A couple days ago, ESPN's Marc Stein revealed the Eastern Conference rosters for the new NBA Jam game. Most teams have three current players and at least one legend, although some teams (such as the Charlotte Bobcats and Milwaukee Bucks) are legendless.

(Sorry, Big Dog. You didn't make the legends cut.)

Some of the legends made me laugh (Glen Rice and Rony Seikaly for the Heat), some made me want to cry (Detlef Schrempf for the Pacers instead of Reggie Miller or Rik Smits), and still others left me scratching my shaved head (Larry Johnson is a Knicks legend...really?!).

Other notables: No Jordan. Penny Hardaway isn't one of Orlando's legends (that honor goes to Nick "The Brick" Anderson and Scott Skiles). Manute Bol is Washington's sole legend. The Pistons somehow got four current players (Richard Hamilton, Rodney Stuckey, Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon). Oh, and Bill Laimbeer is a Detroit legend...so we all get one more chance to thug him.

I gotta admit, I'm stoked. Can't wait to find out the Western Conference lineups. Any legends predictions? Any Eastern Conference legends you would have liked to see (I was thinking Wilt Chamberlain for Philly myself).

Btw, the Raptors don't have a legend presumably because (giggle) Vince Carter is still, like, an active player and stuff (he's on the Magic's Jam roster). But they do have their mascot! (H/T Sorbo, Mladen and chris)

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47 Comments:
Blogger Will said...
The sadness of Detlef Schrempf being the Pacers' lone legend pales in comparison to the Nets having Kenny Anderson and Drazen Petrovic. That's depressing on many levels.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Yeah, but, but...

...no. No, you're right.

Nyets fail. Again.

Anonymous Stockton said...
They could squeeze Larry Nance as well... Cavs deserve it...

Blogger Basketbawful said...
They could squeeze Larry Nance as well... Cavs deserve it...

[nods vigorously]

Anonymous Heretic said...
I'm just going to play as bango the buck, one of the stupidest names in mascot history.

Anonymous Stockton said...
Stockton + Malone
Magic + Kareem
KJ + Dan Majerle + Tom Chambers
D. Robinson + Sean Elliot
Gary Payton + Shawn Kemp (+ Xavier McDaniel and Benoit Benjamin)
Hakeem + Kenny Smith
...
Drexel + kevin Duckworth + Cliff Robinson
...
Shawn Bradley
...
Cherokee Parks
...
Bryant Reeves
...
Jim Jackson + Popeye Jones...

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Really, Stockton? You mention Benoit Benjamin, Cherokee Parks AND Bryant Reeves without any love for Greg Ostertag?

For shame.

Blogger Siddarth Sharma said...
Drazen Petrovic? Wasn't he a stud? The foreign MJ?

Anonymous Story said...
I hope Mike Iuzzolino is a Mavs legend in this game, because he was the bawfulest offering on the original arcade version.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
My recently purchased Wii sits patiently in my living room, churning out rounds of Sports Resort Golf and Netflix queue instant watch entertainment, itching in anticipation for the day I pop this Jam disc in her slot from whence much jubilation shall gush forth.

Anonymous Stockton said...
Really... f--- me!!!
But hey, in all fairness, he MAY have a comeback...

Blogger Dan B. said...
I hope Mike Iuzzolino is a Mavs legend in this game, because he was the bawfulest offering on the original arcade version.

I love playing the arcade version through the MAME emulator on my PC, and seeing Iuzzolino throw down ridiculous jams while the classic NBA Jam announcer goes crazy always makes me laugh. Even better, I was talking with a friend of mine one day and he said "I actually went to high school with a guy who played in the NBA. You've probably never heard of him though -- Mike Iuzzolino." Yeah, that is one of the most randomly awesome things I have ever heard in my life.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
I dunno, Story. Brad Lohaus could have given Mike Iuzzolino a run for his money.

Ah, the original arcade version of Jam...good times. Of course, browsing the Wiki page only reminded me that Reggie Miller was on the Pacers on every version of NBA Jam...

...until now.

Blogger Unknown said...
Thanks for the shout-out. The Raptor will always be a legend in my mind.

Looking at the NBA Jam wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Jam), most of the "legends" are coming from the original game (minor tweaks aside, like Iverson), meaning Mashburn or Dikembe are coming to the West Coast teams.

