to, like, talk to him and stuff.”

When Kaepernick — his cornrows pulled out, his hair flowing free — was shown on the stadium screen in the first set, he was largely cheered with only a couple boos. He’s been a lightning-rod activist since kneeling during the national anthem to draw attention to the oppression of blacks and people of color, and essentially getting blacklisted by the NFL.

When the 21-year-old Osaka was asked what causes she believed in, she replied “What causes do I believe in? I mean, for me, it’s going to sound corny as heck, but I just believe in being nice to people. For me I just want to treat people — treat people like how you want to be treated.

“I don’t know how anyone’s day has been. I don’t know if the circumstances that led to them being the way they are. So for me, I’d never judge a person, especially when I haven’t walked in their shoes.

“Someone told me that for me to take one second out of my day to sign someone’s ball could be the highlight of their day, and they could’ve had a really bad day. So for me I took that really into perspective. [I] just want to spread kindness and positivity even though sometimes I don’t [smile] on the court. But I’m working on it.”