Tag Archives: Vlade Divac

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 taking a look back at some 90s stars who retired (or at least, left the NBA) in 2005, yet are still playable in NBA Live 06.

It’s wise not to jump to conclusions when we see coincidences that are in fact likely occurrences. Apophenia – the tendency to perceive patterns where none exist, also called patternicity – leads us to ascribe connections and deeper meaning to unrelated events. To that point, it’s hardly unusual for a player to retire (or perhaps bow out of the NBA to play overseas) around the same time as their generational peers. Sure, a few players in every generation will stick around much longer while others will have shorter careers, but most of them will retire concurrently or within a brief span.

With that in mind, there’s nothing particularly strange or suspicious about a group of players who entered the league in the late 80s to early 90s all hanging it up in the mid 2000s. Nevertheless, it’s still interesting that 2005 was the final season for a number of stars that I grew up watching in the 90s, and that they’re all available in NBA Live 06, either still on their final team or in the Free Agents Pool. If nothing else, it was a sign that their era and generation was now definitely drawing to a close, adding some wistful nostalgia to one of my favourite 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 teammates who were once traded for each other, and the video games that feature those stints.

While it’s become far more common – and some would say, acceptable – for stars to change teams nowadays, it’s always been somewhat rare for players to spend their entire career with one club. Even if a player does stay put, they’ll end up playing with a host of different teammates throughout the years. Between the players that join the team they’re on and the teams that they may go on to join, old rivals will become teammates, former teammates will reunite, and superteams will form, giving us plenty of interesting lineups to talk about…and of course, play with in video games.

Needless to say, trades also break up duos and teammates who no doubt enjoyed playing with one another. We’ve even seen former college teammates get traded for each other during the Draft, as Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison were back in 1998. A trade where former teammates end up being swapped for one another gets you thinking, specifically whether the reverse has ever happened. In other words, have any players who were once traded for each other later become teammates? It has indeed happened, and since I explore such trivia through the lens of the virtual hardwood, here are five traded players turned teammates, and the games featuring those pairings.

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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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