Also, are the Supersonics in the game, or will the Thunder steal their legends like they stole the franchise?

non-obvious Western legends/mascots -

Uta: Mark Eaton.
LaL: The Logo
LaC: Manning, Donald Sterling
Sac: Vlade, Webber

Long shot: Kelly Tripucka. I just like his name.

Anonymous AK Dave said...
Some of the legends made me laugh (Glen Rice and Rony Seikaly for the Heat)

You BITE YOUR TONGUE, Sir! Rony Seikaly is a mother-fucking musical genius!

Anonymous Mladen said...
Wow. Russians giving Team USA a run for their money? Who would've thought. I figured they would have a 2nd quarter collapse, but they're doing well. (I probably just jinxed them.)

Anonymous daan24 said...
http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/scott_howard_cooper/09/08/artest.mental.health/index.html

Ron Artest auctioning his championship ring? I'll just leave this here...

Blogger Unknown said...
For the East legends that never get their due:

Bos: Russell
Ind: Smits
Mia: Zo
NJN: Coleman (I'm stretching "legend" here)

Blogger Unknown said...
I keep wanted to erupt in a "USA! USA! USA!" chant, but the Ruskies are keeping this close. Didn't they learn their lesson in Rocky IV? Red Dawn? All 80s movies?

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Sure, some legends having been left off is crap, but the company is limited to who's with the Player's Association or who they can sign independent of it.
And the Pistons having extra players is due to the developers coming from Detroit (famously, the Bulls couldn't beat the Pistons in the original unless the Bulls lead by a certain number of points in the third, or something like that).

Anonymous kazam92 said...
Hey Rice was a baller (as mentioned in his worst champs) and Seikely is one of the most underrated bigs of the 90's. Would rather see Mourning and Hardaway though

Blogger Marc said...
BABY Jordan speaks!!

(To bad he didn't make the Heat Legends...)

http://www.lostlettermen.com/2010/09/feature-uscs-harold-mineer-speaks-after-years-of-silence/

Blogger Unknown said...
How do you feel about this (http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nba/news/story?id=5550421), Bulls fans? Noah isn't untouchable.

Anonymous Heretic said...
Looks like there Melo may be going to the bulls:

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nba/news/story?id=5550421

Wonder how Noah would play as a nugget.

Anonymous Business Time said...
Seems a lot of the choices for "legends" got screwed over by licensing issues (Reggie Miller, Jordan) or EA's desire to keep as many combos from the original game as possible (Anderson/Skiles, Isiah/Laimbeer, Rice/Seikaly).

Also, would Seattle riot if they put Kemp and Payton in the game as OKC Thunder legends? And does any team have a hope of beating a Lakers lineup that could possibly be choosing from Kobe, Pau, Magic, and Kareem?

Blogger chris said...
Sorbo: Same here. You know what? I know it's in the original post, but why not, the Raptor Mascot Loses Control clip ALWAYS deserves to be linked to, again and again. :D

Blogger Unknown said...
Why would the Nuggets do the Deng/Noah deal for Carmelo? Just stupidity. Yes, I'll get rid of my best scorer AND saddle myself with a horrible contract (Deng) before the CBA.

I like Noah, and Deng is a decent third option, but the Nuggets would need a superstar-type player from the draft next year in order to for that trade to pay off.

Chicago: Boozer, Melo, and Rose; with Korver shooting threes would round out that offense nicely. It's interesting, and could be a better combination of players than the Heat (a good mix of inside-outside scoring with some three-point shooting), but they would be giving up defense and shot blocking (and maybe rebounding, too).

The Bulls would match up with Miami, but anyone with size (Celtics, Magic) can beat them. Taj Gibson or Kurt Thomas at center, anyone?

-other Legends: Tommy Heinsohn. Gugliota for Minnesota. Barkley for Phoenix. Sabonis in Portland. Does he count as a "legend"?

Anonymous Mike T said...
Some of the "legends" don't make sense at first, but it seems pretty obvious that they are not looking much further back than the early 80's (Bird, Dr. J - Sixers edition). Kareem wasn't on the original game was he? I wish he would be on this one, but I think it's gonna be Magic (already saw pics of his character) and Worthy.

Blogger Ppops said...
Oscar Robertson should probably be a legend for Milwaukee... he is the only player to ever average a triple-double for a season... just saying...

