Tag Archives: B.J. Armstrong

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m reflecting on the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies being in the NBA – and video games – for 30 years.

It’s funny how even though the Toronto Raptors and Memphis Grizzlies have been in the NBA for 30 years now, a part of me still thinks of them as “new” teams. After all, the Charlotte Bobcats came along in 2004. Of course, now that they’re the Hornets again and have reclaimed their history from 1988 to 2002, the New Orleans Pelicans have retroactively become the league’s newest team. Furthermore, 1996 was the year I became a hardcore hoop head. As such, the Raptors and Grizzlies were in the league when my interest in basketball really took off.

However, I was a casual fan before then, so I was aware that they were new. My first basketball video game – NBA Jam Tournament Edition – is set before they entered the league, and thus doesn’t include them. It wasn’t until I picked up NBA Live 96 that I played a game that featured the two expansion teams. As the youngest clubs during the early days of my fandom, they continued to feel new for years afterwards. All this is to say that it’s now been 30 years since the Raptors and Grizzlies were newcomers to the league and video games! Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five phantom stints that didn’t appear in any video games.

Through my series of Friday Fives documenting players who only appeared on certain teams in video games – up to 21 parts and counting! – I’ve listed a number of players whose phantom stints with teams were made tangible on the virtual hardwood. Let’s flip the topic though, and consider noteworthy phantom stints that didn’t appear in any video games. This might seem like a strange topic to explore, as obviously there are plenty of players with brief, on-paper tenures that didn’t last long enough to appear in games. However, most of them aren’t particularly exciting or interesting.

The ones that are worth talking about meet a few conditions. Naturally, they involve players who were stars or otherwise noteworthy. Also, while they ultimately didn’t get captured in any video games, the timing wasn’t too far off from it feasibly happening. Perhaps most importantly, if they had been captured in games, there’d be tremendous novelty not just in the strange sight, but also the lineups that we’d be able to play with. With those criteria in mind, I do have five examples that fit the bill. On top of being What Ifs that would’ve set up fun scenarios, they also demonstrate just how easily we can forget some of the details of major or otherwise very memorable NBA trades.

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is another list of five stints that never officially appeared in basketball video games.

Yes, it’s time to reflect on another five stints that never appeared in video games; at least in any official rosters! As someone who enjoys basketball and basketball video game trivia alike, topics like this are always fun to dive into. It’s also risky, though. While I do have an extensive collection and try my best to thoroughly research in order to ensure these claims are accurate, I’m not infallible. This was made painfully clear after a previous article, when an assumption led me to overlook NBA Ballers and its inclusion of Rasheed Wallace’s brief stopover with the Atlanta Hawks.

Of course, that was also a handy reminder to do my due diligence! I believe that this time around, I’ve covered all of my bases by checking every game that I own, and crosschecking release dates and any roster listings that I can find online in ones that I don’t. And so, with the help of David L, I’ve compiled this list of five more players with stints that never appeared in games, as well as some others that I’ll get to in future articles. I’ll also once again clarify that I’m referring to official appearances, i.e. in the default rosters or an official roster update, so community-made rosters don’t count. With that being said, let’s look at five players and their unrepresented stints!

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is Part 21 in an ongoing series looking at players who only appeared on certain teams in video games.

Remember when I said this series was done with Part 20? I lied! Well, to be fair, I did say that it was done “for now”. Part 20 was the last instalment that I had planned coming into 2024, as it’s been my intention to move on to other topics here in The Friday Five. However, I did leave the door open for a Part 21 at least, as thanks to David L’s help and my own research/serendipitous discoveries, there are some more examples to discuss. Even though I would like to explore some other topics, there’s no sense in delaying this postscript instalment.

Unlike Part 20, I don’t have a consistent theme for this group of players who only appeared on certain teams in games. As it stands, I was lucky that I still had five players whose phantom stints could all be found in NBA Live 2000 in order to give Part 20 an added motif. At this point, I’ve also covered the biggest names and most prominent examples of players who only appeared on certain teams in games. Of course, the more obscure names are still worth talking about, especially as they can jog the memories of long-time fans who haven’t thought about those players in years. With that being said, let’s take a look at five more phantom stints…for now…honest!

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at ten more familiar faces who found themselves back in familiar places.

Yes, there are even more examples of familiar faces in familiar places, and video games that represent those tenures! Many well-known players who leave the team they’re most closely associated with ultimately end their careers in strange (or at the very least, different) places, but quite a few of them do end up donning a familiar jersey once again. As I’ve said before, while one might think that the familiarity of the situation would make those stints stand out, sometimes we end up forgetting that stars and key rotation players returned to their former team.

On the other hand, there are also players whose returns were quite successful, and thus tend to be remembered. Of course, whether it’s a low-key homecoming, a high profile farewell tour, a brief reunion, or the welcome return of a player that still has a lot left in the tank, they lead to some interesting situations in the real NBA, and on the virtual hardwood. Once again, I’ve compiled ten more examples to reminisce about through the lens of basketball video games, so let’s take a look back…way back…

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