Anonymous Czernobog said...
Off topic: I never watched that game from 72, and I'm sure I have a bias being Israeli and a fan of David Blatt (not to mention choosing a Russian username.) but isn't this story just full of bawful?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AvZSKSw0wmfttl7orS.RkDy8vLYF?slug=aw-blattcoachk090910

Or at least basketball-media-awful?

Blogger Unknown said...
@Czernobog - Yeah, this is the classic Wojnarowski I'm used to: creating an angle out of thin air, using USWeekly tactics. He had a few solid weeks of reporting actual news items, but the bitch is back, writing about non-stories.

The '72 game is tough to watch, just because it was a giant clusterf**k by score keepers and the officials. The game should have been replayed or thrown out altogether. Here's the link on the background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_at_the_1972_Summer_Olympics#Gold_Medal_Match_controversy

Anonymous Bushka said...
Milaukee should have had Lew Alcindor. He won a title with the bucks in 71? or something and scored 14k points for them.

Blogger LotharBot said...
Dear sports rumor mills,

can you please at least come up with plausible Melo trades? I'm sick of seeing rumors about how the Nuggets are going to trade Melo for a mediocre player with 5 years left on his cap-destroying deal, a couple of mediocre draft picks, and a "young guy with potential" who I've only ever heard of from reading lacktion reports.

You'd think, with as many NBA fans as there are out there, that somebody could at least come up with a rumored package that the Nuggets would actually rather have than "nothing".

Anonymous griftertm said...
Too bad about the Bucks. They shoulda had Oscar Robertson.

Anonymous Cetti said...
this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6X4Ao_yWII video should be ranked no.2 directly after the raptors mascot. I nearly pooped myself.

Anonymous Mike said...
I believe a the Jordans and Reggie Millers were left off intentionally. There are supposedly several unlockable characters

Anonymous Heretic said...
Ostertag's truimphant return (well almost):

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Exciting-news-for-Greg-Ostertag-enthusiasts;_ylt=Aq1.D_VaYu5XmUBNrt3.wRC8vLYF?urn=nba-268768

Blogger Dan B. said...
Cetti -- I saw that video the other day. One of the greatest things I've ever seen in my life. It's definitely up there with the Raptors mascot fail.

Mike -- I doubt Michael Jordan will make it into NBA Jam even as an unlockable character. 2K Sports has already paid a ton for the licensing fees to use him in NBA 2K11, and even if they don't have some kind of exclusivity contract, EA Sports still doesn't have the rights to his likeness, and it'd cost them a pretty penny, and you wouldn't want to spend that much on a character who isn't even available in the game unless you unlock him.

Anonymous Geert said...
Miller wasn't a member of the playerassociation anymore, and they couldn't secure a seperate contract with him. These are the main reasons of the saometimes cringeworthy selections: some legends just didn't want to be in it.

wv: combis. The legend combis are weird.

Blogger Unknown said...
@Dan B.: Too bad EA won't just pull the old SNES/Genesis move and call a player "Guard No. 23" in Jordan's likeness.

Anonymous AK Dave said...
Dan B.

You seen to know a lot about NBA video games. What do you think a run-of-the-mill NBA player charges to use his likeness in a game? (Say, for example, a mediocre rotation-guy like Flip Murray)

And by comparison, what do you think MJ wants as compensation?

Just curious. (About the money! The money...)

Blogger Dan B. said...
AK Dave -- That's a good question. I actually don't know that much beyond playing the last two years versions of the 2K series, and I have always been an NBA Jam fan. A little Google searching didn't return much info. I did find this story about the NFLPA being sued for not paying retired players who were includded in payouts from EA. I believe in most cases, the game maker could just get rights the likenesses of all players in the NBPA through one lump sum, but someone like Jordan wouldn't still be in that player's association, so they'd have to pay him directly, if that makes sense. Not certain on that, however.

Blogger David Murphy said...
Can't wait for west coast picks. Robert Swift maybe, Mike Penberthy. Definitely Slava.

Anonymous Mike Mai said...
LJ is definitely a legend! at least to knicks fans.

Blogger senormedia said...
general NBA game question:

In which current games can you create your own player and play a season?

I had one circa 2001 for my computer that allowed that - it was fun to make a 5'6" center who lead the league in blocks, for example.

I'd like to find something similar and current, preferably for the Wii or for a windows comp.

Any suggestions for games?

Anonymous Anonymous said...
why is Petrovic a fail?

Blogger zyth said...
@senormedia : nba 2k11 is coming out soon(a month,methinks) for windows